Vitamin E

[Robert C. Colgrove]

andi at chemie.fu-berlin.de (Andreas Weimann) writes:
>chrism at freenet.uwm.edu (Chris Marceille) writes:
>>Can anyone explain what the various types of Vitamin E mean?  Is both "d" 
>>and "dl" alpha ticopheryl necessary in a supplement for humans?  
	nobody knows. so far the studies are just cohort following.
	big, randomized prospective data will be years in coming.
>>Where is the research being done on Vitamin E and Heart/cancer research??     
>Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital!
		Yep, large cohorts of physicians and nurses are being
	tracked for a number of cardiovascular disease "endpoints."
>New England Journal MEdicine 1993, as far as I remember the big study on 
>men and women getting supplementary vitamin E to study its effects on 
>heart deseases and cancer prevention was published in the New England 
>Journal of Medicine 1993 in a May issue...
>Andreas
	Well, I am only an Infectious Diseases fellow at the Brigham
(and the other Harvard medical area hopsitals) so this is a bit out 
of my bailiwick but I can tell you that the card's folks around here
think the data are right. A recent show of hands revealed a majority of
the cardiologists at a local meeting already supplementing themselves.
Like I said, the real prospective randomized trials to determine exactly
what (and how much) one should take are a long ways off but the cohort
studies strongly suggest effects at doses impossible to reach with just
a good diet. One of the speakers at a grand rounds on  the topic gave
his own daily regimen for the healthy person with cardiac risk factors:
-a baby aspirin
-400U vitamin E
-a glass of red wine
-two sets of tennis
-skip as many meetings as possible 

	:^)	robin
colgrove at xtal11.harvard.edu