Take Vitamin E to Help Ward Off Colds!

Summarized by Robert W. Griffith, MD
December 22, 2004

Infections occur frequently in nursing home residents, and respiratory infections are an important cause of illness and death in these patients. In older people immunity is often reduced, sometimes because of their nutritional status. Vitamin E has been shown in several studies to improve the immune response, so it's not surprising that supplements have been given to nursing home residents in the hope of improving their resistance to infections. Now a study has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that gives some support to this theory.

What was done

The study was done in 33 long-term care facilities in the Boston, Massachusetts, area, between 1998 and 2001. Participants had to be 65 or older, not confined to their room, expected to live longer than 6 months, cancer-free, not being tube-fed, not on dialysis, not catheterized, and not on steroids or immunosuppressive drugs.

After screening, there were 617 eligible participants. They were randomly assigned to take either vitamin E (200 IU of DL-alpha-tocopherol) or placebo capsules daily; all of them took a capsule with half the recommended daily allowance of essential vitamins and minerals. Neither nurses nor the participants knew which treatment was assigned to each participant - i.e. the study was 'blinded'.

All respiratory tract infections - upper and lower, including the common cold - were carefully recorded, along with all new antibiotic prescriptions, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and deaths. Diagnostic criteria were set up for the infections, to ensure only genuine cases were included.

What was found

Of the 617 original participants, 231 and 220 completed the 1-year study period in the vitamin E and placebo groups, respectively. Their average age was 84, three-quarters of them were women, and over a third were taking non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs. A large number of them had chronic diseases, and they were taking on average almost 4 different medications. They all had 'flu shots. Roughly 10% had had pneumococcal vaccination.

The average numbers of respiratory infections per person per year in those subjects who completed the full year's study are shown in the table below:

	Vitamin E (231 subjects)	Placebo (220 subjects)
All respiratory infections	1.30	1.44
Lower respiratory infections	0.49	0.47
Upper respiratory infections	0.81	0.96
Common cold	0.66*	0.83

* a statistically significant difference from the placebo subjects - i.e. it could not have occurred by chance alone.

Fewer participants taking vitamin E had one or more respiratory tract infections - 65% vs. 74%. And fewer in the vitamin E group developed 1 or more common colds - 46% vs. 57%. These effects were statistically significant. There was no significant effect of vitamin E on antibiotic use.

What this means

This study clearly reveals a beneficial effect of 200 IU vitamin E daily on the occurrence of common colds and other upper respiratory tract infections (influenza, pharyngitis, otitis media, and sinusitis). There was no obvious benefit on the frequency of lower respiratory tract infections (acute bronchitis, pneumonia). It should be noted that these benefits were more obvious in those participants who completed the 1-year study, presumably because adequate blood levels of vitamin E were only produced after several months of administration.

Large doses of vitamin E have recently been shown to actually worsen your chance of developing cardiac disease. In this study, the beneficial effects of the vitamin were obtained with moderate doses - 200 IU daily. Perhaps this is another indication of the need for moderation in dosing anything - and that includes vitamins and other nutritional supplements.

Source

• Vitamin E and respiratory tract infections in elderly nursing home residents. A randomised controlled trial. SN. Meydani, LS. Leka, BC. Fine,  et al., JAMA, 2004, vol. 292, pp. 828--836

Related Links
HealthandAge.com's Alternative Medicine: Vitamin E
Can a Multivitamin a Day Keep Infections at Bay?

Please take a moment to give us your comments. For questions about Health matters you may check our "Questions & Answers" Portal and Service.