Vitamin E Reduces Risk Prostate Cancer
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| Vitamin E
Reduces Risk of Prostate Cancer The antioxidant vitamin E may be especially important if you've picked up any nasty health habits on the road of life. In a mammoth study of more than 29,000 male smokers, those who supplemented with 50 mg of E daily had a prostate cancer rate that was 34 percent lower than those who didn't supplement. Some recent studies suggest that vitamin E in its natural form is most effective at combating cancer. But since the richest dietary sources (think nuts, seeds and oils such as olive, peanut and canola) are also rich in fat, it's not good to eat them in high amounts. Hedge your bets by substituting E-rich oils for other fats in your diet, then taking a 200 mg-per-day supplement.
Vitamin E- Numerous studies indicate that Vitamin E substantially reduces the risk of prostate cancer. A study conducted in Finland followed 29,132 men from 1985 to 1991. The men who took Vitamin E, (50 IU's per day) experienced 41 percent fewer deaths from prostate cancer than those not receiving Vitamin E. (Heinonen
O.P, Albanes D., Virtamo J,
Taylor P.R., Huttunen J.K., Hartman A.M., Haapakoskim J., Malila N.,
Rautalahti M., Ripatti S.,
Maenpaa H.,
Teerenhovi L., Koss L., Virolainen M., and Edwards B.K. Prostate
cancer
and supplementation with alpha-tocopherol and beta- carotene: incidence and
mortality in a controlled trial.
J Natl Cancer Inst 90: 440-446,
1998).
Vitamin E Kills Cancer Cells: Source: Jean Carper's
Newsletter "Stop Aging Now"
Government To Test Selenium, Vitamin E Against Prostate CancerSource: Jean Carper's Newsletter "Stop Aging Now" If you’re a man taking Stop Aging Now! supplements, you’re already getting the doses of vitamin E and selenium the National Cancer Institute has chosen to test as antidotes to prostate cancer. That means you don’t risk being unprotected during the twelve years the study will take to complete. NCI says the evidence is persuasive enough to warrant the recruiting of 32,000 men over age 55 for the long-term study. Some men will take either 200 mcg selenium or 400 IU vitamin E; some will take both 200 mcg selenium and 400 mg vitamin E; others will take inactive placebos. Nobody knows who gets what until the study ends. The government is looking for proof positive to help save hundreds of thousands of men from the cancer. Yearly, about 198,000 American men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 31,500 die every year of the disease. Yet, research has been accumulating showing that both selenium and vitamin E, because of their strong antioxidant activity, can dramatically slow down or prevent the development of prostate cancer. In a landmark 1996 clinical trial by Larry Clark at the University of Arizona, men who took 200 mcg of selenium daily for about six years had an astonishing 60 percent lower rate of prostate cancer than those who took a placebo. In a 1998 Finnish study, men who took vitamin E had 32 percent less prostate cancer. The new NCI study is the largest such chemopreventive cancer study ever undertaken. (Note: Jean Carper’s Stop Aging Now! supplements contain 200mcg selenium and 400 IU vitamin E, the amounts used in the new NIH studies.) In the meantime, new research from UCLA shows how diet may discourage prostate cancer. Men who ate lots of boron—in a daily handful of nuts and three and a half servings of fruit—reduced their risk of prostate cancer 35 per cent. Also a low-fat, high-fiber diet combined with regular exercise slowed the growth of prostate cancer cells in men by up to 30 percent.
Study: Vitamin E reduces prostate cancer risk, deathsSource: CNN.com 5: p.m. EST (2258 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Daily doses of Vitamin E reduced prostate cancer risk by a third and the disease's death rate by 41 percent in a study of thousands of smokers. "This study for the first time really gives us that ray of hope that with something simple like a vitamin supplement, in this case a vitamin E supplement at a relatively modest dosage, that we can actually intervene, can actually hope to prevent prostate cancer," said study co-author Dr. Demetrius Albanes. The study, which was conducted in Finland, also found that a form of vitamin A had no effect on reducing cancer. A report on the findings will be published Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Both vitamin E and beta carotene, the form of vitamin A used, are antioxidants -- compounds which may prevent cancer-causing agents from damaging cells. However, only vitamin E appears to give a statistically significant protection against cancer, said Albanes, a National Cancer Institute researcher who participated in the study with researchers from the University of Helsinki. In fact, the data suggest that beta carotene users in the study were about 16 percent more likely to develop lung cancer. That result startled many researchers when it was first reported three years ago because beta carotene was expected to be proved as a cancer preventive. 2nd most common form of cancerProstate cancer is the second most common form of cancer in men behind skin cancer. It affects almost 80 percent of men over age 65, although many of them carry the disease undetected. Those undetected, or latent, cancers are sometimes discovered incidentally or at autopsy. But latent tumors can become more serious, and that is where vitamin E proved to be a factor. "We blocked the progression from those small latent, subclinical tumors to a full-blown, clinically detected and problematic prostate cancer," Albanes said. The exact mechanism by which vitamin E reduces prostate cancer is not clear. There are a number of possibilities.
Vitamin E affects all cell membranes and may inhibit the reproduction of cells. It may stimulate the immune system or alter sex hormones. It also plays a role in cell death and the maturation of cells, and it protects the pathways that rid the body of toxins. Earlier research by Dr. Ishwarlal Jialal, of the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center, has shown that vitamin E helps reduce heart disease and has other health benefits. He called the finding about prostate cancer "a very significant observation" and said "it needs to be confirmed by another group study, especially among nonsmokers." Nearly 30,000 Finnish men took part in studyThe Finnish study involved 29,133 male smokers between age 50 and 69 who were selected to take part in a lung cancer study evaluating the effects of beta carotene and vitamin E on smokers. The men were divided into four groups: One group took beta carotene supplements; another took vitamin E; a third took a combination of the two; and the last group took a placebo. The vitamin E dosage was 50 milligrams a day -- about five times the recommended minimum daily intake for men and 2 1/2 times what most people get from food, Albanes said. After five to eight years of taking the supplements, the 14,564 men taking vitamin E alone or with beta carotene had 32 percent fewer cases of prostate cancer than the 14,569 not taking vitamin E. In addition, there were 41 percent fewer prostate cancer deaths among men taking vitamin E. However, taking the vitamin E supplement was not risk-free, Albanes said. Among those taking the vitamin, there were 66 deaths from a cerebral hemorrhage, or bleeding, type of stroke, compared with 44 such deaths among the men not taking vitamin E. "Vitamin E is known to have some effect on blood clotting," Albanes said. Although the finding about vitamin E is encouraging, it is premature to recommend that everyone start taking vitamin E supplements, Albanes said, adding that there needs to be another long-term study involving nonsmokers and people of different races and ethic backgrounds. Men who have had vasectomies, farmers, workers in the rubber industry, men exposed to the metal cadmium and smokers all may have an increased risk of developing prostate cancer, although the reason why is not clear. Medical Correspondent Dr. Steve Salvatore and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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