Vitamin E and Osteoarthritis

Sometimes it is recommended to patients by health care providers that they take Vitamin E to relieve the symptoms of osteoarthritis. A study that was published in the Journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases attempted to assess the effectiveness of taking Vitamin E 500 international units/day to relieve the pain of osteoarthritis of the knee. The study was arranged to compare Vitamin E against an inactive placebo. Patients were studied for level of pain, stiffness and ability to function. As it turned out the Vitamin E patients had no significant relief of symptoms compared with the placebo group. There is no health benefit, therefore, to taking Vitamin E to relieve the symptoms of osteoarthritis.