Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Prevention of Acute Upper Respiratory Infections by Consumption of Catechins in Healthcare Workers: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Prevention of Acute Upper Respiratory Infections by Consumption of Catechins in Healthcare Workers: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial


    Nutrients. 2019 Dec 18;12(1). pii: E4. doi: 10.3390/nu12010004. Prevention of Acute Upper Respiratory Infections by Consumption of Catechins in Healthcare Workers: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

    Furushima D1, Nishimura T1, Takuma N2, Iketani R1, Mizuno T3, Matsui Y3, Yamaguchi T4, Nakashima Y5, Yamamoto S5, Hibi M3, Yamada H1.
    Author information

    1 Department of Drug Evaluation and Informatics, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Shizuoka, Shizuoka 422-8526, Japan. 2 White Cross Nursing Home, Tokyo 189-0021, Japan. 3 Biological Science Research Laboratories, Kao Corporation, Tokyo 131-8501, Japan. 4 Health Care Food Research Laboratories, Kao Corporation, Tokyo 131-8501, Japan. 5 Personal Healthcare Research Laboratories, Kao Corporation, Tokyo 131-8501, Japan.

    Abstract

    Catechins, phytochemicals contained mainly in green tea, exhibit antiviral activity against various acute infectious diseases experimentally. Clinical evidence supporting these effects, however, is not conclusive. We performed a placebo-controlled, single-blind, randomized control trial to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of consumption of catechins-containing beverage for preventing acute upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs). Two hundred and seventy healthcare workers were randomly allocated to high-catechin (three daily doses of 57 mg catechins and 100 mg xanthan gum), low-catechin (one daily dose of 57 mg catechins and 100 mg xanthan gum), or placebo (0 mg catechins and 100 mg xanthan gum) group. Subjects consumed a beverage with or without catechins for 12 weeks from December 2017 through February 2018. The primary endpoint was incidence of URTIs compared among groups using a time-to-event analysis. A total of 255 subjects were analyzed (placebo group n = 86, low-catechin group n = 85, high catechin group n = 84). The URTI incidence rate was 26.7% in the placebo group, 28.2% in the low-catechin group, and 13.1% in the high-catechin group (log rank test, p = 0.042). The hazard ratio (95% confidence interval (CI)) with reference to the placebo group was 1.09 (0.61-1.92) in the low-catechin group and 0.46 (0.23-0.95) in the high-catechin group. These findings suggest that catechins combined with xanthan gum protect against URTIs.


    KEYWORDS:

    acute upper respiratory infection; catechins; epigallocatechin gallate; influenza like illness; randomized controlled trial

    PMID: 31861349 DOI: 10.3390/nu12010004
    Free full text

Working...
X