American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 61, 848-852, Copyright © 1995 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Chronic intake of pharmacological doses of vitamin E might be useful in the therapy of elderly patients with coronary heart disease

G Paolisso, A Gambardella, D Giugliano, D Galzerano, L Amato, C Volpe, V Balbi, M Varricchio and F D'Onofrio
Department of Geriatric Medicine and Metabolic Diseases, II, University of Naples, Italy.

Thirty elderly (mean +/- SEM: 73.8 +/- 2.1 y) nondiabetic, moderately obese (body mass index = 28.3 +/- 0.6 kg/m2) patients with stable effort angina underwent an oral-glucose-tolerance test and a euglycemic hyperinsulinemic glucose clamp before and after vitamin E supplementation (900 mg/d for 4 mo). The study was of a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, and crossover design. Anthropometric indexes were stable throughout the study. Despite similar fasting and 2- h plasma glucose concentrations, vitamin E administration (compared with placebo) lowered fasting (88 +/- 14 and 68 +/- 9 pmol/L, P < 0.02) and 2-h (348 +/- 43 and 263 +/- 28 pmol/L, P < 0.05) plasma insulin concentrations, plasma triglyceride concentrations (1.34 +/- 0.06 and 1.07 +/- 0.03 mmol/L, P < 0.05), and the ratio of plasma LDL to HDL cholesterol (7.64 +/- 0.31 and 5.52 +/- 0.38, P < 0.02). Vitamin E administration was associated with higher nonoxidative glucose metabolism (18.1 +/- 0.5 and 10.6 +/- 0.7 mumol.kg lean body mass-1.min- 1, P < 0.03) than was placebo administration during the euglycemic glucose clamp. We conclude that chronic intake of pharmacological doses of vitamin E might be useful in the therapy of elderly insulin- resistant patients with coronary heart disease.

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