In the early 1970s, two-time Nobel Prize–winning chemist Linus Pauling claimed that vitamin C could cure the common cold.
[High dose vitamin C can, and does stop viruses, including the common cold: See https://vitamincfoundation.org/wp/vitamin-c-the-common-cold-and-the-flu/ for evidence] Ignoring protests from other scientists,
[What other scientists? Quackbusters, yes, but scientists?] Pauling’s popular books sparked a public love affair with vitamin pills.
The fact that vitamin C had no effect on the magnitude or severity of colds proved no impediment to it exploding in popularity, [Outright lie. Pauling cited the studies showing that fairly low dose vitamin C did affect that magnitude and severity. Vitamin C become popular because people found out for themselves that vitamin C does work, and at higher doses, it works better. Want conventonal evidence: See: [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10543583/] filling pharmacy shelves even today.
A deficit of evidence did nothing to dampen Pauling’s enthusiasm,
[Pauling cired the evidence in his 1970 book Vitamin C, the Common Cold and the Flu] and he later wrongly heralded vitamin C as a cure for cancer and AIDS.
[Outright lies. Pauling never claimed vitamin C cured cancer, and he and Cameron wrote a book showing that cancer patients lived longer taking high dose vitamin C. He never mentioned AIDS. A researcher at his institute did do work on Vitamin C and AIDS.] More recently, vitamin D was heralded as a panacea for everything from cancer to cardiovascular disease—claims that were drastically overhyped and ultimately signified nothing. Like Pauling, the influencers of Instagram and TikTok similarly ignore such evidence, pushing signature supplement blends to massive audiences. Such branded multivitamin mixtures are extremely popular, retailing for massively inflated prices. But they are completely indistinguishable from generic, cheap multivitamins available in pharmacies anywhere. Intravenous vitamin drips have soared in popularity, too, despite conferring no benefits and being linked, in some cases, to user deaths.
[Lies, more lies, damned lies] The implied medicinal benefits of these concoctions are profoundly disingenuous. In the U.S., U.K. and elsewhere, supplements are deemed food rather than medicine, subject to minimal regulatory oversight. In some cases they do not even contain the listed ingredients.