We now know, thanks to a large WHO study, that low serum vitamin E blood levels are the best predictor of a heart attack, better than either high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol.
From PaulingTherapy.com:
Vitamin E
Linus Pauling long recommended 400 to 800 iu of vitamin E for cardiovascular disease. Several authors have pointed to an extensive study conducted by the World Health Organization on thousands of men and women from sixteen nations. The study illustrated that a low level of vitamin E in the blood was more than twice as predictive of heart attack than either high cholesterol or high blood pressure. Inverse correlation between plasma vitamin E and mortality from ischemic heart disease in cross-cultural epidemiology.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1985406
My own father took vitamin E most of his life, but ran out and didn't purchase more about 2 weeks prior to his fatal heart attack (Age 68). The same thing happened to my half-brother Michael Till, more than once. He ran out of vitamin E, did not buy more and had a heart attack within a month of running out of vitamin E. (This happened at least twice in Mike's case.)
When we first discussed this at this forum, we speculated that because the gestation period of red corpuscles and/or platelets in the bone marrow match the interval to the MI, perhaps vitamin E makes our red blood cells "less sticky?"
I was reminded of this because a friend called to report a bad EKG. As we were talking, she told me that she had run out and stopped taking her vitamin E about 2 weeks ago!
The bad EKG report reminds me that over the years, we discovered that high doses of a particular brand of vitamin E (Unqiue-E from A. C. Grace), along with Pauling's therapy, reversed bad EKGs. (We have posted Carol Smith's before and after EKGs. http://www.practicingmedicinewithoutalicense.com/carolsmith/)
There has been a lot of misinbformatin and fake news designed to scare heart patients away from vitamin E. I urge heart patients to trust Pauling, and to not stop vitamin E "even for a single day."
Again, we have long recommended the original "mixed tocopherols" Unique-E brand of Vitamin E from A. C. Grace.