Tocopherol cancer, epidemiological studies

Kritchevsky and Kritchevsky (2000) provided a summary of the evidence linking dietary cholesterol to the risk of CHD in 10 cohorts from eight large, well-conducted prospective studies that were reported since 1980, which included the Nurses Health Study, the Health Professionals Followup Study and the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study. In eight of the cohorts there was no statistical association between cholesterol intake and the risk of CHD. In one of the positive studies the association was established by simple univariate analysis and was not adjusted for other dietary variables. The other study adjusted only for fat intake. There is no compelling evidence from these epidemiological studies that dietary cholesterol is associated with the risk of CHD. 

Recent research has focussed on the role of antioxidant nutrients in reducing the risk of developing coronary heart disease and cancer, the major killers in Western industrialised society. Several epidemiological studies have reported in particular the relevance of a-tocopherol in the context of coronary heart disease and 3-carotene in cancer, especially that of the lung. The development of antioxidant drugs for the treatment of diseases associated with free radicals is a vibrant area of research but depends on the understanding of the mechanisms... 

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