Vitamin E may protect against liver cancer, a new study says.

“We found a clear, inverse dose-response relation between vitamin E intake and liver cancer risk,” the authors wrote in a statement.

For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 132,837 individuals in China. The researchers used data collected from the Shanghai Women’s Health Study from 1997 to 2000 or the Shanghai Men’s Health Study from 2002 to 2006. All participants completed a questionnaire and also completed an in-person interview about their eating habits. Researchers also asked if they took any dietary supplements.

Based on the answers given by the participants, researchers classified them as people who have higher intake of vitamin E and those who have low intake of vitamin E.

During the course of the study, 267 people in the study group were diagnosed with liver cancer. This included 118 women, who developed cancer, on average, 10.9 years into the study and 109 men who developed cancer, on average, 5.5 years into the study.

Researchers found a correlation between people who had high intake of Vitamin E and low risk of liver cancer. They found that higher vitamin E lowered liver cancer risk irrespective of whether the participants reported liver disease or family history of liver cancers or not.

Medical Daily had earlier reported that natural Vitamin E can help keep off Alzheimer's disease and dementia in old people.

“Overall, the take home message is that high intake of vitamin E either from diet or supplements was related to lower risk of liver cancer in middle-aged or older people from China,” said Xiao Ou Shu, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine at the Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, in a statement.

However, taking Vitamin E supplements may not be such a good idea because some studies have shown that men who take these supplements have a higher chance of developing prostate cancer. The risk stays even after people stop taking the supplements.

It is recommended that people consult their physicians before making any dietary changes.

The study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.