2-Minute Tips: 49# Thinking For Yourself

As cold and flu season arrives here in Australia, we may find ourselves reaching for high dosage vitamin C tablets or perhaps ordering an immune boosting citrus shot! How did this widespread belief in the magical properties of vitamin C for fighting colds come to be?

Well, it owes much of its popularity to an eminent scientist called Linus Pauling. Voted one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time, Linus was the father of quantum chemistry and molecular biology, helping to explain the chemical bond and paving the way for the discovery of the DNA structure. A double Nobel prize winner, Linus was a towering figure in science.

In his 60s, Linus became interested in longevity and a man named Irwin Stone, convinced him of the power of high dosage vitamin C as a panacea for all ills. Linus was converted and steadily upped his doses to 18,000 mg a day! (the recommended daily amount is about 90 mg). 

Feeling a renewed sense of vitality, Linus started to spread the word and his 1970 book ‘Vitamin C and the common cold’ flew off the shelves. Pharmacies also struggled to keep up with the craze, as Vitamin C demand increased 10-fold in places.

What’s not to love – an easy cure for the pesky cold, from a Nobel prize winning scientist no less! A marketer’s dream. The only slight issue, being a lack of any real evidence that it worked! 

Franklin Bing took Pauling to task, with a highly critical review published in 1971, slamming the efficacy of high dosage Vitamin C in the scientific research. Further studies found little evidence that high dosages of Vitamin C helped to boost the immune system.

Pauling zealously double downed on his theories, writing more books on the topic and claiming in his final 2 decades, that mammoth doses of Vitamin C could fight off cancer, AIDS and would allow people to live disease free for decades longer.

Getting enough Vitamin C is vital, as 18th century sailors warding off scurvy with lemons can attest to. Though a varied diet containing fruit and vegetables will easily provide the recommended amount. A meta-analysis of current research shows that high doses of Vitamin C don’t reduce the odds of you getting a cold and only slightly reduce the length of a cold once you’re infected. Source

Regardless, over 50 years on from Pauling’s mostly disproven claims, many people pop high dosages of Vitamin C daily. In fact, a multi-billion-dollar industry has flourished, despite Vitamin C being soluble in water – so literally billions are being flushed down the toilet! This story and other captivating examples of bias and irrationalities can be found in the excellent 'Good Thinking' by David Robert Grimes.

Wisdom 💎

'You must have the confidence to override people with more credentials than you whose cognition is impaired by incentive-caused bias or some similar psychological force that is obviously present.'

Charlie Munger

Tip 1 - Smart Play ✅

Keep practising good science. Even brilliant people only continue to do great work, if they maintain the methods and thinking that got them there in the first place.

Tip 2 - Avoid 🚩

Blindly following the word of experts or authorities (or crowds) as gospel, without paying attention to the actual evidence.

Tip 3 - Action 💪

Quickly brainstorm a few beliefs or modes of thinking you hold in a particular area – maybe about health for example. Then evaluate these views as if they were someone else’s, with the available scientific research... You might just start to C things differently 😁