Vitamin E

Introduction:

Vitamin E is an antioxidant and fat-soluble nutrient which requires the presence of fat in the digestive system in order for it to be absorbed. Vitamin E may assist the immune system in combating bacteria and viruses. It is beneficial for blood vessel health and may reduce the ability of blood to clot. Vitamin E may be harmful in supplement form, and is not recommended except possibly only within a few specific cases. Therefore, vitamin E is best from food sources such as tree nuts and from vegetables such as tomatoes and spinach.

The negative findings in various research has shown vitamin E supplements to be harmful in several ways. Vitamin E supplements have been shown to increase mortality in risk trials (2,3), have yielded a negative result when used for retinitis pigmentosa (8), and may increase the risk of bleeding (5,6). It may be beneficial for eye health in age-related macular degeneration (9) and may reduce colonic adenomas (13) but it is difficult to separate out whether the benefit was due to the vitamin E, one of the other antioxidants, or the combination of antioxidants. Vitamin E supplements may reduce the rate of preterm birth but showed increased rates of threatened preterm delivery and threatened abortion (12), and other possible harmful effects (15). Vitamin E may also help infants avoid asthma when the mother consumes more vitamin E during gestation (10).