Khloe Kardashian, Credit: Shutterstock
The Kardashian family has made a fortune using its celebrity status to market a number of cosmetic and health products over the years, among other things.
In a post on her website, Khloe Kardashian expresses her love for Vitamin E. And I can respect that. The benefits of the fat soluble antioxidant have been well documented scientifically. However, she managed to step over the boundaries of science to what I can only consider fiction. The TV personality advocates for other uses of Vitamin E - specifically mentioning its benefits in the vaginal area.
According to Glamour Health, Khloé wrote: “No joke: Vitamin E may strengthen vaginal lining!!! Moisturize your labia and vagina with Vitamin E oil to combat dryness and soothe irritation.”
Let me start by saying that in no medical or scientific literature have I ever seen "strengthening of the vaginal lining" being addressed. Maybe she got her signals crossed. I'm going to hope that she wanted to discuss strengthening of the vaginal wall or the pelvic floor muscles by performing Kegel exercises. However, that still leaves the issue of her advocating the use of "Vitamin E oil to combat dryness and soothe irritation."
Vitamin E has been used as a non-hormonal form of therapy for some postmenopausal disorders, particularly atrophic vaginits and urogenital atrophy. In these cases it can be administered in daily oral doses of 100-600 IU or applied locally. Within this age group of postmenopausal women, it has been found to relieve the associated dryness and irritation that are hallmarks of atrophic vaginitis. However, no studies to date have looked at the benefits of Vitamin E oil in a younger demographic, nor at it's ability to strengthen the vaginal lining as Khloe suggested.
Additionally, it should be noted that past a particular dosage and strength, Vitamin E oil is neither harmless nor beneficial, but rather can cause irritant contact dermatitis. In my attempt to be as objective as possible while writing this article, I decided to seek the actual comments Khloe made on her website.
To my dismay I found that I would not be able to access them without the use of my credit card. If it wasn't bad enough that her recommendations have no medically proven or scientific basis, let's add that the public is paying for this unsolicited and extremely poor advice. I'm not sure how many of you out there are paying for access to her website, but I suggest you seriously re-consider your purchase.
