Does taking vitamin E increase risk of bleeding in brain?
November 7th 2010 18:38
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People should be cautious about taking vitamin E supplements regularly because doing so can increase the risk of a certain type of stroke, an international team of scientists said on Friday.
Researchers from the United States, France and Germany reviewed existing studies of vitamin E and its effect on stroke and found that taking the vitamin increased the risk of haemorrhagic stroke, where bleeding occurs in the brain, by 22 per cent, but cuts the risk of ischemic stroke by 10 per cent. Ischemic stroke accounts for around 70 per cent of all cases and happens when a blood clot prevents blood reaching the brain.
"These findings suggest that the use of vitamin E may not be as safe as we have believed and is actually associated with some harm in the form of increased risk for hemorrhagic stroke," said Markus Schurks, of the Brigham and Women's Hospital in the United States, who led the study.
The researchers stressed the effects on absolute risk are small, with 0.8 more haemorrhagic strokes and 2.1 fewer ischemic strokes per 1,000 people taking vitamin E.
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