The health benefits of taking 400 IU or more of vitamin E per day are not clear, and in fact taking that much has been linked to a slight increase in premature deaths. However, more than 10 percent of US adults take such doses, according to a new study.

“If people who consume 400 IU or greater of vitamin E per day are indeed at increased risk for premature death, a sizeable percentage of US adults fall into this risk group,” Dr. Earl S. Ford, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues note in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The authors base their findings on a study of 4609 adults who participated in the 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The average daily intake of vitamin E was 8.8 IU, according to the report. However, 11.3 percent of respondents consumed vitamin E at a daily dosage of at least 400 IU.

High vitamin E intake increased with age and was more common among whites (14.1 percent) than among blacks (3.7 percent).

The authors recommend that health care professionals ask their patients about vitamin E use and advise them regarding appropriate use. However, the findings of a recent survey show that 64 percent of medical professionals consume at least 400 IU of vitamin E per day, so they too may be unaware of the risks linked to high dosages.

In a related editorial, Dr. Eliseo Guallar and colleagues, from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, call on health professionals “to warn the public against the use of ineffective of even harmful interventions, such as vitamin E, that may compete with well-established preventive measures.”

SOURCE: Annals of Internal Medicine, July 19, 2005.