Yesterday I was planning to do some exercise in the evening. It was a choice between either an evening walk with my walking group, or an hour of swimming at my local swimming pool. I couldn't quite decide. However, my body decided for me...

As the day went on, I began to notice that I was starting to feel ever-so-slightly tired and achey. I thought it felt like the beginning of a virus, so I remembered what nutritionist Patrick Holford says. He says that if, on the very first sign of a virus, you start consuming HUGE amounts of Vitamin C, you can saturate your body's cells with Vitamin C to the point where the virus cannot possibly survive. By the way, unlike some vitamins (such as Vitamin A and Vitamin B6, which are toxic in high doses - although much higher than the RDA, it should be noted), Vitamin C is actually one of the LEAST toxic substances for the body. You can safely consume very large amounts, and the only likely side effect is that it can cause loose bowels in some sensitive individuals.

So I took a high strength tablet of vitamin C (1000mg), and also drank a whole pint of fresh juice (made from carrots, pears, apple, spinach and ginger). I then had some food (lentils), and took some more Vitamin C. I was starting to feel cold and shaky, so I put my dressing gown over my clothes, and got my duvet, and settled down on the sofa for an evening watching TV (including a particularly exciting episode of the X-Files, and a funny program about how Sundays in Britain used to be really boring, narrated by comedian Sean Lock).

About every 15 to 30 minutes I took another high strength Vitamin C tablet. It was about 10:30 by the time I finally made my way to bed (which is quite late for me), because I got into that ironic situation where I felt too tired to get up and go to bed.

Eventually I forced myself, and consumed 4 more high strength Vitamin C tablets as I went to bed. I then lay in bed in my full clothes + dressing gown + duvet, swetting as I had really strange dreams.

But I woke up this morning feeling a LOT better. The only achey feeling is in my back, and I think that might be due to the intense Yoga postures I was doing a couple of days ago.

This is great though, because I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't have had all that Vitamin C then it could have lasted a few days, as these kinds of achey viruses often do. In this case, it lasted less than 24 hours. With the help of the huge amount of Vitamin C, my body was able to heal itself literally over night!

I think the key here is in taking the Vitamin C at the VERY FIRST SIGN of any symptoms at all. If you wait until you have full-blown symptoms then it is too late, because by then the virus has taken full hold of your system.

I just thought that was worth sharing, because I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't done what I did, then I would be still lying in bed today feeling like shit. Whereas now I feel well enough to crack on and get some things done that I want to do.