When that is done, you reverse or stop or prevent many of the blood-vessel complications we find in diabetes,'' said King, one the country's leading Vitamin E researchers. Damage to nerves, eyes, kidneys and heart appears to be slowed or arrested in diabetics when they take large daily doses of the vitamin, somewhere in the range of 1,000 international units or more. Most of the studies showing a benefit have been conducted on small numbers of diabetics, usually under 200 patients. King said large pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to foot the bill for an expensive study with thousands of participants because no single company has a patent on the vitamin. Some of the strongest recent evidence for a benefit to diabetics comes from researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where scientists found that Vitamin E reduced the risk of heart failure in diabetics.
Heart disease is one of the most serious side effects of diabetes.
Researchers showed that Vitamin E curtailed the inflammation in blood vessels of the heart. Left unchecked, the swelling of the vessels can lead to heart disease. Researchers studied 75 patients who had Type 2 diabetes. Test subjects received l,200 IUs of Vitamin E daily, and all of the participants experienced a drop-off in inflammation. Dr. Sridevi Devaraj, assistant professor of pathology and a lead researcher on the study, said the results were very encouraging.