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National News said Vitamin E is bad.
They should have their heads examined (again)!
Don't Avoid Vitamin E Supplementation
What happens when reporters are at a meeting of the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2004 and hear a story about Vitamin E supplementation? Or when members of the media see an online news release from the Annals of Internal Medicine about Vitamin E studies?
You get headlines like the following:
* "Vitamin E May Shorten Life, Avoid Supplements"
* "Vitamin E's Fatal Flaw"
* "Vitamin E Can Be Deadly"
* "Vitamin E Dosages May Be Lethal"
Do the facts match these sensationalized scary headlines? NO.
Here's the story. Vitamin E is scientifically acknowledged to be an essential nutrient. It is not a drug or medicine. It is, in fact, the only natural biological "anti-oxidant" that can be ingested as a supplement.
There's a great - almost extreme - difference in the way natural Vitamin E works in the body depending on the method of processing and preparation. One is a "first distillation" resulting in d-alpha-tocopherol with mixed tocopherols; the other is chemical solvent (hexane) extraction ending up as d-alpha-tocopheryl.
And there's also an unnatural/artificial Vitamin E (dl-alpha-tocopherol) that is petroleum derived.
The average amount of Vitamin E intake from the diet of adults is 10 IU (International Units) per day. The recommended "upper tolerable limit" in a report by the Institute of Medicine was 1,000 IU to 1,500 IU per day. Some research used doses of 2,400 IU, and the Shute brothers (both M.D.s) used even higher amounts and documented excellent results.
So healthy individuals should supplement their intake, and it is generally suggested the amount should be an "average" of at least 400 IU - which means some people may need more and some may need less.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows the following claim for Vitamin E: "Some scientific evidence suggests that consumption of antioxidant vitamins (including Vitamin E) may reduce the risk of certain forms of cancer. However, FDA has determined that this evidence is limited and not conclusive."
The circumstances of this most recent attempt to scare the public unfolded when a researcher did an analysis of 19 previous studies (not his own study) involving 136,000 patients with chronic disease. The subjects were "already at grave risk with existing diseases, including cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and kidney failure." Eighteen of the 19 studies showed no statistically significant increase in total mortality in those who were taking high doses of Vitamin E. One study revealed a negative correlation that was slight, but it's impossible to conclude that the Vitamin E alone was responsible or even related to increased mortality or risk of mortality. And nowhere is it specified what form of natural or synthetic Vitamin E was used.
Our conclusions: The conclusions of the analysis of the studies are seriously flawed; and most of the news media, once again, has failed to be accurate and responsible in the way they chronicled this story.
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