Despite earlier trials suggesting that vitamin E might be effective cancer, heart attack, and stroke prevention for women, the most recent major study found this to be untrue.
The error of earlier trials is thought to be due to a “healthy user bias,” where subjects who were taking vitamin supplements already led a healthy lifestyle that helped them fight off various diseases.
Dr Elizabeth Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the study, touts a healthy lifestyle over vitamin E.
“We can now say that despite their initial promise, vitamin E supplements do not prevent heart attack and stroke,” said Nabel. “Instead, women should focus on well proven means of heart disease prevention, including leading a healthy lifestyle.”
Among the 40,000 women studied, there were 482 heart attacks or strokes in the group of women who received vitamin E. In the placebo group, there were 517, a number that holds little or no statistical difference.
Aspirin, however, reduced the overall risk of stroke in all in women studied and cut the risk of both stroke and heart attack in those over 65.
Vitamin E nor aspirin seemed to have any effect on preventing cancer in general, though some results indicated that aspirin may be effective against lung cancer. The risk of lung cancer was reduced by a fifth among aspirin users and death from lung cancer was reduced by almost a third.
The researchers said the aspirin/lung cancer relationship needed to be investigated further.
The study is the longest trial completed to date, which gives the study a lot of weight on the subject.
