From The July 2000 Issue of Nutrition Science News

Vitamin E No Help To Cardio Patients

Vitamin E is not likely to save older people who either already have heart disease or are at a high risk for it. That's the conclusion drawn by Canadian investigators in the double-blind, randomized Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) study. The participants, of whom 27 percent were women, were older than 55 (average age 67) and had either cardiovascular disease (81 percent) or diabetes (38 percent) plus at least one other risk factor such as hypertension or high cholesterol.

Researchers gave 4,761 participants 400 IU/day natural vitamin E while 4,780 received placebo for 4.5 years. The researchers monitored participants for all types of cardiovascular problems: deaths from heart disease, stroke or heart attack; hospitalization for unstable angina, heart failure or peripheral vascular events; new onset angina; and microvascular complications of diabetes. In no case was there a statistically significant difference between those who received vitamin E and those who took placebo. For example, of those in the vitamin E group, 532 had heart attacks, which killed 342, compared with 524 heart attacks and 328 deaths in the placebo group. Because vitamin E reduces blood clotting, some theorized that the vitamin might increase the incidence of hemorrhagic stroke; however, this was not the case.

This study has been widely reported as showing vitamin E is of no benefit in protecting the heart; however, it is important to note that all study participants already had either heart disease or diabetes, which is characterized by severe atherosclerosis. In addition, the study's designers did not attempt to alter participants' diets. The vitamin does not work in isolation. Just because vitamin E is not able to save those diagnosed with heart disease does not necessarily mean it has no role in maintaining healthy arteries.

—New England Journal of Medicine 2000 Jan; 20;342:154-60.