Not if its the wrong type of vitamin E.
Another study, published in the same issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association as the aforementioned aspirin study, said vitamin E also offers no protection from cancer and heart disease. This study was performed allegedly with natural vitamin E.
However, reading the study, you find that the researchers used only alpha tocopherol. That is hardly natural in my opinion. The gamma tocopherols were omitted and have been shown to be essential for overall vitamin E activity. The researchers used a refined vitamin E product. Even if it was not synthetic, that casts considerable doubt on the findings that vitamin E has no benefit on cardiovascular disease or cancer.
Make sure any vitamin E you take has gamma tocopherols. Otherwise, you are wasting your money.
Heart Attack + Bypass Surgery = Stroke
The amazing progress in medical technology has cut down on the number of bypass operations, but many cardiologists are still quick to do the surgery. If you have a heart attack, and your doctor recommends bypass surgery, tell him No thanks.
A recent study looked at some 18,000 patients with near heart attacks or unstable angina (a serious circulatory condition that results in significant angina, but stops short of a heart attack). The researchers found those who had a bypass shortly after their heart trouble were four times more likely to have a stroke as those who had no surgery at all. Those who had surgery later were only twice as likely to have a stroke. This information is added to previously published data that bypass patients have up to a one-in-four risk of having subtle cognitive brain deterioration after bypass.
Action to take: If you or a friend or loved one has or develops a circulation problem, investigate every non-invasive means of treatment. Even angioplasty does not have this terrible stroke rate. (The big negative with angioplasty is that its benefits usually fail after many months.) Consider nutritional approaches, lifestyle changes, chelation, and oxidative therapies.
Ref: Circulation, July 16, 2001.