vitamin E

[rsterling]

Good Morning All!

Just FYI.  My doc had prescribed 400mg of Vitamin E 2x a day for the leg cramping.  He called me at home last night to tell me that there had been a news story on vitamin E and that he would rather me not take it at this time.

Hope this finds all in good spirits.  thank you Robin

[BS1961]

This was in yesterdays Newsday.

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hsvit11q4038162nov11,0,1838405.story?coll=ny-health-headlines

Scientists analyzing medical studies of vitamin E say they have identified a fatal flaw in the powers of the popular pill: People who had swallowed high doses seemed to die sooner than people who had not.
People should avoid high doses of vitamin E," said Dr. Edgar Miller, an associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes and lead author of the study - a mathematical analysis of low-dose versus high-dose vitamin E trials from 19 studies. Clinical trials "are the strongest form of scientific evidence," he said.
Some vitamin E experts who reviewed the study weren't buying the findings, insisting it's impossible to make sense of different kinds of studies with varying doses and disparate patient populations.

[snook_man]

I saw the same article about vitamin E.. They say it effects the heart now.. But you know how it goes, next week they will say it is good again.. I was taking 800iu a day.. Now I take 400iu.. Dr's are recommending after the article, 200iu.. You can take grape seed extract, which has been proven to be 10x more powerful as an antioxidant than vitamin E..

[layla]

My hepatlogist told me thay had previously done a study using peg and vitamin e which showed no improvemnt. LL

[Califia]

This rebuttal is from Andrew Saul, M.D., Contributing Editor for the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine:

"Simply put, this and other vitamin-bashing articles are wrong. Their conclusions are pre-ordained; their approach is biased; their research design is faulty. In the present study, even the study authors admitted that "Most of the patients in the trials were over age 60 and were not well." (Billingsley J. Vitamin E linked to higher death rates. HealthDay Reporter, Weds Nov. 10, 2004.)

She adds: "The study 'inappropriately tries to draw conclusions for the whole population based on a COMBINATION of studies of people who were already at grave risk with existing diseases, including cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and kidney failure,'" according to the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a dietary-supplement industry association.

"John Hathcock, the Council's vice president for scientific and international affairs, added, 'In reviewing the totality of evidence on vitamin E, including all clinical trial data and several large observational studies, CRN agrees with the Institute of Medicine in finding vitamin E supplements safe at levels of at least up to 1,000 mg (1,600 IU) for normal, healthy adults. This meta-analysis provides no convincing evidence to the contrary.'"

In fact, writes Bill Sardi: "The study authors concluded that 'Overall, vitamin E supplementation did not affect all-cause mortality.' That is not what you heard in televised news reports or in the newspapers. What you heard was there is a 5 to 10 percent (5 to 10 in 100) increased risk of dying from taking high-dose vitamin E supplements. . . (I)n hard numbers the risk rose by 10 in 10,000 persons, or 1 in 1000 (about 1/10th of one percent). . . The authors of the study indicate, among the 19 studies they examined, 'Most of the trials examined targeted populations at high risk for a chronic disease, most often coronary heart disease.' This fact obviously skewed the results."

Indeed, Sardi adds: "A University of North Carolina study of 45,748 participants, aged 50 to 75 years, found that supplement use is higher among people who are battling chronic health conditions and the strongest association was for cardiovascular disease with supplemental vitamin E. [Am Journal Preventive Medicine 24:43-51, 2003]."

(http://www.askbillsardi.com/sdm.asp?pg=news&specific=87)

To sum it up: Older people are much more likely to have multiple chronic illnesses. Many such people are likely to take higher doses of vitamin E, which while a lifesaver, is not the elixir of immortality. Sadly, older people die. People die in spite of vitamin E, not because of it."

[Tallblonde]

I saw Dr. Andrew Weil on the Larry King show a couple of nights ago.  He commented on this new vitamin E study and said that he didn't consider it good science and believed that people should continue taking it.

Susan

[susan400]

I used to take it because it was supposed to be good for me.  About 5 years ago, my doctor had recommended taking Vit. E and C.  Well, C tore up my stomach even with food, so I stopped that.  Then, it was just Vit. E and that one started making me feel weird pains in my stomach, too and weird skin tingles.  I'm very sensitive to vitamins.  It's weird because I can tolerate the sides of treatment better than I can tolerate any of the natural vitamin supplements.  Every single time I've tried any of the herbal, or vitamins remedies, I've always had problems.  Milk thistle ends up aggravating my mild asthma, it causes me to flare.  Looking on the side of the milk thistle bottle, it warns that this can happen.  So, I'm pretty leery on vitamins now anyway.  I did tolerate the vitamin B a little better than the others.

Susan400

[Tallblonde]

Have you tried taking Ester-C and Ester-E?  I don't know the chemistry behind it, but the "Ester" part makes both vitamins very easy on the stomach.  I've taken Ester-C on an empty stomach with no problems.

Susan

[BobK]

First off take anything written by Saul with a grain of salt.  This is a man who could not obtain a degree the old-fashioned way (earning it) and instead choose to purchase his degree from a off-shore (now defunct I believe) diploma mill.  He probably figured that being able to put a Ph.D after his name would help him sell books....these types pretty much **** me off!

Now to the Vit. E question.  The study is a retrospective analysis of 19 trials and looked at about 160,000 patient responses.  Most patients were older than 60 and 60% of these ahd heart disease.  The findings were that there was a non-significant increase in overall death in those patients taking high dose vit E.  The study authors qualify all this in the article and state that there are certainly limitations in the findings.  One important aspect that the authors aknowledged is that these findings may not apply to younger healthier adults.

My take is to keep eyes and ears open and consider what the risk factors are for your current health status.  Cause for immediate alarm...I don't feel that is the case and in my meeting with hep doc on monday we will certainly discuss this issue.

kind regards,
BobK