Vitamin E Takes a Hit, But Hangs On

At first glance, it couldn’t be more alarming:
A review study links vitamin E supplements, which many people take to prevent heart disease and other serious conditions, to an earlier demise. Users who took more than 400 IU a day—the most common dosage in vitamin E supplements—were four percent more likely than those in a placebo group to die during the years in which they were followed.

But hold on: A close look at the research suggests it’s not time to panic. For one thing, many of the trials included people with chronic diseases, so the results might not apply to a healthy person taking vitamin E to prevent illness.

Also, the authors only looked at total mortality, which covers death from any cause, including everything from heart attacks to suicide to car accidents. It’s hard to believe that vitamin E could be the culprit behind such a broad range of events.

But perhaps most important, says Jeffrey Blumberg, a researcher specializing in antioxidants at Tufts University, in Boston, is that the study’s findings don’t account for vitamin E’s benefits. For example, if you have a family history of Alzheimer’s, a disease that research suggests vitamin E helps prevent, you might decide the potential benefits outweigh any risks.

The bottom line is that while the study may be cause for concern, it raises far more questions than it answers. Until more studies are done, Blumberg still thinks the weight of the research on vitamin E suggests that getting 100 to 400 IU a day in supplement form is more helpful than harmful.

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