Alvin C. Chan, a professor of biochemistry at the university of Ottawa, has taken vitamin E every day for the last 25 years. For the past 15 years, so has his mother, who at 80 walks regularly, practises tai chi and does her own shopping, cooking and house cleaning.
Chan's interest in the supplement began in the mid-'70s, when his professor of epidemiology at the University of Toronto told him about the potential of antioxidants like vitamin E for reducing heart disease and other illnesses. Chan then began to study E's role in combatting atherosclerosis, a type of artery hardening that can lead to heart attack and stroke.
Chan had a special reason for wanting to look into the possible benefits of vitamin E: All four of his grandparents had died from strokes, some at a relatively young age. "Because of my family background, I decided to look into the mechanisms that cause atherosclerosis."
Now 59, Chan is convinced his own blood pressure is still normal thanks to the 200 milligrams of vitamin E he takes twice a day. His mother also thinks the supplements is why she's still so alert and active.
Back in the 1930s, Evan and Wilfrid Shute - two brothers from London, Ontario, both obstetricians - were the first to realize that vitamin E had a variety of healing properties. A wealth of research done since then backs that up. For example, a study of 2313 men aged 45 to 70, conducted at Quebec City's University Hospital Centre, found that whose who took a five vitamin supplement including E had a 70-percent reduction of death due to ischemic heart disease. Other studies done suggest that vitamin E may help prevent atherosclerosis, limit damage from cigarette smoking, ward off cataracts, reduce leg cramps, ease arthritic symptoms and delay the ravages of Alzheimer's.
But don't most of us get sufficient vitamin E from diet alone?" No, we don't, says Dr. Ranjit Chandra, an authority on immunology and nutrition and professor of medicine at Memorial University in St. John's Nfld. "And the need for a supplement is even greater in people over 55 who don't eat properly." Protective levels of E are far higher than what you typically get from foods - such as wheat germ, sunflower oil, nuts and seeds - with the highest E concentrations. To consume just 100 IUs (International Units), the minimum dose in most supplements, you'd have to eat two kilograms of spinach or more than 580 grams of peanuts.
If even half the early findings about E are proved in continuing research, this vitamin could indeed be a boon to overall health care. Here's evidence of how it may help you.
VITAMIN E BOOST YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM
According to Jeffrey Blumberg, a human nutrition researcher at Tufts University in Boston, supplementing a healthful diet with vitamin E may offer many benefits. "We think you could be safer from infectious diseases-colds, flu, tuberculosis."
Researchers at Tufts tested the effects of vitamin E on the immune systems of healthy older people in four-mounth study, theorizing that with vitamin E they might boost those immune defenses to more effective levels. Each of 88 volunteers, 65 and older, was assigned to one of four groups. Members of the first group got 60 IUs of vitamin E a day; a second group got 200 IUs; a third got 800; and the fourth got placebos.
What they discovered was startling. Normally, immune cells become less efficient as we age and don't protect our body as much against disease. But the cells of the vitamin E groups didn't act their age. "The responses of 65 and 70 year olds looked more like those of 40 year olds," says Blumberg.
Subjects taking 200 IUs got a bigger immune system boost than the ones who got only 60. But the 200 IUs group also fared better than those on 800 IUs. Why? The researchers suspect 200 IUs may be the optimal dose for immune system benefits. "With supplements, it's preferable to take modest amounts instead of megadoses," warns Dr. Tapan K. Basu, professor of nutritional biochemistry at the University of Alberta and editor of Antioxidants in Human Health and Diseases journal.
VITAMIN E MAY CUT CARDIAC RISK
Dr. Ishwarlal Jialal of the University of Texas South Western Medical Centre in Dallas has found signs of heart protective effects in his research on vitamin E. More interesting, his results hint at reasons why vitamin E cuts cardiac risk. For his study, he gave 21 healthy people far more than the usual dose: 1200 IUs per day for eight weeks. He found that vitamin E reduced oxidation of LDL (low density lipoprotein, the "bad" cholesterol), which helps form plaque in coronary arteries. In addition, he found vitamin E impaired the function of plaque-producing cells in those arteries. These findings mean that vitamin E may help prevent atherosclerosis.
But the final verdict is not in. The on going HOPE study, led by researchers in Hamilton, has found no evidence that vitamin E reduces the incidence of stroke or heart attack, while several other large studies have suggested cardiac benefits with vitamin E. One such study, conducted recently in Great Britain on 2002 patients with coronary heart disease, revealed that those who took vitamin E had a 77 percent lower risk of a repeat, nonfatal heart attack. "People at high risk for heart disease should definitely take the vitamin," Dr. Chandra says.
VITAMIN E MIGHT FIGHT CANCER
When testing E against cancer, scientist have come up with contradictory findings. Some studies found no change in the incidence of cancer but others recorded lower rates of cancer among people taking vitamin E.
A four year study of 1070 people at Montreal's Hotel Dieu Hospital revealed that those who had a diet rich in vitamin E reduced their risk of colon cancer by 47 percent. Scientist have long suspected that a diet low in vitamin E increases the risk for developing cancer, while higher levels are associated with lower risk.
A study of 27000 male Finnish smokers, aged 50 to 69, showed benefits with just 50 IUs of the nutrient. Among those taking vitamin E instead of a placebo, the men had 32 percent fewer cases of prostate cancer. More impressive, there were 41 percent fewer prostate-cancer deaths.
Another study now under way at Quebec City's Laval University Cancer Research Centre on 540 patients with early stage head and neck cancer theorizes that those taking high doses of vitamin E will significantly reduce the occurrence of further cancers.
"There has been quite a lot of evidence from test-tube studies that shows vitamin E can prevent certain types of cancer," Dr. Basu says. Other studies are currently testing the vitamin's effects on colon, lung and breast cancers.
VITAMIN E MAY SLOW ALZHEIMER'S
In years past, Carl Cotman of the University of California, Irvine, regretted having to announce at medical conferences that researchers like himself still had no strategy to slow the horrible progression of Alzheimer's. Then, one day in his laboratory, Cotman saw under the microscope what he thought might be the beginning of an answer. When he took neurons and added beta amyloid (the substance that accumulates in the brain of an Alzheimer's patient), the brain cells committed "cell suicide" by disintegrating. But when vitamin E was added, the "suicide" never occurred. Cells stayed healthy.
Could the vitamin's protective effect be replicated in the living brain?
In a nine year study in the Netherlands of 5395 dementia-free men and women over 55, researchers assessed participants intake of dietary and supplemental antioxidants and subsequent incidence of dementia from Alzheimer's disease by about 25 percent.
Though hardly a cure, researchers have finally seen something that slows the disease. A three-year National Institute on Aging Study of 720 Canadians and Americans with memory problems is currently testing the effects of vitamin E in preventing or delaying the onset of Alzheimer's.
OTHER BENEFIT OF VITAMIN E
This vitamin may offer a range of everyday advantages as well. A study in Italy showed that a combination of vitamin E and silicone gel significantly decreased wound healing time and scarring. Other studies found that topical applications of vitamin E and C improve resistance to sunburn. And a number of studies suggest the vitamin's effectiveness in cataract prevention.
Event if you're in perfect health, exercise regularly, keep stress to a minimum and eat a balanced diet, you can still benefit from vitamin supplements, doctors say.
How much should you take?
"Four hundred IUs on top of what we get from food should help protect against a number of diseases," Dr. Basu says. Because vitamin C is necessary to maintain vitamin E's healing quality, experts suggest adding 100 milligrams of C to your daily diet. Like any supplement, however, E may be less safe at extremely high doses and may throw off the balance of other nutrients in your body.
Considering the benefits of vitamin E, there's every reason to give it a try, says Chan, who calls the supplement the heart vitamin.
IS VITAMIN E ALWAYS SAFE?
Supplements of this micronutrient are safe for most people (up to about 1000 IUs), but there are caveats. If you drink a lot of tea, take aspirin to protect against heart disease or take any other prescription drug, check with your doctor. Vitamin E, like tea and aspirin, is a blood thinner, so your physician may want to adjust how much you take. Also, because vitamin E may promote bleeding, don't take it prior to surgery or if you use anticoagulant drugs.
Dr. Parviz Ghadirian, director of the Epidemiology Research Unit at the University of Montreal's Hospital Centre, has been studying the role of nutrition and cancer for more than 30 years. He cautions overweight people to be careful with the supplement.
"Because vitamin E is a fat-soluble compound that is stored in fatty tissues, it can become toxic in the long run if too much is absorbed," he says. Vitamin E should also be used cautiously if you have high blood pressure, an overactive thyroid or rheumatic heart disease.
Chan's interest in the supplement began in the mid-'70s, when his professor of epidemiology at the University of Toronto told him about the potential of antioxidants like vitamin E for reducing heart disease and other illnesses. Chan then began to study E's role in combatting atherosclerosis, a type of artery hardening that can lead to heart attack and stroke.
Chan had a special reason for wanting to look into the possible benefits of vitamin E: All four of his grandparents had died from strokes, some at a relatively young age. "Because of my family background, I decided to look into the mechanisms that cause atherosclerosis."
Now 59, Chan is convinced his own blood pressure is still normal thanks to the 200 milligrams of vitamin E he takes twice a day. His mother also thinks the supplements is why she's still so alert and active.
Back in the 1930s, Evan and Wilfrid Shute - two brothers from London, Ontario, both obstetricians - were the first to realize that vitamin E had a variety of healing properties. A wealth of research done since then backs that up. For example, a study of 2313 men aged 45 to 70, conducted at Quebec City's University Hospital Centre, found that whose who took a five vitamin supplement including E had a 70-percent reduction of death due to ischemic heart disease. Other studies done suggest that vitamin E may help prevent atherosclerosis, limit damage from cigarette smoking, ward off cataracts, reduce leg cramps, ease arthritic symptoms and delay the ravages of Alzheimer's.
But don't most of us get sufficient vitamin E from diet alone?" No, we don't, says Dr. Ranjit Chandra, an authority on immunology and nutrition and professor of medicine at Memorial University in St. John's Nfld. "And the need for a supplement is even greater in people over 55 who don't eat properly." Protective levels of E are far higher than what you typically get from foods - such as wheat germ, sunflower oil, nuts and seeds - with the highest E concentrations. To consume just 100 IUs (International Units), the minimum dose in most supplements, you'd have to eat two kilograms of spinach or more than 580 grams of peanuts.
If even half the early findings about E are proved in continuing research, this vitamin could indeed be a boon to overall health care. Here's evidence of how it may help you.
VITAMIN E BOOST YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM
According to Jeffrey Blumberg, a human nutrition researcher at Tufts University in Boston, supplementing a healthful diet with vitamin E may offer many benefits. "We think you could be safer from infectious diseases-colds, flu, tuberculosis."
Researchers at Tufts tested the effects of vitamin E on the immune systems of healthy older people in four-mounth study, theorizing that with vitamin E they might boost those immune defenses to more effective levels. Each of 88 volunteers, 65 and older, was assigned to one of four groups. Members of the first group got 60 IUs of vitamin E a day; a second group got 200 IUs; a third got 800; and the fourth got placebos.
What they discovered was startling. Normally, immune cells become less efficient as we age and don't protect our body as much against disease. But the cells of the vitamin E groups didn't act their age. "The responses of 65 and 70 year olds looked more like those of 40 year olds," says Blumberg.
Subjects taking 200 IUs got a bigger immune system boost than the ones who got only 60. But the 200 IUs group also fared better than those on 800 IUs. Why? The researchers suspect 200 IUs may be the optimal dose for immune system benefits. "With supplements, it's preferable to take modest amounts instead of megadoses," warns Dr. Tapan K. Basu, professor of nutritional biochemistry at the University of Alberta and editor of Antioxidants in Human Health and Diseases journal.
VITAMIN E MAY CUT CARDIAC RISK
Dr. Ishwarlal Jialal of the University of Texas South Western Medical Centre in Dallas has found signs of heart protective effects in his research on vitamin E. More interesting, his results hint at reasons why vitamin E cuts cardiac risk. For his study, he gave 21 healthy people far more than the usual dose: 1200 IUs per day for eight weeks. He found that vitamin E reduced oxidation of LDL (low density lipoprotein, the "bad" cholesterol), which helps form plaque in coronary arteries. In addition, he found vitamin E impaired the function of plaque-producing cells in those arteries. These findings mean that vitamin E may help prevent atherosclerosis.
But the final verdict is not in. The on going HOPE study, led by researchers in Hamilton, has found no evidence that vitamin E reduces the incidence of stroke or heart attack, while several other large studies have suggested cardiac benefits with vitamin E. One such study, conducted recently in Great Britain on 2002 patients with coronary heart disease, revealed that those who took vitamin E had a 77 percent lower risk of a repeat, nonfatal heart attack. "People at high risk for heart disease should definitely take the vitamin," Dr. Chandra says.
VITAMIN E MIGHT FIGHT CANCER
When testing E against cancer, scientist have come up with contradictory findings. Some studies found no change in the incidence of cancer but others recorded lower rates of cancer among people taking vitamin E.
A four year study of 1070 people at Montreal's Hotel Dieu Hospital revealed that those who had a diet rich in vitamin E reduced their risk of colon cancer by 47 percent. Scientist have long suspected that a diet low in vitamin E increases the risk for developing cancer, while higher levels are associated with lower risk.
A study of 27000 male Finnish smokers, aged 50 to 69, showed benefits with just 50 IUs of the nutrient. Among those taking vitamin E instead of a placebo, the men had 32 percent fewer cases of prostate cancer. More impressive, there were 41 percent fewer prostate-cancer deaths.
Another study now under way at Quebec City's Laval University Cancer Research Centre on 540 patients with early stage head and neck cancer theorizes that those taking high doses of vitamin E will significantly reduce the occurrence of further cancers.
"There has been quite a lot of evidence from test-tube studies that shows vitamin E can prevent certain types of cancer," Dr. Basu says. Other studies are currently testing the vitamin's effects on colon, lung and breast cancers.
VITAMIN E MAY SLOW ALZHEIMER'S
In years past, Carl Cotman of the University of California, Irvine, regretted having to announce at medical conferences that researchers like himself still had no strategy to slow the horrible progression of Alzheimer's. Then, one day in his laboratory, Cotman saw under the microscope what he thought might be the beginning of an answer. When he took neurons and added beta amyloid (the substance that accumulates in the brain of an Alzheimer's patient), the brain cells committed "cell suicide" by disintegrating. But when vitamin E was added, the "suicide" never occurred. Cells stayed healthy.
Could the vitamin's protective effect be replicated in the living brain?
In a nine year study in the Netherlands of 5395 dementia-free men and women over 55, researchers assessed participants intake of dietary and supplemental antioxidants and subsequent incidence of dementia from Alzheimer's disease by about 25 percent.
Though hardly a cure, researchers have finally seen something that slows the disease. A three-year National Institute on Aging Study of 720 Canadians and Americans with memory problems is currently testing the effects of vitamin E in preventing or delaying the onset of Alzheimer's.
OTHER BENEFIT OF VITAMIN E
This vitamin may offer a range of everyday advantages as well. A study in Italy showed that a combination of vitamin E and silicone gel significantly decreased wound healing time and scarring. Other studies found that topical applications of vitamin E and C improve resistance to sunburn. And a number of studies suggest the vitamin's effectiveness in cataract prevention.
Event if you're in perfect health, exercise regularly, keep stress to a minimum and eat a balanced diet, you can still benefit from vitamin supplements, doctors say.
How much should you take?
"Four hundred IUs on top of what we get from food should help protect against a number of diseases," Dr. Basu says. Because vitamin C is necessary to maintain vitamin E's healing quality, experts suggest adding 100 milligrams of C to your daily diet. Like any supplement, however, E may be less safe at extremely high doses and may throw off the balance of other nutrients in your body.
Considering the benefits of vitamin E, there's every reason to give it a try, says Chan, who calls the supplement the heart vitamin.
IS VITAMIN E ALWAYS SAFE?
Supplements of this micronutrient are safe for most people (up to about 1000 IUs), but there are caveats. If you drink a lot of tea, take aspirin to protect against heart disease or take any other prescription drug, check with your doctor. Vitamin E, like tea and aspirin, is a blood thinner, so your physician may want to adjust how much you take. Also, because vitamin E may promote bleeding, don't take it prior to surgery or if you use anticoagulant drugs.
Dr. Parviz Ghadirian, director of the Epidemiology Research Unit at the University of Montreal's Hospital Centre, has been studying the role of nutrition and cancer for more than 30 years. He cautions overweight people to be careful with the supplement.
"Because vitamin E is a fat-soluble compound that is stored in fatty tissues, it can become toxic in the long run if too much is absorbed," he says. Vitamin E should also be used cautiously if you have high blood pressure, an overactive thyroid or rheumatic heart disease.
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