Vitamin E was discovered 80 years ago and is best known as an antioxidant that may reduce oxidative stress associated with the development of coronary heart disease. Although the totality of research supports health benefits from vitamin E, many scientists have been puzzled by the conflicting findings of recent clinical trials. Is vitamin E a cure for baldness? Will it cure acne? Can vitamin E relieve the pain of arthritis or prevent ulcer? These are only a few of the uses some people claim for vitamin E, but for many years no scientific proof has been possible for any of these claims.

Vitamin E is not a rare substance by any means; it is present in vegetable oils and in grains, but in most diets the main source of vitamin E is leafy vegetables. Some vitamin E is lost in the cooking process, but not a really significant amount; a good balanced diet will, according to critics of "vitamin medicine", supply all the vitamin E anyone needs.

In animals, shortage of vitamin E causes sudden and obvious changes. Chickens deprived of E develop muscular weakness. Calves whose diet contains inadequate C amounts of E develop heart disease. Rats who are deprived of E develop liver degeneration. Nor do they grow as quickly as healthy rats.

But in humans, with one exception, there are no symptoms of any kind associated with a vitamin E deficiency. Premature infants who lack proper amounts of vitamin E sometimes develop anemia or skin rashes, but any symptoms caused by this deficiency in adult-humans are either too insignificant to appear in normal tests or are simply nonexistent. A study in Elgin, Illinois, followed subjects maintained on low vitamin E diets for six years and could discover no effects of the diet on the subjects at all.

Some studies, such as a study performed by three Canadian doctors in the late 1940s, have found vitamin E helpful in treating specific diseases, such as angina pectoris, a type of heart disease. But other studies have tried to duplicate these findings and failed. So there is no absolutely undeniable evidence that vitamin E will prevent or cure disease.

Claims for the cosmetic use of vitamin E continue to multiply, however. Creams and ointments containing vitamin E appear on the market almost daily, to help remove skin blemishes, to help soften dry skin, to control skin wrinkles. Vitamin E is even used in deodorants. Vitamin E itself is a preservative, an antioxidant, so the producers' thinking is that vitamin E will prevent odor by preventing bacteria from oxidizing perspiration. But no study or medical proof ever appeared to prove any of these cosmetic claims completely.

You can add vitamin E pills to your morning routine if you like, but unfortunately no one has ever been able to demonstrate conclusively any reason why you should.