NEWS: Vitamin E

[Ron Reiner <rreiner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Interesting PD related article.

                Ron Reiner (50/2)

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Health Magazine Lists Top 10 Health Advances, Including Vitamin E As Potent
Weapon Against Aging

December 31, 1997

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 30  -- The year 1997 was a "great year for health
discoveries," says Health magazine, which lists Vitamin E as a potent weapon
against aging as one of the year's 10 top medical advances.

Health, with editorial offices in San Francisco, says in its January-
February 1998 issue:

"In the never-ending quest for an anti-aging pill, Vitamin E emerged as a
leading candidate in 1997."

Previous research showed, the magazine said, that the antioxidant Vitamin E
"clears tissue-damaging molecules called free radicals from the arteries,
and thus may help prevent heart disease."

"But its effects elsewhere in the body may be just as important to aging
Americans," it said.

Health cited the work by researchers at Tufts University, who tested 88
people 65 and over who took Vitamin supplements.

Volunteers in the study were tested to measure their bodies' ability to
resist infections such as pneumonia and other illnesses which occur in old
age when immune systems can slow down.

"The men and women swallowing 200 milligrams of Vitamin E every day showed
dramatic improvements, producing disease-fighting antibodies in levels two
to six times greater than people who got a placebo," Health said.

The magazine also noted a study in the Netherlands concluding that diets
rich in Vitamin E may protect against Parkinson's disease, and a study at
Columbia University which found that high doses of Vitamin E given over two
years slowed the progression of Alzheimer's disease in patients.

In January of 1997, the American Heart Association cited Vitamin E as one of
the year's "top 10 heart and stroke research advances for 1996."

(Foods for the Future provides factual information to the media concerning
food products, health and nutrition. It is a project of the T. Dean Reed
Company and is supported by U.S. agribusiness.)

SOURCE Foods for the Future

/CONTACT: Dean Reed of Foods for the Future, 202-223-3532/