A recently published eight-year study of more than 14,000 physicians has shown that taking vitamin C and vitamin E does not prevent cardiovascular disease. The findings for vitamin C are nothing new since researchers have found the same results in many other studies; for vitamin E, however, this is a startling new development. This study was the first large, strictly controlled study to assess vitamin E and how it affects the heart and blood vessels.
The men involved in the study were split into four groups of 3,600 patients each. One group was given vitamin C and vitamin E, one was given vitamin C and a placebo, one was given vitamin E and a placebo and one was given two placebos. The dosages given were 500 milligrams of vitamin C daily and 400 international units of vitamin E every other day. It was found that neither C nor E had an affect on what researchers deem “major cardiovascular events”, which include stroke, heart attack or death. Though this might seem to be bad news, researchers feel this is an important development for public health since so many of these supplements are used daily without sufficient data. More research is being conducted to see if a higher dosage of vitamin E would be helpful.
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