Despite the tremendous scientific progress that has been made in recent years; A successful treatment for cancer in all its forms is still a long way off. Thus, scientists are looking for any measures or changes that reduce the risk of disease, and among those things that have been reached, avoid taking vitamin E in the form of pills.
According to a report on the “Sky News Arabia” website, vitamin E helps maintain healthy skin and eyes, and strengthens the body’s natural defense once morest disease and infection (the immune system). Most people should get their need of this vitamin through their diet. , which mounting evidence suggests is the safest method.
Studies conducted in the 1980s and 1990s suggested that vitamin E and selenium somehow provide protection once morest prostate cancer. Selenium is a type of mineral and antioxidant that the body needs.
The trial of the study of cancer prevention with selenium and vitamin E began in 2001, in which the 36 thousand volunteers were divided into four groups.
And each man ate two pills a day.. The first group included a vitamin E pill and a selenium pill. The second group included vitamin E and a placebo, the third selenium and a placebo, and the fourth included two placebos. Neither the men nor their doctors knew who was taking what kind of pill.
Although the study was supposed to continue until 2011, it was stopped three years before that; Since neither vitamin E nor selenium has been shown to benefit, there have been vague warning signs that some harm may be caused.
A 2014 report, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, provided further clarification. A team of researchers from across the US looked at the data of regarding 5,000 of those volunteers, who sent clippings of their toenails when they joined the experiment.
Toenail clippings are an accurate way to measure the amount of selenium in the human body. The study showed that taking vitamin E alone increases the risk of prostate cancer; But only in men who started the study with low levels of selenium.
“I advise all of my patients to completely avoid any supplements containing selenium or vitamin E,” said prostate cancer expert, M.D., clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Mark Garnick. According to the British newspaper “Express”.
He continued: “The new data is very worrying and confirms that supplements can cause real and significant harm. Any claims of benefits from nutritional supplements should be ignored unless large and well-conducted investigations confirm these benefits, which I believe will be rare.”
