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From The November 2001 Issue of Nutrition Science News
Vitamin E Prevents
by Jack Challem
Four of five recent human studies support vitamin E's effectiveness in reducing heart disease, and the fifth had design flaws, according to a recent analysis by Ishwalal Jialal, M.D., of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas.1
In the Alpha-Tocopherol Beta-Carotene (ATBC) study, 29,133 male smokers taking 50 IU/day synthetic vitamin E had a 38 percent reduction in nonfatal heart attacks.
- In the Secondary Prevention with Antioxidants of Cardiovascular Disease in End-Stage Renal Disease study, patients with kidney disease had a 70 percent reduction in nonfatal heart attacks while taking 800 IU/day natural E.
- In the Gruppo Italiano per lo Studio della Supravivenza nell'Infarto Miocardico study, researchers reported no benefits from 300 IU/day synthetic vitamin E, although fish oils reduced heart attack risk. However, Jialal reanalyzed the data on synthetic vitamin E supplements and reported a 20 percent decrease in death risk from cardiovascular disease.
- In the Cambridge Heart Antioxidant Study (CHAOS), 2,002 men and women with documented heart disease had a 77 percent reduction in nonfatal heart attacks while taking 400 to 800 IU/day natural vitamin E.
In addition, Jialal explained that the slight increase in fatal heart attacks in the CHAOS study occurred chiefly among people who failed to take vitamin E supplements.
Jack Challem, known as the The Nutrition Reporter™, has been writing about vitamin research for 25 years and is the author of Syndrome X: The Complete Nutritional Program to Prevent and Reverse Insulin Resistance (Wiley, 2000).
References
1. Jialal I, et al. Is there a vitamin E paradox? Curr Opin Lipidol 2001 Feb;12(1):49-53.
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