Vitamin E to prevent prostate cancer study discontinued
There have been some theories that Vitamin E, especially when coupled with selenium, may reduce the risk of prostate cancer by 30 percent. However, the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial, ("SELECT"), run from 2004 to 2008, found that vitamin E, whether taken alone or in combination with selenium, did not prevent prostate cancer. The SELECT study was discontinued after independent reviewers determined that there was no benefit to the 35,000 men who were the subject of the study. (Note: case control studies are rated as low quality, grade 3 or 4, on a standard scale of medical evidence.) The National Health Service in the United Kingdom concludes that pregnant women should: "consider avoiding taking supplemental Vitamin E tablets."
Vitamin E and strokes
A Finnish study found that Vitamin E supplementation increased the risk of hemorrhagic stroke (The Alpha-Tocopherol Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group. The effect of vitamin E and beta carotene on the incidence of lung cancer and other cancers in male smokers. N Engl J Med 1994;330:1029–35.) Vitamin E supplementation was shown to increase the risk of heart failure in a 2005 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Lonn, et al., which studied 7,000 people (JAMA. 2005 Mar 16;293(11):1338-47. Effects of long-term vitamin E supplementation on cardiovascular events and cancer: a randomized controlled trial.)
Further Reading
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