ABSTRACT
In numerous epidemiologic studies, it has been observed that a high intake of vitamin E is associated with a lower risk of age-related and chronic diseases, and experimental studies have suggested substantial health benefits from vitamin E in disease prevention and therapy. Most large-scale human intervention trials on the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), the main cause of morbidity and mortality in the Western world, however, have failed to show convincingly that (relatively short-term) supplementation with vitamin E lowers the incidence of cardiovascular events or the rate of mortality from heart disease or stroke. Interestingly, a plethora of small clinical trials report a significant improvement of health status and/or retardation of disease progression by vitamin E supplementation in patients suffering from CVD or other chronic and age-related diseases. This chapter will summarize the role of vitamin E in the prevention and therapy of common chronic diseases, focusing on some newly emerging areas in which α-tocopherol, the major form of vitamin E in the human body, appears to have important health benefits; these include reproductive diseases (preeclampsia), age-related eye diseases [cataract, age-related macular degeneration (AMD)], metabolic disorders (diabetes mellitus), neurodegenerative disorders (Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease), skin aging (photoaging), and healthy aging. In conclusion, future directions for research will be proposed.
