Women's health study finds vitamin E does not protect women from heart attack, stroke,...( Vitamin E supplements do not protect he...)

The vitamin E results of the Women's Health Study are published in the July 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. In addition to the cardiovascular disease findings, the study authors report that there was no effect of vitamin E on total cancer or on the most common cancers in women breast, lung, and colon cancers. The Women's Health Study was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

"This landmark trial has given women and their physicians important health information. We can now say that despite their initial promise, vitamin E supplements do not prevent heart attack and stroke. Instead, women should focus on well proven means of heart disease prevention, including leading a healthy lifestyle and controlling risk factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol," said NHLBI Director Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D.

The Women's Health Study was conducted between 1992 and 2004. The participants were 39,876 healthy women age 45 years and older who were randomly assigned to receive 600 IU of Vitamin E or placebo and low-dose aspirin or placebo on alternate days. The participants were followed for an average of 10.1 years. The aspirin results published last March found no benefit of aspirin (100 mg every other day) in preventing first heart attacks or death from cardiovascular causes in women but did find a reduced risk of stroke overall, as well as reduced risk of both stroke and heart attack in women aged 65 and older.

In recent years, there has been a great deal of public and scientific interest in the potential of antioxidant vitamins
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Contact: NHLBI Communications Office
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NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
5-Jul-2005