
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 20, 1993                   TAG: 9305200275
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

STUDY LINKS VITAMIN E, HEART HEALTH

In studies that bolster theories about the link between vitamins and clogged arteries, Harvard University researchers report that people who take massive daily doses of Vitamin E have a significantly reduced risk of heart disease - although they caution that it is still too soon to recommend widespread use of the vitamin.

Separate studies of men and women who took daily vitamin E supplements of at least 100 international units - more than three times the recommended daily allowance - had a 40 percent lower risk of heart disease than those who did not, according to the studies.

The researchers found that the reduction in risk appeared after two years of taking the supplements, and that people who simply consume a diet rich in Vitamin E did not derive the same health benefit as those who took the supplements. They also found that the benefit did not improve when people took more than 100 units.

The findings, which appear in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, provide important backing for the much-heralded theory that "antioxidants" - which include vitamins E, C and the nutrient beta carotene - lower cholesterol and thus cut the risk of coronary disease.

So much evidence has now accumulated that it is time for large-scale clinical trials to test this hypothesis, heart experts said Wednesday. If it bears out, the result could be a simple, cheap and effective measure that could prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks each year.

"I think we have some very exciting potential here," said Meir Stampfer, the Harvard epidemiologist who served on the study of women and vitamin E. "If this really proves true, then we could look forward to making a pretty big dent in our leading killer."

Said Joseph Witztum, a University of California, San Diego, heart expert: "This is pretty dramatic. . . . The implications of this are so enormous that, if correct, it could have a major impact on the public health with fairly minimal [cost.]"

As co-director of a specialized research unit on atherosclerosis, Witztum spent the past 13 years examining the oxidation hypothesis. The theory is based on the notion that cholesterol must undergo oxidation - the same process that causes oils to become rancid when exposed to air - in order for it to get inside the cells that line the walls of blood vessels.

Once inside the cells, the cholesterol forms plaques that lead to atherosclerosis, in which the arteries are clogged, hampering the passage of blood. Scientists theorize that if they could find a way to prevent oxidation, they could lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease.

This is where Vitamin E comes in. The vitamin is carried in the bloodstream, primarily in the particles of LDL - low-density lipoprotein - that form so-called bad cholesterol. Vitamin E is thought to prevent the oxidation process, effectively blocking the LDL from infiltrating the cells. "This fits in very nicely with what we observed," Stampfer said.

The Harvard findings were drawn from long-running examinations of the dietary habits of 87,245 female nurses from 11 states and 39,910 male health professionals from Boston. The studies - dubbed the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study - rely on the subjects' answers to detailed questionnaires about their eating habits.

All the subjects were free of heart disease at the outset of the studies. Researchers have followed the women for eight years, and the men for four, drawing links between the subjects' diet and the diseases they developed over the course of that time.

by CNB