Indiscriminate use of high-dose Vitamin E supplementation may do more harm than good, a new study warns.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAV) came to the conclusion after examining data from more than 300,000 subjects in the U.S., Europe and Israel. Their findings were published in the latest issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, a leading journal of cardiology.
Applying a very different approach than any previous study, the team of researchers put their heads together to draw definitive conclusions about Vitamin E.
Analysis of the results of all these past publications together revealed that subjects who did not take a Vitamin E supplement enjoyed more quality-adjusted-life-years (QALY), a standard parameter used in medicine to assess the effect of medical interventions.
"There were so many conflicting reports about Vitamin E and its effect on various diseases, particularly heart disease, that we wanted to set the record straight," says Prof. Dov Lichtenberg of TAU's Sackler School of Medicine.
"Our new study shows that some people may be harmed by the treatment, whereas others may benefit from it. Now we're trying to identify groups of people that are most likely to benefit from the effects of Vitamin E," adds study co-researcher Dr. Ilya Pinchuk.
"Our major finding was that the average quality-adjusted life years (QALY) of Vitamin E-supplemented individuals was 0.30 less than that of untreated people. This, of course, does not mean that everybody consuming Vitamin E shortens their life by almost 4 months. But on average, the quality-adjusted longevity is lower for vitamin-treated people. This says something significant."
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