Linda's Vitamin E Resource Center

Health News Article | Reuters.com Vitamin E May Help Reduce Diabetes Risk

2004-10-03T16:43:00.000-05:00

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A daily dose of vitamin E may help delay the onset of type 2 diabetes in people at high risk of the disease, preliminary research suggests.

Researchers in New Zealand found that high-dose vitamin E appeared to temporarily improve insulin resistance -- a precursor to type 2 diabetes -- among 41 overweight adults.

Though the improvement was short-lived, another diabetes risk factor -- elevations in a liver enzyme called alanine transferase -- changed for the better throughout the six-month stud

"These results suggest that vitamin E could have a role to play in delaying the onset of diabetes in at-risk individuals," Dr. Patrick J. Manning and colleagues at the University of Otago in Dunedin report in the journal Diabetes Care.

Some past studies have reached similar conclusions. A recent study found that people whose diets had a healthy dose of antioxidants, including vitamin E, had a lower diabetes risk than those with lower antioxidant intakes. And vitamin E has been shown to help some diabetics gain better control over their blood sugar.

The new study included 80 overweight adults ages 31 to 65. Overweight and obese individuals are at increased risk of developing insulin resistance, in which the body loses sensitivity to the hormone insulin, causing blood sugar levels to soar.

According to Manning's team, excess fat may speed the production of oxygen free radicals, potentially cell-damaging byproducts of normal metabolism. Compounding this, overweight people tend to have low levels of antioxidants, which counter the effects of free radicals. It's hypothesized that the resulting oxidative stress may contribute to insulin resistance.

To see whether vitamin E can alter oxidative stress and insulin resistance, Manning and his colleagues randomly assigned study participants to take either vitamin E or a placebo pill every day for six months. For the first three months, the treatment group took 800 International Units (IU) of vitamin E each day, followed by 1,200 IU per day for the next three months -- doses many times the recommended dietary allowance of 22 IU.

The researchers found that at both the three- and six-month marks, plasma peroxides, which are markers of oxidative stress, had fallen in the vitamin E group. After three months, blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity had also improved, but the gains did not remain through the sixth month.

On the other hand, the researchers found, there was a lasting decline in blood levels of alanine transferase liver enzymes, elevations of which have been tied to a heightened diabetes risk. The liver, the authors note, plays a key role in sugar and insulin metabolism, and is the main site of insulin clearance from the blood.

According to Manning's team, vitamin E may boost insulin sensitivity and decrease diabetes risk in a number of ways, including by reducing oxidative stress to cells and by improving liver function.

However, the researchers note, it's unclear why blood sugar levels and insulin resistance improved only temporarily, when markers of oxidative stress and liver function continued to look better. A larger study, they conclude, is needed to clarify the picture.

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, September 2004.

Tufts E-News --Vitamin E: Infection Prevention

2004-10-03T16:42:00.000-05:00

Vitamin E supplements may play an important role in preventing colds and other upper respiratory infections, report Tufts researchers in a new study.

Boston [08-18-04] An annoyance to many, the common cold is often a big health problem for the elderly – resulting in long-term debilitation and even death. But new research from Tufts indicates that vitamin E supplements may be powerful preventative medicine – significantly cutting the risk of colds and other infections among the elderly.

“In the study of 617 nursing home patients aged 65 or older, those who swallowed a vitamin E supplement daily had significantly fewer common colds and had a 20 percent overall lower risk of acquiring a cold, compared to participants given a harmless placebo,” reported the international newswire, Reuters.

The research, which was led by Tufts’ Dr. Simin Nikbin Meydani and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) – indicated that the supplements appeared to ward off other upper respiratory infections as well.

“Vitamin E might be more effective against upper respiratory infections because most, like the common cold, are caused by viruses,” reported ABC News.

That’s good news for many elderly people who struggle with colds.

“Infections, particularly respiratory tract infections, are common in elderly individuals, resulting in decreased daily activity, prolonged recovery times, increased health care service use, and more frequent complications, including death,” reported Medical News Today.

But the preventative effects of vitamin E aren’t limited to the elderly – they appear to have similar results in the general population.

“We did a study with young men where we supplemented them with vitamin E,” Meydani – who directs the Nutritional Immunology Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts – told ABC News. “There was a significant improvement [in immune response], but the degree of improvement was not as much as we saw in the elderly. This is understandable because the elderly have a lower immune response to begin with, so vitamin E might be more effective with them.”

BBC NEWS | Health | Vitamin E 'can restore hearing'

2004-10-03T16:27:00.000-05:00

Vitamin E can help restore hearing in people who become deaf suddenly for no known reason, research suggests.

This natural antioxidant has already been hailed as a potential cancer therapy by preventing or slowing damage caused by certain oxygen compounds.

A study of 66 patients with sudden hearing loss, by the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, found those given vitamin E made the best recovery.

The work was presented at an Ear, Nose and Throat surgery meeting in New York.

Deafness

About 123,000 people in the UK experience sudden so-called "sensorineural" hearing loss.

In a minority of cases, the cause is known. The culprit can be a viral or bacterial infection or trauma, for example.

However, in about 85% of cases there is no obvious cause and this is called idiopathic sensorineural hearing loss.

About two-thirds of people with idiopathic hearing loss will recover within days without treatment, but the others do not.

All of the patients involved in the study had been admitted to hospital within the previous eight days for sudden hearing loss of an unknown cause.

All were given standard treatment, which included bed rest, steroid drugs and a mixture of carbon dioxide and oxygen gas by a mask.

We are encouraged by the results
Munna Vio from the RNID

Half of the patients were also given 400mg tablets of vitamin E twice a day.

Although a similar number of patients in both groups recovered, the group that received vitamin E, along with usual care, did the best.

These patients were more likely to have an improvement in their hearing of 75% or more by the time they were discharged from hospital, and had even greater improvement at later follow-up.

Dr Arie Gordin and colleagues who carried out the research said their findings supported the work of others.

Other scientists have found evidence of oxygen damage in the inner ear of animals exposed to noise trauma and drugs known to harm hearing.

Munna Vio, from the RNID, which represents deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK, said: "This is a very encouraging study.

"It's still a small trial and we would like to see more trials in more patients, but we are encouraged by the results."

She said the RNID was funding similar research into antioxidants, including vitamin E, as a way of treating hearing loss.