Quote:
| Dr. Beck says studies of mice show that only 4% of lean animals infected with the flu virus die. That compares with a death rate of between 40% and 60% in obese mice infected with the virus. And after a small study showed that obese people vaccinated for the flu didn't mount a strong immune response, the University of North Carolina is expanding its trials to compare vaccination response rates in lean and obese people. |
While this article is primarily about nutrition and staying healthy - I find the part that I underlined very interesting. I'll be keeping my eyes open for any future studies done on this.
Reduced tetanus antibody titers in overweight children.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...m&ordinalpos=2
A search on pubmed brings up quite a few studies on the role of nutrition in the efficacy of vaccines - mostly in the elderly and in livestock. Not so much in babies and children, although breastfeeding is known to contribute to an improved immune response. Perhaps this will start to be studied with more urgency.
I know that there are many families who do vaccinate who use this board, and I think sound nutrition is a must regardless of your vaccine choice.
It makes sense that there are factors that impact on how effective a vaccine is in each individual, just like it makes sense that host factors play a role in how well the individual tolerates disease.
