Vitamin E May Do More Harm Than Good, Study Finds

[conjur]

http://olympics.reuters.com/ne...ws&storyID=6773583

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Vitamin E supplements, which millions take in the hope of longer, healthier lives, may do more harm than good, researchers reported on Wednesday.

In fact, people taking high doses of vitamin E may in some cases be more likely to die earlier, although the reasons are not clear, said Dr. Edgar Miller of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who led the study.

"I think people take vitamin E because they think it is going to make you live longer, but this (study) doesn't support that," Miller told reporters.

Miller and colleagues re-analyzed 19 studies of vitamin E and health between 1993 and 2004. The trials involved more than 136,000 mostly elderly patients in North America, Europe and China.

People who took 200 international units of vitamin E a day or more died at a higher rate during the study, which lasted three years, than people who did not take supplements, they told a meeting of the American Heart Association.

"It's about a 5 percent increased risk at 45 years in the trials pooled together," Miller said.

"That doesn't sound like a lot but if you apply it to 25 percent of the (U.S.) adult population taking vitamin E, that is significant."

Miller, whose findings are also being published online by the Annals of Internal Medicine, said two-thirds of people who take vitamin E supplements take 400 IU or more.

"We don't think that people need to take vitamin E supplements, that they get enough from the diet," he said. Nuts, oils, whole grains and green leafy vegetables are all rich in vitamin E.

MUCH MORE THAN NEEDED

The average U.S. diet supplies six to 10 IU of E, Miller said. The Institute of Medicine, which sets recommended doses of vitamins and minerals, gives 1,500 IU of E as a daily upper limit. Continued ...

In the words of Kasey Chambers: "We're all gonna die someday!"

 

[magomago]

Taking high doses of anything will kill you. ITs like people running around with lethal doses of Vitamin C. Vitamins are not bad, but we have to get rid of the "more is better" mentality~ there is a point of diminishing returns where the marginal cost isn't equal to the marginal benefit [haha...been cramming for econ all nite long...beatufiul thing with econ is i can ignore it for 4 weeks...spend 8 hours on it, and still get a A-/B+ depending on the curve]