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Take Green Algae With Your Flu Shot

Posted on: Tuesday, 29 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

Study finds extract boosts immune response to vaccine

HealthDayNews -- Green algae extract can boost the body's immune response to flu vaccine, says a Canadian study.

Researchers from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Ocean Nutrition Canada found that taking a carbohydrate extract of green algae in pill form greatly boosted the immune response to the flu vaccine in people aged 50 to 55.

This is the first published human study to show how a derivative of food source algae improves the body's immune response to the influenza vaccine. The study appears in the current issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

"These results have raised the bar, showing that natural products can be studied for clinical effect in a pharmaceutical-caliber study," researcher Dr. Scott Halperin, a professor at Dalhousie, says in a news release.

He and his colleagues gave two different doses of the green algae extract to two groups of 41 healthy people for 28 days. Another 42 people received a placebo. All the study volunteers were at least 50 years old.

After 21 days of receiving either the extract or the placebo, all received a flu vaccine for the 2000/2001 flu season. The vaccine contained three different flu strains.

The researchers found the people taking 400 milligrams per day of the algae extract had much greater antibody responses to the vaccine at seven and 21 days after vaccination. The algae extract caused no adverse effects, the study says.

Ocean Nutrition Canada, which took part in this study, is a nutritional biotechnology company.

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