If this is not your name, click here.
| | If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| |  Vitamin E Supplements Provide Some Benefit To Immune System In Elderly CHICAGO -- May 7, 1997 -- Taking more than the daily requirement of vitamin E improves the immune system in the elderly, according to a clinical investigation in this week's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Simin Nikbin Meydani, D.V.M., Ph.D., from the Nutritional Immunology Laboratory, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, Mass., and colleagues studied whether long-term supplementation with vitamin E enhances immunity in healthy elderly subjects. "Few interventions have been successful in changing the age-associated decline of the immune response,” the authors write. “In the present study, we demonstrate that supplementation of healthy elderly with vitamin E, an antioxidant vitamin that inhibits prostaglandin E2 [a fatty acid] production, significantly improves certain clinically relevant in vivo [biological processes occurring within the body] indexes of cell-mediated immune response without an adverse effect in this population." The study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled intervention study that included 88 free-living, healthy subjects at least 65 years of age. Subjects were randomly assigned to a placebo group or to groups consuming 60, 200, or 800 milligrams (mg) per day of vitamin E for 235 days. The researchers found that subjects consuming 200 mg/day of vitamin E had a 65 percent increase in delayed-type hypersensitivity skin response (DTH) and a six-fold increase in the amount of antibody made in response to hepatitis B compared with placebo. The 200 mg/day group also had a significant increase in the amount of antibody produced in response to tetanus vaccine. No effect of vitamin E was found for diphtheria vaccine or on the total number of cells and proteins that fight infection. The authors note that the U.S. recommended daily allowance for vitamin E, 30 mg/day, is based on studies in young subjects. They also observed that the optimal response in this study was detected in the 200 mg/day group. "Since age-associated decline in immune response is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in the elderly and is widely observed, recommendations to increase the intake of vitamin E for elderly should be considered," the authors conclude. In an accompanying commentary in the same issue of JAMA, Ranjit Kumar Chandra, O.C., M.D., from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Janeway Child Health Centre, St. John's, writes that the era of nutrient supplementation to promote health and reduce illness is here to stay. “In selected groups such as the elderly, there is overwhelming evidence of immunologic enhancement following such an intervention,” Dr. Chandra. “Some data suggest that a reduction in the incidence and duration of infection may also occur. In North America, a year's supply of micro-nutrient supplementation costs less than three visits to a physician and much less than hospitalization for one day ... and may be a cost-effective preventive intervention in old age." The vitamin E study was funded at least in part with federal funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, and a grant from Hoffman-LaRoche Inc. Dr. Chandra holds a patent for a multivitamin combination that is not commercially produced.
|
