The Myth Of Vitamin E

Vitamin E is not to be avoided but appreciated for promoting health. If you eat sufficient vegetable oils, nuts, green leafy vegetables, and fortified cereals, you probably have enough vitamin E. but the average American is well below recommended amounts, which means we might need a supplement.

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin. The current recommendations by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) for vitamin E range from 9-300 IU per day for children 1-3 years of age and 28.5-1,500 IU per day for lactating mothers.

The vast majority of published reports show the benefits of vitamin E in using free radicals and helping control inflammation which cuts down chronic diseases.

Other research has been released cautioning the dangers of vitamin E. In 2005 a review of 19 states found that 400 IU per day of vitamin E increased the risk of dying of any cause. They were small samples, but one with a large target population (nearly 21,000), concluded “no significant differences in all-cause mortality”.

The 2005 study also neglected to publish 12 excluded studies in which fewer than 10 patients died, which made the results less reliable. Even the researchers concluded that they could not evaluate the findings to healthy adult populations” but only those who were already sick when the supplementation was done.

What was not well known at the time was a study showing up to 1,600 IU of vitamin E per day to be safe and other research showing women with the highest vitamin E intakes had a 30-40% lower incidence of heart disease than those with the lowest vitamin E intakes.

Bad news always seems to get more attention.

More recently in 2007, a classic example of conflicting data was one study finding vitamin E to be protective against prostate cancer and another finding no benefit. Further analysis of the studies shows that the one with a protective benefit was far more rigorous than the other study. It lasted over 5 years, giving more reliable results.

Other research has backed up the protective vitamin E study by finding a 32% reduction in prostate cancer risk with vitamin E supplements.

Many times when thinking of dietary or nutritional supplements, we assume 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 gauge 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. But if you decide to use them you can go here to get them cheaper.

There is a short video about vitamin E, as we get older. Click here to see it.