Comments on: Vitamin E Supplements Linked to Lung Cancer

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:59:02 +0000

There are 8 types of vitamin E. This study was obviously using the synthetic dl-alpha-tocopherol, and not the natural form. I take a full spectrum vitamin E that is sold on the Anti Aging Guide. Here is a lik that talks about synthetic and natural vitamin E It is crazy how all these studies use synthetic vitamins. Nature knows best, and you really should only take natural forms of vitamins

By: mark

mark — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:07:35 +0000

Common sense tells you it’s nonsense. Some man in his 80’s (in good health) wrote to Dr. Donahue asking about vitamin e. The man had taken it for years and Mr. Donahue basically said it was worthless. Who’s the idiot?

By: bullsh*t

bullsh*t — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:35:02 +0000

I don’t buy this for a second.

By: Ann

Ann — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:04:56 +0000

I would want to know what particular brands of Vitamin E where used in the study. It maybe related more so to the preservative used in the Vitamin E than the actual Vitamin E itself.
Fresh Fruits and veggies are always better accept for the fact that they have pesticides and there has been quite a lot of genetically modified product out there.

By: tom

tom — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:10:11 +0000

Without at least 12mg. of Iodine a day even fresh air can cause lung cancer as well as a host of other cancers. It is not what can cause cancer it’s what prevents it that should be of interest. It is also helpful to know who it is that does not want you do get the Iodine you need and why.

By: berton

berton — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:47:04 +0000

I’d read about a study with similar results several months back, but it was regarding the C and E interation. Basically finding that vitamin E is the first line of defense in the lungs, but that vitamin C was the first line of defense for that vitamin E.. and if there is an overabundance of E and a shortage of C, the E becomes overdosed in free radicals and starts doing damage. Apologies, I can’t find the link to that research - but it should be searchable.

By: Terrin

Terrin — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:35:44 +0000

I know very little about this study. From my experience, however, most studies are either performed or reported by those with a bias. I especially like the point above that we do not know enough about the study to make any conclusions. In the very least we’d want to know more about the Vitamin E source. For instance, did everybody take the very same Vitamin E? If so, what was the Vitamin E mixed with? All Vitamin E tablets are not created equally.

By: John Keller

John Keller — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:27:36 +0000

What wasn’t mentioned is very important: the TYPE of vitamin E the people in the study were taking.
Synthecized vitamin E is NOT good for anyone, that is the DL-alpha tocopherol found in MOST supplements.
The “L” means it is synthetic. The study that found vitamin E to increase heart attacks also used the dL version. Before the synthetic version came along vitamin E studies ALL came back as showing a DECREASE in heart attacks.
The suppliment companies can use the DL version to keep their costs down and MOST ALL of them use the DL from what I see on the labels
People should take the GAMMA vitamin E that has all of the different properties of vitamin E.
Here’s a good link to better info than I provided: http://search.lef.org/cgi-src-bin/MsmGo.exe?grab_id=0&page_id=1119&query=Vitamin%20E&hiword=E%20VITAM%20VITAMER%20VITAMERS%20VITAMI%20VITAMINA%20VITAMINAS%20VITAMINC%20VITAMIND%20VITAMINE%20VITAMINEN%20VITAMINES%20VITAMINIC%20VITAMINK%20VITAMINS%20Vitamin%20

By: Sami

Sami — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:51:52 +0000

This study made the same error as the previous hundred studies:
supplementing alpha-tocopherol without gamma-tocopherol.
This leads to depletion of serum gamma- and delta-tocopherol concentrations.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14519797
http://www.antiaging.com/white_papers/vitamin_e_jana.html

Also alpha, beta, gamma, delta tocotrienols and beta, delta tocopherols were missing from the Vitamin E supplements used in this study.

By: Megan

Megan — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:47:43 +0000

To add on to Emmy’s comment, the increased risk also applied to former smokers (but not to the same extent as current smokers). The risk was said to be incredibly slight for both current and former smokers. The figures were adjusted to take family history and environmental factors into account, so it is possible that the 7% increase got even smaller. All the test subjects were white, so the study is limited in even more ways.

I haven’t been able to find any information on other vitamins that the subjects were taking. If they were taking high levels of vitamin E without taking any other supplements, then vitamin deficiencies were being created. This can cause quite a few health problems.