Vitamin A helps prevent parasite infections

Anyone treating the underlying causes of chronic diseases is familiar with the important impact of gastrointestinal parasitic infections on the immune system and chronic inflammation, and knows how common they are. This randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial recently published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition offers welcome evidence that Vitamin A supplementation can significantly reduce the incidence of parasitic infections. The conclusion: "These data showed that total parasitic infection and Giardia spp infections were significantly lower in the vitamin A treatment group when compared with the placebo group, suggesting that vitamin A improves the host's defenses against Giardia infections." This is not surprising considering the importance of vitamin A for the tissues that line the GI and respiratory tracts and their immune integrity.