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Some Good News for Vitamin E It Helps Some Diabetics
Nov. 19, 2004 - Despite
a recent report suggesting use of high-dose vitamin E supplements is
associated with a higher overall risk of dying, at least one group
stands to benefit greatly from the same vitamin. About 40 percent of
diabetic patients can reduce their risk of heart attacks and of dying
from heart disease by taking vitamin E supplements, according to a study
published in the November 2004 Diabetes Care.
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Will Vitamin E Kill You, Or Save Your Life?
Research results send conflicting messages with
latest saying it increases risk of dying
Nov. 10, 2004 A research report will be presented
today that says daily doses of Vitamin E in excess of 400 IU
(international units) is associated with a higher overall risk of dying.
This is not the first study reporting on dangers of Vitamin E, but there
are many recent studies saying it helps senior citizens in the fight
against Alzheimers, heart disease and even vision problems.
More...
11/10/04*
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The Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology research team, led by Dr. Andrew Levy of the
Faculty of Medicine, had earlier demonstrated that diabetics with a
particular form of a blood protein called haptoglobin had as much as a
500% increased risk of developing heart disease. The new study shows
that when these at-risk patients, who have the 2-2 form of haptoglobin,
took 400 international units of vitamin E daily, they reduced their risk
of heart attack by 43 percent, and their risk of dying of heart disease
by 55 percent.
About 40% of diabetics
have the 2-2 form of haptoglobin; the rest have the 1 -1 or 2-1 forms.
When they took the same vitamin E supplements, they did not show any
significant reduction of cardiovascular risk resulting from vitamin E
therapy.
Dr. Levy's study
analyzed serum samples that had been stored from the Heart Outcomes
Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) trial of 2000, designed to study the effect
of antioxidant therapy such as vitamin E on cardiovascular risk. The
results of that study showed no benefit from vitamin E therapy on
cardiovascular risk. However, Dr. Levy notes, the study did not
segregate patients according to their haptoglobin type, analyzing
instead the benefits of vitamin E in all patients. When he studied the
serum samples from the HOPE study according to haptoglobin type, he
found the greatly reduced risks noted above.
Now, a large-scale,
five-year study of some 2,000 diabetics with haptoglobin 2-2, being
conducted in northern Israel, is expected to corroborate Dr. Levy's
findings.
"If this larger study
confirms our findings, the public health implications will be huge.
Vitamin E would represent an inexpensive and safe way to reduce the risk
of cardiovascular death and heart attack in a significant proportion of
diabetic patients," he said.
Dr. Levy had
demonstrated in multiple previous studies that haptoglobin 2-2 is
predictive of heart disease -- but only in people with diabetes. That's
because diabetics tend to have more free radicals that destroy
antioxidants. Furthermore, haptoglobin 2-2 is a very poor antioxidant
when compared to the other haptoglobin types. This combination means
that diabetics with haptoglobin 2-2 have an even greater deficiency of
antioxidants than do diabetics with the other haptoglobin variants.
Therefore, an increased supply of antioxidants, such as those found in
vitamin E, would be expected to provide the greatest benefit for these
patients.
The Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology and the Kennedy-Leigh Charitable Trust is
funding the new study. Dr. Levy is partial owner of a patent for a blood
test that predicts susceptibility to diabetic vascular disease based on
haptoglobin type.
The Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology is Israel's leading science and technology
university. Home to the country's only winners of the Nobel Prize in
science, it commands a worldwide reputation for its pioneering work in
computer science, biotechnology, water-resource management, materials
engineering, aerospace and medicine. The majority of the founders and
managers of Israel's high-tech companies are alumni. Based in New York
City, the American Technion Society is the leading American organization
supporting higher education in Israel, with more than 20,000 supporters
and 17 offices around the country.
American Society for Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
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