Approximately half of all bypass grafts become diseased or occluded within ten years of the surgery. The manufacturer believes that the TriActiv is the only device, either in clinical trials or available commercially, which incorporates all three of these features to address the diseased saphenous vein graft. A pilot clinical trial has been comlpeted and commercialization of TriActiv system is being sought. If you're popping vitamin E pills in hopes they will help prevent a heart attack, you may be wasting your time and money. As an antioxidant, vitamin E helps neutralize free radicals, which are cell-damaging substances that circulate in the body.
Some researchers believe that translates into protection from heart disease and stroke.
This latest study is NOT likely to end the debate over vitamin E's benefits, but researchers are hoping it will convince patients to use aspirin, instead of vitamin E, to help fight heart disease. Their findings only added fuel to the ongoing debate fire over the ability of antioxidants to slow the progression of heart disease. To investigate whether heart failure patients could benefit from vitamin E, researchers led by Dr. Mary E. Keith from the University of Toronto in Canada gave 56 patients about 500 IU of vitamin E daily or placebo. After 12 weeks, those who took vitamin E had higher levels of the antioxidant in their blood, suggesting that the vitamin had been absorbed sufficiently. Unfortunately, we found that large doses of vitamin E alone will not reduce enhanced oxidative activity in patients with heart failure.