Vitamin Supplementation in Elderly Persons
- François Girodon, MD, PhD
-
Hematology laboratory
University Hospital
Dijon, France
- Marie Christine Boutron-Ruault, MD, PhD;
- Pilar Galan, MD;
- Serge Hercberg, MD, PhD
-
Institut scientifique et technique de l'alimentation
Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers
Paris, France
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: In contrast to the results of Ms Graat and colleagues,1 we found that mineral supplementation could reduce the incidence of infections in institutionalized elderly people.2 Although we did not find significant reductions in the rate of acute respiratory infections in any group that received supplements, we found that patients who received a mineral (zinc plus selenium) supplement were more likely to have had no infections after 2 years (P = .06). Moreover, in a subsample of 140 patients who were vaccinated against influenza, we noted a higher number of serologically protected patients after 1 and 3 months in the groups receiving mineral supplements (P<.05). Finally, we observed that vitamin supplementation (containing vitamins E, ascorbic acid, and beta carotene) seemed to have a negative effect on antibody titers following the influenza vaccine (P<.05).
Although Graat et al found that vitamin E did not prevent …
