Introduction<br > The history of vitamins reads like a mystery story with a<br >scientific bent. Once， no one even knew vitamins were<br >there. People ate food for centuries without caring about<br >what was in it. Eventually， curious scientists began to<br >investigate why the deprivation of certain "unknowns"<br >made people sick. Today， after years of studies and<br >experiments， the keys to good health seem to have been<br >found. And one of those keys is vitamins.<br > Now that it is known that vitamins exist and are<br >important， everyone wants to know all about them. Articles<br >about vitamins and vitamin supplements appear regularly<br >in popular magazines， and scores of books about vitamins<br >are gobbled up by the reading public every year.<br > Such curiosity would have been satisfied long ago if all<br >the stories told were consistent and accurate. But each<br >new publication seems to promote new ideas and make<br >new claims for one particular vitamin or another--claims<br >that find an eager audience and offer hope of cures that，<br >many times， cannot be substantiated.<br > After a time and many claims later， it s hard to tell who<br >said what about a particular vitamin and whether what was<br >said was based on fact or on fantasy. Certainly， if all the<br >claims were true， our national health would be optimum，<br >but it isn t. A look at what has been said about vitamin E<br >will cast light on the confusion.<br > In the last decade or so， vitamin E has been recom-<br >mended by one source or another for the cure or<br >prevention of heart disease， acne， liver spots， muscular<br >dystrophy， sterility， sexual impotency and some fifty more<br >maladies. Yet， none of these claims is true. And if you re<br >buying and using a vitamin E supplement to cure or<br >prevent any of these conditions， you re wasting your<br >money and perhaps endangering your life.<br > Where did these claims about vitamins come from? Who<br >started them? And why have they continued to be believed<br >by a large portion of the public?<br > There s no doubt that vitamins are essential for good<br >health. Each vitamin has a function to perform in the<br >