Food Supplements Are Transforming Tuberculosis Survival In India

A disease that 10 million people globally fall ill with each year and 1.5 million die from, tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world’s top infectious killers. While drugs have failed to eradicate TB, there is growing evidence that nutritional and Cellular Medicine approaches can play an important role in its prevention and treatment.

Recognizing the scientific importance of finding new therapies for this disease, scientists working at the Dr. Rath Research Institute have conducted a clinical trial in 120 hospitalized patients with active pulmonary TB. Published in 2008, the study investigated how a carefully designed combination of specific micronutrients affects the TB healing process when taken alongside standard TB drug treatment. For comparison, the micronutrient results were evaluated alongside those of a matched group of 100 control patients who were given standard TB treatment alone.

At the end of the trial period the patients taking the micronutrients were found to exhibit significantly greater signs of healing, as seen on their chest X-rays and other parameters measured. Their cavity healing was almost 30 percent higher than that of the control group. Moreover, while all (100 percent) of the patients taking the micronutrients tested negative for the TB bacteria, only 88 percent of the patients in the control group tested negatively.

A further important benefit seen in patients taking the micronutrients was that only 11 percent reported any side effects from the TB drugs they were taking, with 89 percent experiencing improved tolerance to the treatment. Conversely, in the group of TB patients not taking the micronutrients, 46 percent suffered adverse events that required further treatment.

To read more about the use of micronutrients to fight TB, see this article on our website.