Vitamin E May Improve UTI Treatment

Vitamin E supplementation may help ameliorate the symptoms of urinary tract infection (UTI), according to findings published in the Iranian Journal of Kidney Diseases (2015;9:97-104).

Parsa Yousefichaijan, MD, and colleagues at Arak University in Arak, Iran, tested the effect of vitamin E on UTI in 152 girls aged 5–12 years with a first acute episode of pyelonephritis. The researchers randomly assigned 76 girls to receive antibiotics only (controls) and 76 to receive vitamin E in addition to antibiotics. During follow-up, the mean number of episodes of fever, urinary frequency, dribbling, and urgency were significantly lower in the vitamin E group than the control arm.

The investigators found no significant difference in the results of urine culture 3–4 days after the start of treatment and 7–10 days after its termination. They also observed no significant difference between the groups in DMSA scan findings 4–6 months after treatment.

Although vitamin E supplementation did not differ significantly from antibiotics alone with respect to short-term urine cultures and 4–6 month follow-up DMSA scans, “its administration is recommended from the start of the treatment to decrease clinical symptoms in infected girls because of its significant effect on the improvement of clinical symptoms in the acute phase of UTI.”

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