Exercise, vitamins and respiratory tract infections : [Letter]

Chubak and colleagues reported that moderate-intensity exercise training reduced common cold incidence but had no effect on the total incidence of upper respiratory infections. As a motivation for the trial, they cited 2 randomized 3- to 4-month trials; however, these trials did not find a statistically significant effect on upper respiratory infection incidence from moderate exercise, but the studies were small (N < or = 36). In their article, Chubak et al failed to refer to our study analyzing the relation between physical activity and common cold incidence in middle-aged Finnish men of the ATBC Study cohort (N 14,401). Physical activity at work and at leisure had no association with common cold incidence.Non peer reviewe