Is Vitamin E OK To Take?

In the last couple of weeks I have seen a number of articles about vitamin E and whether it is OK to take

Earlier this year, a researcher presented data at an American Heart Association meeting suggesting that daily vitamin E consumption may be linked to increased risk of death. This discovery was widely publicized and has caused some concern among those taking vitamin E.

I noticed that the research was not a clinical study, but a meta analysis, which means it was a combination of many other studies. This type of analysis can be very revealing, but there can be problems with the methods used that can affect interpretation of the data.

The large majority of vitamin E studies have not demonstrated any dangers, and more studies suggest that vitamin E is necessary to protect the heart, brain and other organs from damage.

The meta analysis can still be on target, but that it’s only part of the overall story.

All medications and supplements have three types of doses associated with them: Less than optimal dose, an optimal dose and a toxic dose. Also just because it’s "natural" doesn’t mean that it can’t be toxic. Too much of anything can still harm you.

The meta analysis noted that increased risk of death was found at only the higher doses of vitamin E, over 800 IU a day over a period of time, also people who had more severe medical problems were the ones at greatest risk.

The headlines of the story focused on the increased risk of death with higher doses of vitamin E. The part that got mostly ignored showed that lower doses of vitamin E (400 IU a day and below) were associated with a reduced risk of death, even in those people with severe medical problems.

A lot of the time when we think of dietary or nutritional supplements, we think that if one is recommended, two must be better, and then take four just for good measure. The secret to being healthy is to use the optimal quantity over time. This is difficult to guage sometimes because the optimal dose for the majority of dietary supplements have not been defined, but research in this area is growing.

So Is vitamin E safe? Yes. How much should you take? If we are in good health and eat all our veggies, nuts, and seeds, we may not even need to use vitamin E supplements.

As a guide, most medical studies with positive results have used between 200-400 IU of vitamin E a day. However for most Americans, our daily diets provide less than 20 IU of vitamin E, which is probably well below the optimal daily dose, whatever it winds up to be. Note that vitamin E can also be found in many other dietary supplements, and taking vitamin E much beyond 200-400 IU a day might not give extra benefits.



PS I found a short video about vitamin E as we get older. Click here to see it.