L-Lysine vs Vitamin C for immunity
Short answer: For immunity, more users report improvement with L-Lysine — 100% of 9 reports, versus 90% of 40 for Vitamin C.
L-Lysine has 7 meta-analyses and 59 randomized trials on PubMed; Vitamin C has 738 and 2,072.
Based on 53 reports about L-Lysine and 928 about Vitamin C. Not medical advice.
| L-Lysine Supplement | Vitamin C Supplement | |
|---|---|---|
| Users say it helped | 65%helped21 reports · medium confidence | 64%helped204 reports · high confidence |
| Verdict | Mostly positive | Mostly positive |
| Research | AResearch: Strong | AResearch: Strong |
| Meta-analyses / RCTs | 7 / 59 | 738 / 2,072 |
| Mainly used for | ||
| Immunity % reporting improvement | 100% (9) | 90% (40) |
| Energy % reporting improvement | — | 94% (34) |
| Skin & hair % reporting improvement | 100% (3) | 97% (29) |
| Mood % reporting improvement | — | 88% (25) |
| Anxiety % reporting improvement | 100% (2) | 94% (17) |
| Common side effects | stomach issues | kidney stones, stomach issues, insomnia, bone pain |
| Typical dose reported | 2 g / before bed | 2000 mg / daily |
Based primarily on case reports ornithine levels can be reduced by using a protein restricted diet, pyridoxine supplementation (variation-dependent) and/or lysine supplementation. The lack of pre-defined clinical outcome measures and structural follow-up in all included studies impeded conclusions on clinical effectiveness. Future research should be aimed at 1) Unravelling the OAT biochemical pathway to identify other possible pathologic metabolites besides ornithine, 2) Pre-defining GACR specific clinical outcome measures, and 3) Establishing an international historical cohort.
Mol Genet Metab, 2021 ↗“Finally, I started to take L-lysine for a different issue. Immediately I saw that I could lay my head down at night and go to sleep like I could before. That was several months ago and I continue to sleep regularly.”
The failure of vitamin C supplementation to reduce the incidence of colds in the general population indicates that routine vitamin C supplementation is not justified, yet vitamin C may be useful for people exposed to brief periods of severe physical exercise. Regular supplementation trials have shown that vitamin C reduces the duration of colds, but this was not replicated in the few therapeutic trials that have been carried out. Nevertheless, given the consistent effect of vitamin C on the duration and severity of colds in the regular supplementation studies, and the low cost and safety, it m
Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2013 ↗“I know people say you get enough vitamin C from diet but I feel and look better when I supplement it.”
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Percentages come from first-hand user reports and are not clinical outcomes. Talk to a doctor before starting, stopping or combining anything. How we rate