'Vit E may prevent pneumonia risk in nonsmoking elderly men'

Intake of vitamin E may significantly lower the risk of pneumonia in non-smoking elderly men, new research has claimed.

Administration of 50 mg per day of vitamin E decreased the risk of pneumonia in elderly male smokers by 72 per cent after they quit smoking, researchers found.

Harri Hemila from University of Helsinki in Finland in the UK studied whether vitamin E supplementation might influence the risk of community-acquired pneumonia.

He analysed the data of the randomised trial (Alpha-Tocopherol Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention (ATBC) Study) which was conducted in Finland between 1985-1993 and included male smokers aged from 50 to 69 years.
 

The age when the participant had started to smoke significantly modified the effect of vitamin E on pneumonia.

Vitamin E decreased the risk of pneumonia by 35 per cent in 7,469 participants who had started smoking at a later age, at 21 years or older, whereas the vitamin had no apparent effect on pneumonia for those who had started to smoke at a younger age.

Among the 7,469 participants who started to smoke at a later age, vitamin E supplementation reduced the incidence of pneumonia by 69 per cent in a subgroup of 2,216 light smokers who exercised in their leisure time.

In this subgroup, vitamin E prevented pneumonia in 12.9 per cent of the participants by the time they reached the age of 74 years, which corresponds to one in eight getting a benefit from the vitamin.

The vitamin did not have a significant effect on participants who smoked heavily or had not been taking exercise.

One-third of the 7,469 participants quit smoking for a period and 27 of them got pneumonia. These 27 cases of pneumonia can be used to estimate the effect of vitamin E on currently nonsmoking males.

The incidence of pneumonia was 72 per cent lower in the vitamin E participants who had quit smoking, and this benefit from vitamin E was also seen among those who smoked heavily or did not exercise.

Although the evidence of benefit from vitamin E against community-acquired pneumonia in elderly males is strong in this analysis, the overall findings about vitamin E have been complex.

The study appears in the journal Clinical Interventions in Ageing.