Wasn’t sure what I was going to rant about today but then I stumbled across this tweet in my twitterfeed: “Vit E slows formation of blood clots inside blood vessels. It’s a natural blood thinner & great for skin & muscle regeneration.” Nothing in this tweet is explicitly wrong. However, 140 characters do not give a lot of space to work with. Hence, there is a lot of information missing from this tweet. Between the lines, this tweet says to me that I should be taking Vitamin E supplements. There are a number of things wrong with this. It’s generally best to get your vitamins and minerals naturally from food. Why? Because the ways in which vitamins and minerals work in your body may depend on other components in food. Also, you’re quite unlikely to achieve a toxic level of Vitamin E consumption through eating sunflower seeds or wheat germ but you might if you’re taking it as a supplement. Too much Vitamin E can interfere with Vitamin K and lead to hemorrhaging. There’s also a difference in the effect of Vitamin E depending on the form it’s in. Twitter is a great way to share information but tweets like the one above don’t provide enough information.