Vitamin E came out first in a test of treatments for fatty liver not due to alcohol abuse. Nearly 250 patients with fatty liver were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: the diabetes drug Actos, 800 UI of vitamin E, or a placebo.
The clinical trial lasted almost two years. At the end of that time, the people taking daily vitamin E were significantly more likely to show improvement than those on placebo. Actos was not significantly better than placebo. Fatty liver is a serious condition that can progress to cirrhosis, a potentially life-threatening disease. There is no currently accepted treatment for nonalcoholic fatty liver but this study suggests that vitamin E might be beneficial.
[New England Journal of Medicine, April 29, 2010]
