Vitamin E

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Dick Smith - 09 Mar 2005 05:56 GMT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - High blood levels of the major vitamin E
components, alpha- and gamma-tocopherol, seem to cut the risk of
prostate cancer by about 50 percent each, a study shows.
The findings are based on an analysis of 100 individuals with prostate
cancer and 200 cancer-free "controls" participating in the
Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention (ATBC) Study, which
included nearly 30,000 Finnish men.

Men with the highest levels of alpha-tocopherol in their blood at
baseline were 51 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer than
those with the lowest levels, report investigators in this week's
Journal of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Similarly, men with the highest levels of gamma-tocopherol were 43
percent less likely to develop the disease compared with men with the
lowest levels.

Further analysis showed that the link between high tocopherol levels
and low cancer risk was stronger among subjects using alpha-tocopherol
supplements than among non-users.

This supports the original findings from the ATBC study, which showed
that daily vitamin E supplementation reduced the risk of prostate
cancer by 32 percent.

Dr. Demetrius Albanes, from the NCI in Bethesda, Maryland, and
colleagues believe that the antioxidant activity of vitamin E may be
particularly important to the associations they observed in the current
study because oxidative stress has been tied to the development of
prostate cancer.

However, alpha-tocopherol has other non-antioxidant properties, such as
enhancement of the immune response, which may also play a role in the
benefits seen, they add.

SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, March 2, 2005.

Reply to this Message

groupsvs@netdoor.com - 09 Mar 2005 14:14 GMT

I took at least a bottle of 100 vitamin E every month for 20 years, in
my case it did ot work
rrp-10/12/04
age 54
diabetic
Bobby

> NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - High blood levels of the major vitamin E
> components, alpha- and gamma-tocopherol, seem to cut the risk of
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
>
> SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, March 2, 2005.

Reply to this Message

Bill - 09 Mar 2005 15:16 GMT

But was it high-gamma E? The standard synthetic E that you get from
grocery stores, multi-vitamins, and even name brands is junk. You need
natural E w/ all the forms plus the tocotrienols (sp?).

Bill Denton
RP 2/12/02
PSA .45
Memphis

Reply to this Message

Leonard Evens - 09 Mar 2005 15:35 GMT

> I took at least a bottle of 100 vitamin E every month for 20 years, in
> my case it did ot work
> rrp-10/12/04
> age 54
> diabetic
> Bobby

I used Vitamin E (and Selenium on and off) before my diagnosis, but not
as long as you did. I also ate a low fat diet for at least 20 years,
and did all the other things I should have. Like you, I also was
diagnosed with prostate cancer despite all that.

But keep in mind that all these measures do is to reduce the risk of
prostate cancer. A 50 percent reduction in risk, if verified in other
studies, is very significant. But even if half as many men were to end
up with prostate cancer, that would still be a significant number.
There are two risk factors that few of us would want to avoid: being a
man, and getting older.

So this doesn't mean that men who use vitamin E supplements should stop
doing it because they might get prostate cancer anyway.

>> NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - High blood levels of the major vitamin E
>> components, alpha- and gamma-tocopherol, seem to cut the risk of
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
>>
>> SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, March 2, 2005.

Reply to this Message

Claude - 09 Mar 2005 17:37 GMT

>> I took at least a bottle of 100 vitamin E every month for 20 years, in my
>> case it did ot work
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> So this doesn't mean that men who use vitamin E supplements should stop
> doing it because they might get prostate cancer anyway.

Hasn't there been a recent study that indicates Vitamin E, previously
thought to be heart beneficial as well, is in fact more harmful than helpful
to the heart? I actually stopped taking Vitamin E supplements when I read
it, because I'm more likely to die of heart disease than prostate cancer
(Age 67 with a family history of heart disease)

Reply to this Message

I. P. Freely - 09 Mar 2005 19:24 GMT

PC develops over several decades. My PC probably began long before I stopped
gorging on high-fat foods (ie., the Atkins diet, before we ever heard of
Atkins). And I, too, quit vit E when the trials began rolling in with the
conclusion that most of the free-radical scavenging hypotheses and
supplements, incl E, just weren't panning out.

I.P.

"Claude" <claude@annoyed with

>> I also ate a low fat diet for at least 20 years, and did all the other
>> things I should have. Like you, I also was diagnosed with prostate
>> cancer despite all that.

. . .

> Hasn't there been a recent study that indicates Vitamin E, previously
> thought to be heart beneficial as well, is in fact more harmful than
> helpful to the heart? I actually stopped taking Vitamin E supplements
> when I read it, because I'm more likely to die of heart disease than
> prostate cancer (Age 67 with a family history of heart disease)

Reply to this Message