A review of existing studies undertaken by the nonprofit Cochrane Collaboration seems to show that zinc, of all things, can help reduce the length of, and ward off, the common cold. And! The study comes after another Cochran Collaboration review that found that Vitamin C supplements are more or less useless when it comes to colds. So! Zinc it is. Now, because the amount of zinc taken in the studies varied, the Cochrane researchers don't have any specific dosage recommendations, so don't get too excited. And, uh, also, "some zinc formulations had side effects including nausea, bad taste and diarrhoea." Still. Zinc! Who knew? [Telegraph; image via Shutterstock]