Until about the latter part of 2004 vitamin E, a fat soluble vitamin was a most popular anti-oxidant that was believed to protect the body from harmful unstable substances known as free radicals.
People were popping vitamin E gel caps with gusto in the past, hoping to slow down aging, prevent dementia, heart and liver disease, stroke and cancer. Creative marketing in various media decades before had resulted in a big demand for this vitamin, in spite of the absence of any proven widespread benefit.
Vitamin E is contained in green leafy vegetables, olives, spinach, asparagus, nuts, wheat germ, seeds, corn, and vegetable oils from soybean, sunflower, cottonseed, corn, sweet potato, tomato products, mangoes, broccoli, blue crabs, rockfish, avocadoes, hazelnut, peanuts, kiwi fruit, and papayas.
One can get the daily recommended intake of vitamin E (15 mg/day) by eating a balanced diet that includes the sum of items listed above. The natural way is much better and safer. Deficiency in this vitamin is rare in the general population.
The blood-thinning property of Vitamin E was the rationale why it was thought to be effective in reducing the risk of hardening of the artery by preventing clot formation within the arteries. Vitamin E inhibits platelet from forming clots and also interferes with vitamin K-reliant clotting factors. This blood-thinning property was viewed as good way of protecting the user from heart attack, stroke, and dementia. Its anti-oxidant power was supposed to slow down aging and lower the risk for cancer and liver disease.
After decades of clinical data were analyzed by various independent studies on vitamin E, it became obvious that this anti-oxidant with blood thinning ability was not as safe as it was considered.
One such study, published in the British Medical Journal, is a sophisticated meta-analysis involving more than 100,000 patients taking vitamin E supplement for at least 12 months. This nine randomized, placebo-controlled trials revealed that this vitamin reduced ischemic (arterial blockage caused) stroke by 10 percent, saving one in every 476 persons or 21 from every 10,000 from developing a stroke.
While this was a welcome finding, the study also discovered an alarming 22 percent increase in hemorrhagic stroke cause by bleeding in the brain among those taking vitamin E supplement. Although not definitely established, its blood-thinning capacity has been suspect. This was found in one for every 1250 subjects taking vitamin E for one year, an incidence of strokes per 10,000 patients. About 10 percent of all strokes are due to bleeding, and within a month after the event, 40 percent to 80 percent of these patients will die. Only 20 percent of the survivors will have fairly adequate functional capacity.
Being a male or an African American are risk factors in themselves for hemorrhagic stroke. The others include advanced age, smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, and high cholesterol. Ironically, these were the individuals who would be interested in vitamin E before, some of them taking as much as 400 IU, which greatly increased their risk of stroke due to bleeding. The devastating health consequences of hemorrhagic stroke should be enough to discourage the indiscriminate use of vitamin E.
The American Medical Association issued a public warning in November of 2004 stating “high amounts of vitamin E can be harmful. Taking 400 IU per day, or higher, may increase the risk of death.” The small amount of vitamin E in a regular multivitamin is deemed safe. Added vitamin E supplement is dangerous.
Naps improve memory
Lo-bat happens not only to cell phones but to people too. When fatigue hits, our energy goes down, and our concentration and memory become less efficient. When this happens, it’s time to recharge.
Napping following a hectic morning is a most effective way to re-energize our system, neutralize the effects of tiredness and improve memory performance. Taking a nap is not only good for babies and the elderly. Anybody who needs rest can benefit from daytime snooze and wake up refreshed, more alert, and in a better mood to complete the day’s work.
Napping is recommended to pilots, astronauts, firemen, surgeons, and others who had long hours of intricate activities. It is known that napping bolsters existing memory, but new research shows that napping also “reorganizes memory and links information together to form memory networks for easy retrieval at a later time.”
Obviously, rest and relaxation, which reduce stress, confer great benefits to our health.
Strawberries and cancer
The American Cancer Society reported that 16,640 cases of new cancer of the esophagus (food pipe) were discovered in the United States in 2010 and 14,500 of them died of the disease.
The combination of smoking and heavy drinking, and a diet low in vegetables and fruits are among the risk factors for esophageal malignancy.
A preliminary study showed that eating freeze-dried strawberries may help ward off cancer of the esophagus (food pipe).
‘’Eating strawberries may be a way for people at high risk for esophageal cancer to protect themselves from the disease,” says researcher Tong Chen, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus. Dr. Chen did his research at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Orlando, Florida.
While more and larger studies are needed to confirm the validity of Dr. Chen’s findings, eating freeze-dried or fresh strawberries and other berries regularly, is certainly healthy.
Let us not forget vegetables, especially the green leafy ones, nuts, and fruits in general, which have very potent natural cholesterol-lowering and cancer-fighting anti-oxidants.
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana and chairman of cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2010 at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, where he holds the title of Physician Emeritus in Surgery, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, and the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. He is the chairman of the Filipino United Network – USA, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian foundation in the United States. Email:[email protected]
