A new study found that supplementing 600 – 900 mg daily of standardized Elderberry Extracts which are rich in Antioxidants, both before and after travel can reduce the severity and duration of colds in individuals traveling by Air.
Over 300 individuals traveling by air in economy class flying for at least 7 hours participated in this double blind, placebo controlled study. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either 600 mg of an Elderberry Extract daily starting 10 days before travel and 900 mg daily of the Elderberry Extract from 1 day before travel and 4 days after travel or a placebo. Participants stayed at least 4 days at their destination and had layovers of no longer than 12 hours. Cold symptoms, durations, and episodes were measured using the Jackson score in addition to participant surveys.
Study results showed more colds were experienced by the group supplementing with the placebo (17) when compared to the Elderberry group (12) but this difference was not considered to be statistically significant. However when researchers looked at both the severity and duration of cold symptoms experienced by participants, significant differences between the supplement group and the placebo group were found. Colds for the placebo group had a collective duration of 117 days compared to only 57 days in the group supplementing with the Elderberry Extract. Additionally the average symptom score over these days was 247 in the Elderberry Extract group compared to 583 for the placebo group.
The researchers chose to study individuals traveling by air because air travel is demanding and challenging for most people and past studies show that long distance flights result in fatigue and immune system impairment. Increasing stress puts passengers at a higher risk of respiratory infections.
Further studies are needed.
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