From the first hint of cold winter mornings, supermarkets and pharmacies begin heavy marketing to coax us to stock up on vitamin C to get through the cold and flu season.
But where did that idea come from?
As we’ll see, it’s a story including a Nobel Prize winner, a book and some claims that don’t quite stack up.
Nobel Prize winner writes a book
Linus Pauling was a chemist from the United States who won two Nobel Prizes. One was in 1954 for chemistry, for his research into chemical bonds. The other was in 1962 for peace, for his activism against nuclear weapons testing.
He was not a dietitian or an infectious disease physician. But that didn’t stop him publishing a book on vitamin C and colds in 1970. This book is widely credited with the skyrocketing sales of vitamin C at the time, a trend that continues today.
In this book, Pauling said we should consume high doses of vitamin C, around 1,000–2,000 milligrams a day for good health, and even more to prevent a cold.
His recommendations were said to be initially from one placebo-controlled trial in children on a ski camp in the Swiss Alps. He then analyzed a further four studies conducted after his claims.
But his interpretation of these studies has been widelycriticized. There were incorrect mathematical analyses, reliance on four poor-quality trials and the overemphasis of the study in children.
So, do mega-doses of vitamin C work?
The short answer is not really. Multiple studies conducted since the ones Pauling analyzed show that if there is an effect on vitamin C and colds, it’s minimal. Even then, any marginal benefits are only under certain circumstances, such as if you’re an athlete or in the army.
One study, published in 2023, was a meta-analysis that combined the results of ten placebo-controlled trials. These looked at the effect of vitamin C on the severity and duration of colds. In total, these trials involved 2,736 healthy people (adults, children and athletes) who regularly took at least 1,000mg of vitamin C a day, not just when they had a cold.
Overall, the researchers found people who took vitamin C had a 15% reduction in severe cold symptoms compared to those who didn’t take it. This was expressed as the number of days “confined indoors,” which the authors acknowledged as a limitation. Vitamin C did not affect how long mild symptoms lasted.
A meta-analysis in 2013 found taking lower doses (at around 200mg a day) did not decrease the number of colds in the general population. However, there were fewer colds for athletes and army personnel.
Similar to the other study, regular vitamin C supplements showed a reduction in severity of symptoms in children and adults by 8–14%. However, taking vitamin C at the start of the cold had no benefit.
So, from these two meta-analyses, Pauling’s original advice is over-stated. There is no evidence vitamin C will reduce your risk of catching a cold.
There is some evidence it will reduce how long severe symptoms last, but on average only by about 10%. So if severe symptoms from a cold last for five days, it will reduce severe symptoms by about 12 hours. If the severe symptoms last for 24 hours, they will reduce by about two-and-a-half hours.
Taking vitamin C when symptoms start will have no effect. You need to be taking it regularly, even before you get sick.
So how much vitamin C is too much?
Pauling’s recommendation for good health, at around 1,000–2,000mg a day, is around the upper limit of what’s now considered safe to consume.
Australia has not set an upper limit for vitamin C, due to inconclusive evidence. But guidelines refer to other expert recommendations for adults to not consume more than 1,000mg a day. In the United States, the upper limit for adults is 2,000mg a day.
Pauling’s recommendation is also much higher than the recommended daily intake in Australia and other countries. For adults over 19 in Australia, this is 45mg.
This is what you would find in half an orange, three to four florets of cooked broccoli or one-third of a glass of orange juice.
So what should I do?
Taking high doses of vitamin C (over 1,000mg a day) continually can increase your risk of adverse events such as:
gastrointestinal effects, such as diarrhoea, nausea, stomach cramps and bloating
an increase in iron absorption, which may lead to tissue damage in people with undiagnosed haemochromatosis (an inherited disorder where you absorb too much iron from your food)
interactions with radiation therapy, chemotherapy and the cholesterol-lowering drugs statins.
If you feel you would benefit from vitamin C supplements, discuss this with your GP. You should limit the dose to below 1,000mg a day and be mindful of the side effects.
A team looked at 80 major trials involving nearly 30,000 people and found that nicotine vapes were more effective than traditional aids, increasing the success rate by about 60 percent.
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The late, great Tim Curry certainly left his mark on the acting world during his 50-year career.
A perpetual scene-stealer, the British star made his start in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a role with which he’s still synonymous today, before trying his hand at everything from chilling horror and action to family-friendly adventure and cheeky comedy.
Tim Curry on the set of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Moviestore/Shutterstock
Alright, this might be a bit of an obvious one, but we could hardly do a round-up of Tim Curry roles without mentioning Rocky Horror, could we?
Tim originated the role of Frank-N-Furter during the musical’s original theatrical run in London, before taking the role to the big screen in the mid-1970s.
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Inarguably the cult musical’s most iconic figure, Tim also delivered a number of stand-out musical performances as Frank-N-Furter including the boisterous I Can Make You A Man, the surprisingly touching I’m Going Home and, of course, the scene-stealing Sweet Transvestite, one of the film’s signature numbers.
Annie (1982)
Tim Curry on the set of Annie with Bernadette Peters and Carol Burnett
Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock
Carrying on with the musical theme, Tim returned to the big screen a few years after Rocky Horror when he was cast as Miss Hannigan’s henchman and brother, Rooster, in the first screen adaptation of Annie.
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For his work in Annie, Tim shared the screen with TV icon Carol Burnett, with the cast also featuring the likes of Albert Finney, Bernadette Peters and Aileen Quinn in the title role.
Now considered a cult classic, Tim chewed the scenery as the fabulous butler Wadsworth, alongside a cast that featured great character actors like Christopher Lloyd, Madeline Kahn and Eileen Brennan.
In a fun gimmick, when Clue was originally released, different endings were distributed, meaning there was a different outcome depending on where you watched it (though in modern reprints, all versions are included).
It (1990)
Tim Curry as Pennywise in It
Moviestore/Shutterstock
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Bill Skarsgård’s take on Stephen King’s manifestation of evil, Pennywise The Clown, was chilling stuff, but to many, Tim’s version of the character is the real stuff of nightmares.
In 1990, he played the villainous figure in a TV miniseries based on the classic horror novel, which aired in two instalments on the US network ABC.
While the show initially divided opinion, It – and in, particular, Tim Curry’s performance – is now much more popular among fans of the horror genre.
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Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992)
Tim Curry on the set of Home Alone 2
Andy Schwartz/20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock
Considering where he started out, the 1990s proved to be a decade of family-friendly roles for Tim Curry, beginning with this festive sequel.
His character, Mr Hector, was a foil to Macaulay Culkin’s mischievous counterpart, originally introduced in the 1990 original.
Muppet Treasure Island (1996)
Tim Curry with Kermit The Frog and Miss Piggy in Muppet Treasure Island
Stephen F Morley/Jim Henson Pro/ZUMA Press/Shutterstock
Tim was visibly having a blast when he got to play alongside The Muppets in their second big-screen literary adaptation, Muppet Treasure Island.
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Playing the swashbuckling villain Long John Silver, he claimed in his 2025 memoir Vagabond was “the most delightful cinematic experience I’ve enjoyed”.
“It’s just a world of fun and I’d been glued to the TV show. I had no hesitation about working with them,” he added. “I cannot overstate how much I adored working with the Muppets.”
This certainly shone through in his performance, which is one of the strongest aspects of the family adventure movie.
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The Wild Thornberrys (1998)
Nigel Thornberry, Tim Curry’s character in The Wild Thornberrys
Nickelodeon
Besides his on-screen and stage career, Tim was also a prolific voice actor.
Perhaps his most famous animated role was as the patriach Nigel Thornberry in The Wild Thornberries, a character he voiced in all five seasons of the original show and its two spin-off movies.
In the US series, the Thornberry family is a group of adventurers who travel the world documenting animals in their natural habitats, with the cast also including future Mean Girls star Lacey Chabert and Red Hot Chilli Peppers musician Flea.
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Charlie’s Angels (2000)
Tim Curry in Charlie’s Angels
Tim made a small – but nonetheless memorable – appearance in the film adaptation of Charlie’s Angels, which crash-landed into cinemas in 2000.
Initially, viewers are led to believe that his character, owner of the tech company Redstar, is the villain of the piece, until several twists reveal this not to be the case.
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While there’s no denying this movie belongs to its female leads, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu, Tim always made the most of whatever role he was given, and Charlie’s Angels was no exception.
Will & Grace (2004)
Tim Curry with John Cleese and Megan Mullally on the set of Will & Grace
NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Tim’s Will & Grace stint lasted just two episodes, but it was nonetheless a memorable one, not least thanks to a prolonged kiss he shared with both Megan Mullally’s iconic character Karen Walker and his own on-screen brother, John Cleese.
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His guest appearance came towards of the show’s sixth season, as Karen prepares to marry the rich Lyle Finster.
These episodes were also notable as they marked the beginning of a multi-episode storyline featuring none other than Jennifer Lopez as herself.
Alright, this oft-forgotten video game might seem like a strange inclusion on a round-up of must-see Tim Curry roles.
But his live-action performance as Colonel Anatoly Cherdenko was so off-the-wall, so eccentric and so delightfully Tim Curry that it continues to go viral almost 20 years after the game was originally released.
Check out what we’re talking about in the above clip, where even he struggles to contain his laughter as he delivers that final utterance of “space”.
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The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again (2016)
Tim Curry as The Criminologist in The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again
After his stroke in 2012, Tim made only a few on-screen appearances, but he returned to his roots in this TV special based on The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Starring Emmy winner Laverne Cox as a new take on Frank-N-Furter, Tim took on the role of The Criminologist, played in the original film by Charles Gray.
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While Let’s Do The Time Warp Again may not have quite gone down a storm with Rocky Horror fans, there was no denying how great it felt to see Tim back on screen, particularly in the franchise that had launched him to fame more than 40 years earlier.
Holidays are expensive enough as it is. While you can circumvent the guilt of splashing out more than you wanted to on flights by booking just far enough in advance, your bank account will inevitably feel the strain of your spending habits as soon as you touch down at your destination.
The last thing you need on top of that is a notification from your phone provider saying you’ve spend £25 a day on data roaming. Shudder.
Personally, I avoid Monzo’s travel summary like the plague, so the idea of having to stomach that notification and then being slapped across the face by my phone bill is almost hellish.
Luckily, we’ve evolved past the need to fear not being able to find WiFi abroad. So you don’t have to turn your data off every time you finish doomscrolling on Instagram for fears you’ll run out of data and not be able to find your way home (not speaking from experience or anything) Holafly offers unlimited data through an easy to install, no hidden fees eSIM.
Remember the good ol’ days when you had to spend hours fucking about trying to get a tiny travel sim out of its holder and into your phone every time you moved between countries?
Yeah, well that’s now a thing of the past, because all you have to do to access unlimited streaming and scrolling is download the Holafly app on your phone.
From there, it takes a mere few minutes to buy an eSIM for foolproof internet connectivity in over 200 countries.
Once you’ve downloaded the app (which is available on Android or Apple, FYI) all you have to do is choose the plan you want.
If you’re currently travelling the world, you can opt for an unlimited plan for just £50.95 a month (less than my actual phone bill, TBH), which offers you unlimited data and hotspot, a local phone number, and can be used in any of the app’s compatible countries.
Or, if you’re going on a shorter, last-minute Euro holiday, you can choose the number of days you’re travelling for so that you can keep your number and simply make the use of its unlimited data for the exact number of days you’re travelling.
I just went on holiday to Greece for five days, and it cost me just £16 for unlimited data for my whole trip. Considering I wasn’t sure if I’d have WiFi at my Airbnb, that was well worth my peace of mind.
Not to mention, I had to fly back early due to unforeseen circumstances, and it was just as easy to request a refund for the days of data I didn’t need as it was to set it up.
I know this sounds ridiculous, but all I wanted was to lie on a beach and listen to a podcast or stream music without worrying about the data not working, and I had no connectivity issues while I was away.
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Tim Curry has sadly passed away at aged 80. He was a cinematic legend and undoubtedly most people will know him from his role in the iconic Rocky Horror Picture Show, a movie that shaped generations to come.
During an interview with CBS Sunday Morning to celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary, Tim revealed that he met the Princess Of Wales and her then-husband King Charles after a show he’d performed in at the Royal National Theatre.
While the future king enquired if Tim had been on television, Diana didn’t have to – as she instantly knew him from the 1975 musical movie.
The Clue actor admitted he was surprised the royal would know about the cult classic, telling her: “I don’t suppose you saw it.”
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“Of course I did,” she apparently responded, quipping: “It quite completed my education.”
Tim had previously spoken to the Fresh Air radio show about his royal encounter during an interview from earlier this year.
He explained that Diana had requested to meet him after he performed in a production of Love For Love in Vienna, where she and Charles were guests of honour.
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“She was a very funny girl, and a very beautiful one, and sort of the – a very wicked smile came with that sentence,” he recalled. “She was great fun.”
Tim then revealed that Princess Margaret had also been to see the Rocky Horror theatre show in the early 70s before it was adapted for the big screen, and “had a wonderful time”.
Elsewhere in his CBS interview, Tim said the enduring appeal of the movie musical was that it permits people to “say the stuff they always wanted to say”.
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Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
20th Century Fox/Michael White Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock
The Rocky Horror Picture Show first began as a stage musical created by Richard O’Brien. While the theatre show was a word-of-mouth hit, the 1975 film adaptation was met with poor reviews and was a box office bomb.
However, thanks to its cult following and midnight screenings, The Rocky Horror Picture Show has become the longest-running theatrical release in history, with showings happening worldwide for five decades.
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The camp classic is still parodied, revered and homaged to this day, with Sabrina Carpenter being the latest star to give a nod to the film in her Tears music video.
A documentary about The Rocky Horror Show, entitled Strange Journey, premiered at the SXSW festival earlier this year, directed by Richard O’Brien’s son Linus.
