Effect of supplemental vitamin E for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and synthesize the evidence on the effect of supplements of vitamin E on the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

DESIGN: Systematic review of placebo-controlled randomized controlled trials; meta-analysis where justified.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Eighty-four eligible trials were identified. For the outcomes of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, fatal or nonfatal myocardial infarction, and blood lipids, neither supplements of vitamin E alone nor vitamin E given with other agents yielded a statistically significant beneficial or adverse pooled relative risk (for example, pooled relative risk of vitamin E alone = 0.96 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.84 to 1.10]; 0.97 [95% CI, 0.80 to 1.90]; and 0.72 [95% CI, 0.51 to 1.02] for all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and nonfatal myocardial infarction, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: There is good evidence that vitamin E supplementation does not beneficially or adversely affect cardiovascular outcomes.