Vitamin E Fights Colds in the Elderly

Pneumonia, however, seems unaffected by the supplement

Older people who take vitamin E every day appear to be less likely to develop upper respiratory infections, including the common cold.

However, taking the vitamin does not seem to protect against lower respiratory infections, such as pneumonia.

The real-world implications of the findings, which stem from a study of nursing home residents, seem to depend somewhat on who is asked. Experts acknowledge that respiratory infections can sweep through nursing home populations quickly.

Charles Mobbs, an associate professor of neurobiology and geriatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City , told HealthDay that because of "the extreme ease with which vitamin E can be given, that really is something that would have a significant impact in this vulnerable population."

Mobbs said the beneficial effects described by the study were significant, but "not huge."

The main benefit of vitamin E was seen in colds, and "the real issue in nursing homes is influenza," said Dr. Joseph R. Dalovisio, head of infectious diseases at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans and president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

The study's lead author, Dr. Simin Nikbin Meydani, a professor of nutrition and immunology at Tufts University , pointed out, however, that colds do pose significant problems, accounting for 30 percent of absenteeism in the general population.

"There is no clinically useful vaccine or therapy" for colds, she said. "It's a major public health concern in general, but particularly in the elderly."

"In general, vitamin E is a very safe vitamin, and there are not very many known side effects," said Meydani, who also is director of the nutritional immunology laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston .

The study enrolled 617 people, aged 65 and older, who lived in Boston-area long-term care facilities. Participants were given 200 international units of vitamin E a day or a placebo for one year.

Fewer participants in the vitamin E group got one or more respiratory infections, and fewer individuals contracted upper respiratory tract infections. The biggest effect was seen with the common cold: People in the vitamin E group were 20 percent less likely to catch a cold than were those who took the placebo.

Mobbs noted that vitamin E, along with vitamin C, is an antioxidant.

"I'm not impressed with the data on the whole for healthy people, but this [the nursing home resident population] is a particularly vulnerable population and that makes it a little bit more plausible," he said. "You may have some oxidative stress that you don't have in a healthy population."

The next step, Meydani said, is to see whether vitamin E has different effects on bacterial infections than on viral infections. This seems possible, she said, because the compound had no effect on lower respiratory infections, which tend to be caused by bacteria, but did have an impact on upper respiratory infections, which tend to be caused by viruses.