Vitamin Supplementation in Elderly Persons
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Université Internationale des Sciences de la Santé
Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- dietary supplements
- elderly
- minerals
- vitamins
To the Editor: Ms Graat and colleagues1 found that multivitamin supplements did not prevent acute respiratory tract infections in healthy elderly persons. The authors used a multivitamin and trace-element preparation that contained recommended daily allowances (RDAs) of vitamins but only 25% to 50% of the RDAs for minerals. The RDAs, however, are intended to prevent nutritional deficiency, and may be too low to produce further benefits.2-3 Other studies, using nutrients in amounts based on physiological dose-response curves and immune responses, have found beneficial effects.4-5
I believe that most older individuals would benefit from the regular use of a multivitamin and mineral supplement that is based on the evidence of dose-response curves rather than the theoretical RDAs.
