Scientific Information on Rate of Sickness
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Rate of Sickness
Summary of Rate of Sickness
Scientific Information on Rate of Sickness
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Human Effect Matrix
The Human Effect Matrix looks at human studies (it excludes animal and in vitro studies) to tell you what supplements affect rate of sickness.
| Grade | Level of Evidence [show legend] |
|---|---|
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Robust research conducted with repeated double-blind clinical trials |
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Multiple studies where at least two are double-blind and placebo controlled |
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Single double-blind study or multiple cohort studies |
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Uncontrolled or observational studies only |
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Level of Evidence
?
The amount of high quality evidence. The more
evidence, the more we can trust the results.
|
Supplement |
Magnitude of effect
?
The direction and size of the supplement's impact on
each outcome. Some supplements can have an increasing effect, others have a decreasing effect, and others have no effect.
|
Consistency of research results
?
Scientific research does not always agree. HIGH or
VERY HIGH means that most of the scientific research agrees.
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Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Minor
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Very High See all 3 studies |
Upper respiratory tract infections and cold symptoms seem to see a small to medium reduction when echinacea is used as a prophylactic. However, it's unclear which doses and demographics benefit more and which benefit less, and the inconsistency of studies suggests that only some people may see a benefit.
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Minor
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Very High See all 15 studies |
There is evidence for a modest reduction in the risk for respiratory tract infections in general, likely coming largely from upper respiratory tract infections, and more meaningful when vitamin D levels are very low (a small number of people). There is also some evidence for a modesty reduction in pneumonia and influenza, though more research is needed to be very confidence in this.
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- | Moderate See all 28 studies |
When used as a prophylactic, vitamin C's effects are very inconsistent, and overall it doesn't seem to reliably reduce the risk of getting a common cold. It's possible that those undergoing extreme exercise (a known risk factor for developing colds) see a meaningful reduction in risk, however this is based on much less research and requires further study. It's unclear if other infectious diseases are affected by vitamin C supplementation.
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