VITAMIN E SUPPLEMENTS DON'T HELP CATARACT
Taking daily
supplements of selenium and/or vitamin E appears to have no significant effect
on the development of age-related cataracts in men, writes Author William G.
Christen, Sc.D., of Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School,
Boston, and colleagues
Some research,
including animal studies, has suggested that dietary nutrients can have an
effect on the onset and progression of cataracts. Vitamin E and selenium are of
particular interest.
The authors report the
findings for cataracts from the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial
(SELECT) Eye Endpoints (SEE) Study. The SEE study was an ancillary study of
SELECT, a randomized placebo-controlled trial of selenium, vitamin E and a
combination of the two in prostate cancer prevention among 35,533 men (50 years
and older for black men and 55 years and older for all other men). Men were
asked to report cataract diagnosis or removal since entering the SELECT trial.
A total of 11,267 SELECT participants took part in the SEE study.
During an average of
5.6 years of treatment and follow-up, there were 389 cases of cataracts. There
were 185 cases of cataracts in the selenium group and 204 in the group that
didn't take selenium. There were 197 cases of cataracts in the vitamin E group
and 192 in the group without vitamin E. Results were similar for cataract
removal.
"These randomized
trial data from a large cohort of apparently healthy men indicate that
long-term daily supplemental use of vitamin E has no material impact on
cataract incidence. The data also exclude any large beneficial effect on
cataract for long-term supplemental use of selenium, with or without vitamin E,
although a smaller but potentially important beneficial effect could not be
ruled out."
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