Hopes Dashed for Vitamin E - Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation - Brief Article

Nutrition Action Healthletter, April, 2000 by Bonnie Liebman

In the best study done to date, vitamin E supplements failed to cut the risk of heart disease or stroke, say the authors of the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE).

Salim Yusuf of Hamilton General Hospital in Ontario, Canada, gave either a placebo or a daily dose of 400 IU of vitamin E from natural sources to nearly 10,000 men and women aged 55 or older. All were at high risk for a heart attack or stroke because they already had heart disease or diabetes and at least one other risk factor.

After an average of four and a half years, the vitamin-E-takers were no less likely than the placebo-takers to have had a heart attack or stroke or to have died of cardiovascular disease. Nor did the two groups differ in the rates of unstable angina, congestive heart failure, complications of diabetes, amputation; cancer, or death due to any cause. (The ongoing trial is still looking at whether vitamin E alters long-term cancer rates.)

"In a population like the one we studied, it may take longer than five years to detect an effect," says Yusuf. It's also possible that vitamin E only works if people also consume other antioxidants, he adds.

The only upside, says Yusuf: "Vitamin E was well-tolerated, with no significant adverse events," so longer-term trials can continue.

New Eng. J. Med. 342:154, 2000.