This article essentially warns against the use of Vitamin E supplements on their own, as it's linked to stroke risk;
"More than half of Americans down vitamins or other supplements every day, and about 1 in 10 of those people take vitamin E in the hopes of preventing cardiovascular disease. Research hasn’t painted a clear picture on the antioxidant’s benefit. It seems to make no difference for heart attacks, but the research on stroke has been conflicting. A new analysis led by Boston doctors suggests why: They conclude that people who took vitamin E had a higher risk for one kind of stroke and a somewhat reduced risk for a second type.
Dr. Markus Schurks of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and colleagues pooled the results of nine gold-standard clinical trials including more than 118,000 patients. Half took vitamin E supplements and half took a placebo. There was no difference between the two groups in the total number of strokes. But in the vitamin E group, the risk was 22 percent greater than in the placebo group for hemorrhagic stroke, in which a blood vessel in the brain ruptures and causes massive bleeding. The risk was 10 percent lower in the vitamin E group for ischemic stroke, in which a blocked blood vessel cuts off the blood supply to the brain.
The authors advise against widespread vitamin E use because of the relatively small reduction in ischemic stroke risk and because hemorrhagic strokes tend to be more devastating than ischemic ones.
BOTTOM LINE: Vitamin E supplements increase the risk of a particularly damaging kind of stroke and reduce the risk of another kind of stroke to a smaller degree. On balance, taking vitamin E is not recommended.
CAUTIONS: The researchers examined the use of single vitamin E supplements, not combination forms or multivitamins, which could have different effects."
- http://www.boston.com
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Source: Boston.com, 11/15/10