No Vitamin E Supplement for Me

standing on the edge

If you’re like many people I know, then you may be taking vitamin supplements on a regular basis. After all, the media is full of ‘research’ apparently demonstrating their wonderful health giving qualities. It seems only wise to take them.

These days I’m not so sure.

For quite a few years now I’ve been taking a couple of supplements on an intermittent though regular basis. The first is vitamin B12, which I take in the form of methylcobalamin, since this is better absorbed by the body. I take this vitamin because I’m a long time vegetarian, having eaten no animal produce – meat, poultry, eggs – for more than 35 years, and am aware of the difficulty in obtaining and absorbing sufficient B12 from such a diet.

Perhaps, in the past, our soil naturally provided the micro-organisms that supplied this nutrient, but now, in our sanitized world, with years of intensified farming and depletion of the soil, it’s difficult to obtain this important vitamin from vegetables – even if they have been grown ‘organically’.

Oh yes, and occasionally, in winter, I’ll take a low dose of vitamin D3, since the sunlight we need in order to produce this vitamin is in short supply during our shorter winter days.

The other nutrient I took was vitamin E, in the form of mixed tocopherols. Astute readers will have noticed my use of the past tense in that last sentence. I no longer take vitamin E supplements and in this blog post I’ll explain why.

I’ve long been interested in nutrition and its effect on the body and the mind. In fact, I studied nutrition with one of the leading experts in the field, Professor Colin Campbell of Cornell University, so I’m not exactly a novice in this particular area. I like to keep up to date with research and developments and am always fascinated by our increasing understanding in this field.

Colin Campbell believes that we really can obtain all of our body’s nutritional needs by eating from a varied, plant-based whole foods menu. And I have to agree with this, since this is the way I have eaten for many years now, and I am as healthy as healthy could be.

Here is why I no longer supplement with vitamin E:

1. A recent meta-analysis conducted by the Harvard Medical School and published in the British Medical Journal found that ‘vitamin E increased the risk for haemorrhagic stroke by 22% and reduced the risk of ischaemic stroke by 10%’. (1) Its conclusion was that ‘given the relatively small risk reduction of ischaemic stroke and the generally more severe outcome of haemorrhagic stroke, indiscriminate widespread use of vitamin E should be cautioned against’.

2. Another recent analysis produced by the Department of Medicine at Chicago Medical School found that, far from helping to prevent strokes and coronary heart disease, ‘vitamin E supplementation might be associated with an increase in total mortality, heart failure, and hemorrhagic stroke’. (2)

3. In yet another study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (3) researchers examining the possible relation of vitamin E together with vitamin C and carotenoids found no real benefit. While finding that ‘modest affects cannot be excluded’, their conclusion was that: ‘Vitamin E and vitamin C supplements and specific carotenoids did not seem to substantially reduce risk for stroke in this cohort.’

Interestingly, those still singing the praises of vitamin E supplementation seem either to be apparently well-meaning individuals who are unable to back their claims with the appropriate research as in: ‘Vitamin E and Strokes – New Research Demonstrates Benefits’ (4), or those who have a vested interest in producing or marketing them, for which I believe no reference is necessary since they are so abundant.

The evidence seems pretty conclusive: supplementing with vitamin E is not only a waste of money; it can in fact have a detrimental effect on health.

You’ll find vitamin E in natural abundance in foods such as nuts, kale, red bell peppers, spinach, broccoli, chard, extra virgin olive oil, and whole wheat. Put these nutritious foods on your menu and you’ll have no need to supplement with tocopherols.

References:
 1 http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c5702.full
 2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19451807
 3 http://www.annals.org/content/130/12/963.short
 4. http://www.happyhealth.net/2554/vitamin-d-and-strokes-new-research-demonstrates-benefits


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