Study: Vitamin E could help lower liver cancer risk
Research doesn't say how much test subjects took
A recent Chinese study shows that a well-known vitamin may lower the risk of liver cancer, but doctors are warning patients to not run out and stock up on it just yet.
Mercy Medical Center's Dr. Anurag Maheshwari said liver cancer is prevalent worldwide, but its numbers are increasing dramatically in the United States.
He said in the fight against liver cancer, a recent Chinese study published in the Journal of National Cancer Institute looked at vitamin E and liver cancer risk after following thousands of men and women for several years.
"They found a number of them developed liver cancer. They were trying to correlate the dietary intake of vitamin E with their risk of liver cancer, and they found that those people who developed liver cancer had a much lower dietary intake of vitamin E," Maheshwari said.
Mercy dietitian Kelly O'Connor said vitamin E is found in many healthy foods.
"Vitamin E is pretty easy to find in things like almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts and vegetables like spinach, broccoli and tomatoes," she said.
But Maheshwari warned the study did not say how much vitamin E the participants took.
"I think it would be premature to advise people to go out and buy vitamin E supplements in order to protect themselves from liver cancer," he said.
"It's really best to check with your doctor first and try to get your vitamin E from food rather than supplements," O'Connor said. "If you take just the multivitamin, chances are you're probably getting 100 percent of the recommended dietary allowance in there already."