Summary
A study funded by the Agricultural Research Facility Service found that high doses of vitamin E, when administered daily, can help fight off colds contracted by the elderly. Four hundred and sixty-one residents of a nursing facility in California participated in the program. Half of the residents were given 200 International Units (IUs) of vitamin E, while the other half were given a placebo. Every participant was also given a tablet containing half of the recommended daily dose of vitamin E, in order to account for regular dietary intake.
Those residents who received the dose were more resistant to colds compared to the placebo group. These findings are significant for people over 65, as the immune system needs more an more dietary supplements to stay effective later in life.
Original source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/04/050421234259.htm
Details
Nursing facility residents who consumed 200 International Units (IUs) of vitamin E daily for one year were less likely to get the sniffles than those who took a placebo.
Scientists funded by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) found that those who took the moderate supplements were 20 percent less likely to contract upper respiratory infections, such as colds.
The study was led by Simin Nikbin Meydani, director of the Nutritional Immunology Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, Mass.
The findings are important because, due to aging, the elderly have lowered immune responses and incur greater health risks from upper respiratory infections.
The scientists studied 617 people over 65 years of age who met the study's eligibility requirements.
All 451 participants who completed the study were residents in some type of long-term-care nursing facility located in or around the Boston area.
About half of the participants were given the daily dose of 200 IUs of vitamin E; the remaining participants received a daily placebo capsule containing only four IUs of vitamin E. To help control other dietary factors that affect immune response, all participants received a capsule containing 50 percent of the recommended dietary allowance for essential micronutrients.
Each volunteer was examined for health status on a weekly basis.
Good dietary sources of vitamin E include certain cereals, wheat germ, nuts--especially sunflower seeds and almonds--leafy green vegetables and vegetable oils.
The National Academy of Sciences has set an upper tolerable limit for
vitamin E of 1,500 IUs a day.
The study results were published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher, author and award-winning journalist with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, and he has published numerous courses on preparedness and survival, including financial preparedness, emergency food supplies, urban survival and tactical self-defense. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In mid 2010, Adams produced TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural health video sharing website offering user-generated videos on nutrition, green living, fitness and more. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also a noted technology pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the HTML email newsletter software currently powering the NaturalNews subscriptions. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, martial arts and organic gardening.
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Tuesday, May 10, 2005
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