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Vitamin E Supplements Give Same Protection as Foods
Los
Angeles CA, 23 August 2002
New
tests show that people who take Vitamin E supplements -- and don't
get much Vitamin E from food intake -- appear to receive the same
protective effect of Vitamin E as persons who consume large amounts
of the vitamin from their diet.
The
Los Angeles Times, reporting on recent studies showing that
Vitamin E can help reduce memory loss and impaired thinking in the
elderly, notes that Vitamin E has long been cited for its anti-aging
and anti-cancer benefits.
Now
clinical trials are underway to compare just how much protection
from "cognitive decline" elderly patients can get from Vitamin E
supplements, compared to placebos, writer Dianne Partie Lange reported
in the Los Angeles Times.
Recent
tests conducted in Chicago that found Vitamin E helps fight memory
loss were based on information from dietary questionnaires, Lange
said, and now clinical trials are expected to provide additional
data.
In
Chicago, Professor Martha Clare Morris and other researchers at
the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging used the data from the questionnaires
to determine Vitamin E intake. By comparing the average scores of
four different tests of memory and perception, the Los Angeles
Times said, researchers were able to track change in cognitive
function with age. The study found that the higher the intake of
total Vitamin E, the less change there was in the people's average
tests scores each year. Most test patients took Vitamin E supplements
of 400 international units daily.
Previously,
numerous health authorities have recommended use of Vitamin E supplements,
made in their natural form from soybeans, because of the difficulty
of receiving sufficient Vitamin E intake from dietary sources.
Professor
Morris' Chicago study was first reported in the Archives of Neurology
and has been cited by the Washington Post and other publications.
Source
Foods
for the Future.
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