Diabetics Who Take Vitamin E May Reduce the Risk of Heart Attack

The risk to suffer from heart attack may be significantly reduced in case of diabetics who carry a certain gene, according to researchers at the Clalit Health Services and Technion Institute of Technology in Israel.

The researchers studied the effects of vitamin E on people who suffer from diabetes and carry the haptoglobin (Hp) 2-2 gene. In a group of almost 1.400 individuals, only seven had a heart attack, compared to seventeen of those who didn`t took the vitamin.
Haptoglobin is a strong antioxidant that comes from a protein and stabilizes hemoglobin, blood cell molecules rich in iron. This antioxidant also has the role to prevent the inflammations in the walls of arteries.

The results showed that after only eighteen months, people who had 400 International Units of vitamin E per day and decreased the number of heart attacks or strokes by fifty percent compared to those who took a placebo pill. The participants who had vitamin E supplements countered no side effects, according to Dr. Andrew Levy at the Technion Faculty of Medicine.

Previously, specialists prescribed vitamin E for their patients. However, this practice has dwindled since a few major studies showed the potential side effects from vitamin E mega-doses. However, Dr. Levy and his team considered there might be a group of people who can benefit from vitamin E and found the diabetics who present a particular variant of the Hp gene.

For those who want to see whether they carry the haptoglobin gene or not, there is a gene test commercially available.