Vitamin E - What Is It?

For those of you who have been following this series, thank you.  And you're probably wondering, "Hey...the last one you did was Vitamin C, but now you're on Vitamin E.  What happened to Vitamin D?".  Well, I've actually done quite a bit on that already, and you can find those posts here, here, and here.  So I thought, rather than rehashing what I've already talked about, I would just provide links to those articles and move forward to Vitamin E.

The first thing you should know is there are two forms of Vitamin E available:  d-alpha tocopheryl and dl-alpha-tocopheryl.  If you are currently taking a multi-vitamin, go ahead and grab your bottle now and see what form of Vitamin E you are taking.  If you bought your vitamins off the shelf, odds are you'll see that you have the dl-alpha form.  So what does that mean?  The d-alpha is the natural form of Vitamin E; whereas, the dl-alpha form is synthetic.  There's a problem with that.  The synthetic form (dl-alpha) does NOT absorb into your body very well, about half as well.  So if it's advertised on the bottle that you're getting 50IU, you may only be absorbing 25IU.  And if you aren't absorbing the full amount, then it's really not doing as much as it could be.

Now that we have that out of the way, what exactly does Vitamin E do for you?  First of all, it is a very good antioxidant, so it is providing you those benefits.  Beyond that, supplementing with natural forms of Vitamin E have been linked to a decrease in cardiovascular disease and death.  For instance, in one study it was found that individuals consuming over 10.5IU of Vitamin E were 35% less likely to die from a heart attack when compared to individuals consuming less than that amount.

Another study looked at men who had recently undergone bypass surgery.  In this study, it was found those taking 100IU/day dramatically reduced the progression of atherosclerosis.  However, there are other studies which have shown no benefit to taking Vitamin E.  But additional studies are ongoing and these mixed-reviews may be related to how the vitamin is being administered.

Recently, a study showed that supplementing with Vitamin E can actually increase your risk of death by 6%.  However, you would need to consume over 2000IU/day.  Which is much more than the average person actually consumes.  The upper limit (UL) for individuals over 19yrs of age has been set at 1000IU/day.

So what does this mean for you?  As I stated earlier, Vitamin E does function very well as an antioxidant and it does boost the immune system.  Research also confirms that it assists the body in defending against cancer cells, causing apoptosis (self-destruction) of those cancer cells.  A process your body does naturally, this just helps the process along.  The Linus-Pauling Institute feels there is enough evidence available to recommend taking 200/day with a meal, and this amount "may help protect adults from chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, neurodegenerative diseases, and some types of cancer".

As always, you should always consider speaking with your physician if you are thinking about starting a supplement plan.  I would also recommend you look into taking pharmaceutical grade nutritional supplements, as this is the best way to ensure you are receiving the most benefit in a safe form.  You can also view this site to see how you can actually start a home business by marketing pharmaceutical grade supplements to people just like you.

To Your Health