WP/AP: Large Doses of Vitamin E Could Be Risky (another Vit. E study)

Large Doses of Vitamin E Could Be Risky

By Lindsey Tanner
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 16, 2005; 8:35 AM


CHICAGO - Large doses of vitamin E - widely touted as an elixir of youth - do not protect against heart attacks and cancer and might actually raise the risk of heart failure in people with diabetes or clogged arteries, a study found.

The study, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, is just the latest to cast doubt on the safety and effectiveness of vitamin E supplements and other antioxidants.

The study was designed to examine whether vitamin E pills protect against heart attacks and cancer. Echoing other recent findings, it found no benefit against those conditions.

But the heart failure finding was unexpected and should prompt more research to confirm the results, said Dr. Eva Lonn, a McMaster University cardiology professor who led the study.

Lonn said it is unclear how vitamin E pills might be linked with heart failure, but she theorized that high doses might disturb the balance of beneficial, naturally occurring antioxidants....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39695-2005Mar16.html

Enough of something; medicine.

Too much of something; poison?