Benefits of Micronutrient Intakes
The results of a new study indicate the existence of a relationship between the consumption of micronutrient supplements and a reduced risk of recurrence during chemotherapy of tuberculosis. Nutritional support and calculation in the treatment of tuberculosis, common before the advent of antituberculosis drugs has ceased to be an integral part of clinical therapy in most poor countries, despite the damage that malnutrition immune system and increases the risk of relapse and other infections. In Tanzania, Eduardo Villamor, School of Public Health at Harvard, along with a team of researchers conducted a randomized trial of micronutrient doses of vitamin A, B-complex, C, E and selenium or placebo in 887 patients who were undergoing treatment for tuberculosis. Subsequently, monitor patients for a median of 43 months, of which 471 were coinfected with HIV and receiving no antiretroviral treatment and 416 were not infected with HIV.
The study indicated that micronutrient supplementation was associated with a reduced recurrence rate of tuberculosis. In this study, both patients were co-infected with HIV and those not, but taking the supplements showed a lower risk of recurrence of tuberculosis in the months after giving negative culture for tuberculosis : 45% overall and 63% for patients coinfected with HIV. The supplements also reduced the incidence of peripheral neuropathy by 57% regardless of whether or not they were infected with HIV, and increased levels of certain cells (CD3 and CD4) important for the immune response in patients infected with HIV. As Villamor noted : "We note that the administration of micronutrients in patients with tuberculosis who were undergoing anti-TB treatment appeared to reduce the risk of relapse.
The effect was greatest in patients also infected with HIV. This could be important since the resurgence of tuberculosis is common in HIV-infected " patient. According Villamor, "would be important to determine if micronutrients improve treatment outcomes in patients coinfected with both viruses and who are undergoing antiretroviral treatment".
Source: Science Daily
