Principle Healthcare continues to promote Vitamin E

Despite a recent report in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Principle Healthcare continues to promote Vitamin E as a food supplement in association with a healthy diet.

According to the Health Supplements Information Service (HSIS) “Data from the NDNS show that 50% of men aged 19-64 years and 77% of women of the same age have intakes of vitamin E from food of less than the RDA of 10mg. In the younger age groups, these low intakes were particularly noticeable: 64% of men aged 19-24 years and 81% of women aged 19-24 years had intakes of vitamin E from food of less than 10mg. Given the essentiality of vitamin E and the fact that significant numbers of the British population do not achieve the EU RDA, a vitamin product taken in recommended amounts is both safe and beneficial for health.”

The HSIS has also questioned the validity of the research reported in the BMJ which suggests Vitamin E may increase the risk of haemorrhagic stroke

Dr Ruxton from HSIS notes: “This was a systematic review and meta-analysis of 9 previously published randomised placebo controlled trials involving vitamin E that reported on stroke and stroke subtypes. The total number of participants was 118,756 (59,357 of whom took vitamin E and 59,408 who took a placebo). Some participants were healthy while others already had cardiovascular risk factors. The doses of vitamin E used in these studies varied enormously from 50mg to 800 IU daily and the duration of the trials varied between 1.4 and 10.1 years. In five of the trials the vitamin E was natural while in four it was synthetic. Evaluated outcomes, including types of stroke, also varied across the 9 trials. In short, these were not a homogenous group of trials and varied enormously in design. This is typical of many meta-analyses and makes conclusions difficult to reach.’