Vitamin E

Alpha-tocopherol, an antioxidant vitamin which binds oxygen free radicals that can cause tissue damage.

Deficiency of vitamin E can lead to anemia.

Vitamin E may play a possible role in preventing heart disease and cancer of the lung and prostate.

<U>Vitamin E and the heart:</U> In the Nurses' Health Study involving 80,000 women, subjects who took more vitamin E had a lower rate of heart attacks than those who consumed less vitamin E.

However, in the ATBC (Alpha-Tocopherol Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention) trial, men with known coronary artery disease given 50 mg of a synthetic vitamin E had no reduction in fatal heart attacks as compared with men given a placebo.

In the CHAOS (Cambridge Heart Antioxidant Study) trial, patients with known coronary artery disease were given natural vitamin E or a placebo.

The dose of vitamin E used (400-800IU) in this trial was 13 to 26 times greater than the RDA, and much higher than the ATBC cancer prevention trial.

The vitamin E treated group experienced fewer heart attacks than the placebo group after one year of treatment.

<U>Vitamin E and the prevention of lung cancer:</U> Damage to DNA from free radicals can, it is thought, lead to the development of cancers.

However, randomized, prospective, placebo-controlled trials involving antioxidant vitamins have generally yielded disappointing results.

In the ATBC cancer prevention study, vitamin E was shown not to be beneficial in preventing lung cancers.

<U>Vitamin E and the prevention of prostate cancer:</U> In the ATBC cancer prevention trial, men given alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) had a lower incidence of prostate cancer than men given a placebo.

The vitamin E-treated group also had significantly lower death rates from prostate cancer.

Long-term vitamin E supplementation may thus reduce the incidence of prostate cancer and deaths from this cancer.

Other controlled studies will be necessary to confirm these findings.