Single-Nutrient Effects on Immunologic Functions
Report of a Workshop Sponsored by the Department of Food and Nutrition and Its Nutrition Advisory Group of the American Medical Association
- William R. Beisel, MD;
- Robert Edelman, MD;
- Kathleen Nauss, PhD;
- Robert M. Suskind, MD
- From the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Frederick, Md (Dr Beisel); the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md (Dr Edelman); the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (Dr Nauss); and the Department of Pediatrics, University of South Alabama College of Medicine, Mobile (Dr Suskind).
Abstract
Immune system dysfunction can result from single-nutrient deficiencies or excesses, alone or in combination with generalized protein-energy malnutrition. Acquired immune dysfunctions in man occur with deficiencies of iron, zinc, vitamins A and B12, pyridoxine, and folic acid and with excesses of essential fatty acids and vitamin E. Additional micronutrients are important for maintaining immunologic competence in animals. Deficits or excesses of many trace elements and single nutrients thus have potential for causing immune dysfunctions in man. Since nutritionally induced immune dysfunction is generally reversible, it is important to recognize and identify clinical illnesses in which immunologic dysfunctions are of nutritional origin. Correction of malnutrition should lead to prompt reversal of acquired immune dysfunctions.
(JAMA 1981;245:53-58)
Footnotes
-
A complete list of publications assembled by workshop participants is available from the Department of Foods and Nutrition, American Medical Association, 535 N Dearborn St, Chicago, IL 60610 (Margarita Nagy).
-
Reprint requests to Department of Foods and Nutrition, American Medical Association, 535 N Dearborn St, Chicago, IL 60610 (Margarita Nagy).
