Conclusion

Scientific knowledge on vitamin E has progressed steadily since the pioneering days when physicians such as Drs. Evan and Wilfred Shute of Canada began using it regularly in their practices based on positive results. At that time, antioxidants and free radicals were rather obscure concepts in the chemistry of oxidation, far removed from issues of health and disease. Also at that time, using vitamins to treat serious diseases such as heart disease and diabetes was considered by the medical establishment as misguided at best and outright fraud at worst. Yet thanks to the observant practitioners such as the Shutes who were more interested in what helped their patients most, medical researchers became motivated to study it scientifically. The results would speak for themselves.

From decades of increasingly well-designed experimental and clinical studies, we now know that vitamin E is among a group of powerful health allies which offer antioxidant protection against excessive free radicals. Today, most physicians acknowledge the preventative benefits of vitamin supplementation and are themselves supplementers. More and more, supplements are being included in the treatment of certain diseases, sometimes in conjunction with established drug regiments, sometimes as the therapeutic agents of choice. The difficult work of nutritional science continues, as a new generation of medical researchers digs deeper into the sometimes confusing details.

The picture is far from clear, and many challenges to explain confounding results, optimal amounts and frequency of supplementation, mechanisms of action, and new findings will demand the brightest and most persistent investigators. Until the work is complete (not any time soon!), we may be allowed a brief look back on all we have learned so far and take comfort in the fact that rather than being disregarded as another "snake oil" remedy, vitamin E has withstood the scrutiny of scientific investigation and is now respected and regarded along with the other antioxidants as a potent agent for health.

Dr. Evan Shute once warned, "We didn't make vitamin E so versatile. God did. Ignore its mercy at your peril."

Thankfully, we have not.