This just in - health / fitness / nutrition / diet / supplements / personal care / environment - television journalists misinterpret relationship between vitamin E, beta-carotene, and heart disease risk - Brief Article

Vegetarian Times, Nov, 2003

Relax, folks. News reports claiming that vitamin E and beta-carotene won't help protect against heart disease and other health problems were wildly misleading. The stories, based on the misreading of a June 14, 2003 article in The Lancet and reported by ABC News, cited 15 studies analyzed by researchers from the Cleveland Clinic, which did indeed conclude that the supplements were ineffective--but only among people "already suffering from serious diseases or considered at high risk," according to Andrew Weil, MD.

Two of the beta-carotene studies, for example, showed that the supplements won't help prevent lung cancer among people who already smoke. For everybody else, vitamin E and beta-carotene remain beneficial. Well recommends getting antioxidants from fruits and vegetables, especially peaches, melons, mangoes, sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes and dark leafy greens. And to further protect yourself, don't believe everything you see on television.