A study done by researchers at
Brigham and Women's Hospital have made a peculiar revelation on the effects of vitamin E. Depending on an individual's
COMT gene, vitamin E can increase or decrease chances of getting cancer. Kathryn Hall, PhD, MPH, from the division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and her colleagues inspected cancer rates of women during a 10 year trial and continued another 10 years after. Those women with the met-met COMT variant who had taken vitamin E had a 14% lower rate of cancer. On the other hand, the val-val variant had a 15% higher rate of cancer.
I am truly stunned at how a vitamin, which is essential to the body, may play a factor in cancer. I learned vitamin E had many benefits such as anti-inflammatory, improves immune system, and prevents heart disease. This prompts the question, do other vitamins or nutrients that are so-called beneficial have the potential to influence cancer and/or other diseases? Further studies should definitely make it clearer as to how to approach this issue.
This is really interesting, how a vitamin may be a cause for cancer. I believe that there are many other factors that take place in this study, like maybe these women already had a mutation which with a treatment could have possibly worsened the mutation? It is also interesting that these researchers suggest that vitamin E might not be doing its job as a supplement and instead is a placebo! Interesting topic!
ReplyDeleteThis is very disappointing to read. I frequently use vitamin E topically and occasionally internally. It is interesting to read how the vitamin acted as a preventative for cancer in some individuals and an accelerant in others. This further demonstrates the necessity of continued research in genetics to provide customized individual health plans.
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