It shouldn’t be news to anybody that quitting smoking is just about the best thing anyone can do for their health. However, if you’re male and just haven’t been able to quit yet, you might want to make sure you ingest decent amounts of Vitamin E every day.

Recently, researchers found that Vitamin E appears to offer male smokers some protection from cancer. It seems to prevent the DNA damage that precedes the disease. Dr Frederica P. Perera of Columbia University School of Public Healthcollaborated with researchers from New York Universite School of Medicine to measure both plasma vitamin E levels and a substance that is a marker of oxidative DNA damage on 280 males and female smokers (at least ten cigarettes per day). They found that, in men, lower levels of DNA damage were associated with higher vitamin E levels. The association was not seen in women, however. The greatest benefit was found in men who posessed a gene variant which produces enzymes that serve to detoxify tobacco smoke carcinogens.

Dr Perera said “There was a dose-response relationship, in that the more vitamin E we found in the blood of the men, the less there was of this cancer-related biomarker. This suggests that while working toward the goal of quitting smoking, which is the very best way to prevent development of smoking-related cancers, it could be helpful to eat a diet rich in vitamin E.” While there’s still a lot of research to be done, eating a natural foods diet rich in vitamin E can’t be a mistake, regardless of whether you smoke or not.

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