People with vascular disease or diabetes should not use vitamin E supplements
Vitamin E supplements should not be used by people with vascular disease or diabetes, according to the authors of a new study.
They make their recommendation after finding that use of vitamin E supplements
appears to increase the risk of heart failure. The researchers examined
the long-term effects of supplementation in an extension to the HOPE
(heart outcomes prevention evaluation) trial, in which participants were
randomised to receive a 400IU daily dose of vitamin E or placebo.
After seven years of follow up, the researchers found no evidence that
vitamin E protected against cancer or major cardiovascular events. What
is more, patients given vitamin E supplements were found to have an increased
risk of heart failure (relative risk 1.13, 95 per cent confidence interval
1.01–1.26, P=0.03) and an increased risk of being admitted to hospital
with heart failure (1.21, 1.00–1.47, P=0.045).
The researchers acknowledge that the finding could be due to chance but
say that the excess in heart failure events among participants taking
vitamin E was a “robust and consistent” finding in the study.
They recommend that a review of heart failure events in previous trials
of vitamin E should be conducted (JAMA 2005;293:1338). |
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Pharmaceutical Journal
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