Vitamin E Protects Heart Health
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More on the many benefits of vitamin E Benefical to Serious Athletes and You, Too Most of the above links have information on the benefits of vitamin E that is also found in the CRN Publication, The Benefits of Nutritional Supplements, compiled by Annette Dickinson, Ph.D. Find out more about this publication
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In the Nurses’ Health Study, involving more than 87,000 women, Dr. Meir Stampfer and colleagues at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health reported a 41 percent reduction in risk of heart disease among nurses who had taken vitamin E for more than two years. The researchers noted that a beneficial effect of vitamin E on heart disease "is plausible because of the substantial evidence indicating the importance of oxidation of LDL in atherosclerosis." The average vitamin E intake in the lowest-risk group was 200 IU. Read the abstract on the New England Journal of Medicine website. In the Health Professionals Follow-up Study involving almost 40,000 men, Dr. Eric Rimm and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School found that men who had taken vitamin E for more than two years had a 37 percent lower risk of heart disease, compared to men who had not taken supplements of vitamin E. The average level of vitamin E intake in the lowest-risk group was 400 IU. Read the abstract on the New England Journal of Medicine website. Scientists believe that the process of atherogenesis that leads to heart disease is initiated when LDL cholesterol is oxidized. Vitamin E (alpha tocopherol) helps protect against LDL oxidation and thus may help protect against heart disease. There is considerable evidence to support this hypothesis, but large clinical trials have produced mixed results. The most strikingly positive trial was the Cambridge Heart Anti-Oxidant Study (CHAOS), which found that vitamin E supplementation was dramatically effective in reducing the risk of heart attacks in patients known to be at high risk. The primary author of this study said that he would be "recommending that patients with angina and those who are at risk of heart disease should be given supplementary vitamin E at a high dose." Read more about the CHAOS study. In diabetic patients, "the risk of atherosclerosis is three to four-fold higher than in nondiabetic persons and cardiovascular disease is the major cause of premature death." It has been suggested that vitamin E might be useful in decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease in diabetics. A group of researchers examined the effects of 750 IU of vitamin E supplementation for a period of one year, given as 250 IU three times a day. Serum vitamin E levels almost doubled in the first three months and did not increase further. During vitamin E treatment, there was a decrease in lipoprotein peroxidizability. Within three months after stopping supplementation, serum vitamin E levels returned to baseline. Since the benefits of the supplement are conferred only while supplementation is continuing, the researchers suggest that "life-long supplementation with vitamin E should be considered in patients with type 1 diabetes." Read the abstract on the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition website. |
In a study of over 2300 men in Quebec, the men who took vitamin supplements
had a 70 percent reduced risk of dying from ischemic heart disease
and almost a 50 percent lower risk of myocardial infarction. The vitamin
that appeared to be most protective was vitamin E. Read
the abstract on the Canadian Journal of Cardiology website.
Researchers in California studied the effect of dietary and supplemental
antioxidant intake on the progression of atherosclerosis in 156
men who had previously undergone bypass surgery. Angiograms were
done at baseline and after two years, to determine whether atherosclerosis
had progressed. Men who were taking 100 IU of vitamin E or more
had significantly less progression of atherosclerosis during the
study period.
Read the abstract on the JAMA website. In a dose-response study, 48 healthy male nonsmokers were given 0, 60, 200, 400, 800, or 1200 IU of vitamin E per day for eight weeks. LDL susceptibility to oxidation decreased in the men receiving 400 IU or more of vitamin E, but not in those receiving lower levels. No side effects were observed from any of these treatments. The minimum amount of vitamin E needed to inhibit LDL oxidation appeared to be 400 IU per day. Read the abstract on the website of the journal, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis & Vascular Biology. Drs. Ishwarlal Jialal and Sridevi Devaraj of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Dr. Maret Traber of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University reviewed the results of five major clinical trials on vitamin E in the publication, Current Opinion in Lipidology, and concluded that "the totality of evidence based on the epidemiologic data, in-vitro studies and animal models, and the clinical trials appears to support a benefit for alpha tocopherol supplementation in patients with pre-existing cardiovascular disease." Patients with endstage renal disease who require chronic hemodialysis have a high mortality rate, much of which is due to cardiovascular disease. "The cardiovascular-disease mortality rate in this patient group is estimated to be five to 20 times that of the general population." The increased mortality may be due in part to a high level of oxidative stress. In the SPACE trial, researchers tested the effect of 800 IU per day of vitamin E supplementation on cardiovascular disease in these patients. (SPACE stands for Secondary Prevention with Antioxidants of Cardiovascular Disease in Endstage Renal Disease.) In the study, almost 200 patients received the vitamin E supplement or a placebo for a period of about two years. The vitamin E treatment was associated with a significant protective effect against cardiovascular death and non-fatal myocardial infarction (heart attack). Read the abstract on the NIH PubMed website. |
