NORTHRIDGE, Calif. (Sept. 28) — A panel of nutrition experts discussed the safety of dietary supplements, particularly vitamin E, at a symposium held at the American College of Nutrition’s 46th Annual Meeting/Symposium this weekend in Charleston, S.C.

The symposium was funded by an unrestricted educational grant from Pharmavite, manufacturer of Nature Made® vitamins, Nature’s Resource® herbal supplements and OLAY® Vitamins.

David Madsen, Ph.D., Pharmavite Director of Scientific Affairs said, “Symposia provide a great format to evaluate new research. Too often, media condemn a supplement based on a single new study before scientists have time to discuss and evaluate the new data within the context of the existing body of evidence.”

Maret Traber, Ph.D., symposium participant and professor with the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University said, “It is important to understand what vitamin E is doing because it has such good benefits, especially for women.”

“For example, the Women’s Health Study has come out with some positive findings on vitamin E. It found that women at greatest risk for heart disease, the subgroup of those over age 65, were the ones who had the greatest benefit. Women over age 65 taking vitamin E supplements had a 49 percent decrease in cardiovascular death,” Dr. Traber added.

Scheduled symposium participants included:
o Maret G. Traber, Ph.D. professor, Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University, Corvalis, Ore.
o Paul Jacques, ScD, director and senior scientist, Nutrition Epidemiology Program, USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston.
o Kevin Maki, Ph.D., Provident Clinical Research, Wheeling, Ill.
o E. Nestmann, Cantox Health Sciences International, Bridgewater, N.J.
o Robert DiSilvestro, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, Human Nutrition, Columbus, Ohio (moderator).

Much of the symposium discussion focused on evidence of the safety of vitamin E. Vitamin E has antioxidant benefits and is generally considered to be safe.

Symposium participants also discussed epidemiological studies on the safety of vitamin E and C for healthy persons, the impact of herbal supplement combinations and the use of meta-analyses as a tool in nutrition and medicine.

Dr. Kevin Maki noted, “Meta-analysis can provide misleading results due to a number of factors, including improper procedures for identification of studies, differences in clinical characteristics of subjects across investigations, heterogeneity in study methods and/or results, the presence of unknown confounders or effect modifiers, and publication bias.”