The zinc is definitely a very good idea, with some caveats. Vitamin C probably helps in the long term, especially for athletes, but I don't think it's such a g

The zinc is definitely a very good idea, with some caveats. Vitamin C probably helps in the long term, especially for athletes, but I don't think it's such a good idea once you have a cold. Definitely don't take any during or soon after a zinc lozenge. Zinc supplementation for the purpose of fighting a cold is a bit tricky. According to the largest review of zinc cold studies I know of, only ionic zinc (as opposed to bound zinc) has a positive effect. Total zinc supplementation has no correlation with either duration or severity of cold symptoms. In fact, the majority of the brands of candy-like zinc lozenges on the US market likely have no effect at all. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15496046 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15496046 Summary: take zinc gluconate (ZG), make sure it's a slow lozenge and avoid vitamin C or anything else that could interfere with the effects of the zinc lozenge.