Ascorbic acid: efficacy in the prevention of symptoms of respiratory infection on a Polaris submarine

This report describes a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial on vitamin C supplementation against the common cold.

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"There was no consistent difference between groups in the incidence of runny nose or sneezing. Man days of morbidity for hoarseness, sore throats, non-productive coughs, and productive coughs was 36, 107, 42 and 72 in the placebo group with only 37%, 28%, 40% and 31% as much morbidity in the AA group. The Wilcoxon Sequence Test with a one tailed test rejected the null hypothesis of equal effectiveness of the AA and placebo for sore throats and productive coughs (P = .0155 and .0327) but not for hoarseness or non-productive coughs."