The Problem With Vitamin E

[tex]

Vitamin E can be found listed on labels in various forms, including d-alpha tocopherol, dl-tocopherol, alpha tocopherol acetate, mixed tocotrienols, tocopheryl acetate, and vitamin E succinate. Most of these (other than the first 2) are very ambiguous terms. The topic of the safety of vitamin E for those of us who are sensitive to soy comes up on this board fairly often. Hopefully this post will shed some light on this often-confusing subject.

Natural vitamin E (in food) occurs in eight different chemical forms, called isomers:

alpha tocopherol
beta tocopherol
delta tocopherol
gamma tocopherol
alpha tocotrienol
beta tocotrienol
delta tocotrienol
gamma tocotrienol

Note that the first 4 are tocopherols, while the other 4 are tocotrienols. It's generally acknowledged that only alpha tocopherol meets the needs for human nutrition. So supplements that contain natural vitamin E typically only contain alpha tocopherol, and this is designated on labels as d-alpha-tocopherol. Unfortunately most of those supplements are derived form soy oil because of its relatively low price.

But about 99 % of the vitamin E supplements that are available, use synthetic alpha-tocopherol, designated as dl-alpha-tocopherol. Research shows that most synthetic vitamin E supplements are very poorly absorbed, so most health advocates shy away from synthetic vitamin E supplements. Synthetic forms of vitamin E are only about half as effective as natural forms of vitamin E. And unfortunately, virtually all vitamin E supplements (whether natural or synthetic) contain only a single isomer of vitamin E (based on alpha tocopherol).

But research shows that gamma tocopherol is the most common isomer found in food. In fact, roughly 70 % of the vitamin E found naturally in food is in the form of gamma tocopherol. That predominance in itself suggests that totally ignoring this isomer in vitamin E supplements is probably counterproductive. It's certainly counterintuitive at the very least. Why is this important? Because when only alpha tocopherol is supplemented, this tends to significantly deplete gamma tocopherol levels in the body because gamma tocopherol is needed by the body in order to reduce inflammation and regulate certain factors that protect against certain diseases (including certain cancers). Gamma tocopherol is also known to activate genes that protect against Alzheimer's disease. The article at the following link sheds some light on these aspects of gamma tocopherol.

What Makes Gamma Tocopherol Superior to Alpha Tocopherol

So clearly, virtually all vitamin E supplements (whether natural or synthetic) are contraindicated for the prevention of certain diseases, including cancer and Alzheimer's, simply because they exclude gamma tocopherol, and because of that shortcoming, they tend to deplete existing supplies of gamma tocopherol in the body.

The obvious goal should be to try to get vitamin E from food, not from supplements, and not from processed foods that are enriched with vitamin E in the form of various tocopherols.

Vitamin E is available in various foods, including almonds, sunflower seeds and oil, safflower oil, olive oil, spinach and other dark green leafy vegetables, broccoli, squash, shellfish, many fish, avocados, and certain fruits and berries. Most of us can tolerate many of those foods, so we shouldn't need supplemental vitamin E. And of course vitamin E is also available in peanuts and soybean oil, and in tomatoes, but most of us find it necessary to avoid those 3 foods.

But most of us here are not concerned so much with getting enough vitamin E from food — we're much more concerned about accidentally ingesting a form of tocopherol derived from soy. If we use any processed foods, far too many of them are "enriched" with some form of vitamin E, and the trick is to figure out which form is used, to determine whether or not it's safe for us. We can't rely on a "Soy-Free" banner on the label of the product, because most label designers do not recognize natural forms of tocopherols as a derivative of soy.

When natural forms of vitamin E are used (d-tocopherol), unless the source of the ingredient is specified otherwise, it's safest and usually most accurate to assume that the source is soy (because that's what it's usually made from). When the type of vitamin E is listed on the label as dl-alpha-tocopherol, or as synthetic vitamin E, then it does not contain any soy derivatives.

We should also be suspicious of "extracts" because in some cases the extraction medium used is soy oil. A good example of this is the rosemary extract found in most processed turkeys these days. Pure rosemary should be safe for most of us, but rosemary extract may cause problems for those of us who are sensitive to soy.

This is kind of a complex, tricky issue, but I hope that this sheds a little light on the subject.

Tex

[dfpowell]

Tex,

Thanks, good information!

Another food source of vitamin E is Red Palm Oil, which can be used in cooking and/or added to vegetables. Dr Mercola has some information on hid website regarding the benefits of Red Palm oil.

[ldubois7]

Thanks for the explaination.
I appreciate your knowledge!

[bttory]

Tex,

Thanks, good information!

Another food source of vitamin E is Red Palm Oil, which can be used in cooking and/or added to vegetables. Dr Mercola has some information on hid website regarding the benefits of Red Palm oil.

Sorry to pull this post from the depths, but I am wondering if you've had good luck eating red palm oil? I'm in the healing phase but realize that my very limited diet contains very little vitamin E. I'm afraid to try many of the typical vegetables and other foods that contain vitamin E during the healing phase, and thought red palm oil may be ok. Does anyone have any experience with red palm oil...good, bad or otherwise?

Thanks.

[brandy]

bookmarked....another reason real olive oil is good for us. I was reading some forums about Alzheimers last night and vitamin E was mentioned but there was no discussion about what type.

[tex]

Brandy,

I've been looking at the effects of vitamins (among many things) while collecting data for the book. Here's some info based on my notes:

FYI research using supplementation in the form of alpha tocopherol did not show any significant beneficial effect on Parkinson's patients. IMO this is because they missed the boat by omitting gamma tocopherol, which as I pointed out in my post above, makes up roughly 70 % of the vitamin E found naturally in food. Furthermore, as I pointed out in my post above, supplementing with only alpha tocopherol tends to significantly deplete gamma tocopherol levels in the body, and that's especially important because gamma tocopherol is known to activate genes that protect against Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Here's a link to the original report of that study (which obviously needs to be redone with a better choice of isomers.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NE ... 1213280305

However, data based on survey (questionnaire) results (rather than trials) showed that legumes apparently have a strong protective effect. Here's a link to that study.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8628465

In general, vitamin E (in food at least) appears to have a protective or preventive effect on Parkinson's, but supplementation after diagnosis has little effect, if any (but again, this may be because of poor isomer choices used in treatment trials). And that opinion (that alpha tocopherol alone cannot be used) is shared by the authors of the research article at the following link.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/81/2/508.abstract

Tex

[brandy]

Interesting. I wonder if parkinsons and alzheimers is more prevalent in highly processed food eating countries.

I just had Mom from noon on Christmas Eve all the way through Christmas day as I gave her alzheimers aids off.
Through diet alone when I am in charge of her I can pretty easily get her to have a good day....cognizant, knows where she is, no repeating of sentences or anything. The challenge is getting "buyin" from my Dad and her aids.

[tex]

Brandy,

Here's another diet/supplement tip. I highly recommend luteine. It may be too late in the game for it to help her, but it couldn't hurt. I've been taking it for over 30 years to prevent vision deterioration because of drusen, and I can attest that it works. Except for cataracts (due to injuries several decades ago, caused by embedded steel particles from grinding accidents that had to be surgically removed), my vision seems to be just as good as it was 30 years ago, despite the dire predictions made by my opthalmologist at the time of my drusen diagnosis.

And a few weeks ago some research was published showing that luteine helps to prevent cognitive decline. If that's not serendipity, I don't know what else to call it.

The article at the link below mentions "crystallized intelligence". The psychologist Raymond Cattell first proposed the concepts of fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. He defined fluid intelligence as the ability to perceive relationships independent of previous practice or instruction concerning those relationships. IOW, it involves being able to think and reason abstractly and solve problems, independent of learning, experience, and education. Fluid intelligence tends to decline during adulthood.

By contrast, crystallized intelligence involves knowledge that comes from prior learning and past experiences. For example, crystallized intelligence is associated with reading comprehension and vocabulary exams. It's based upon facts and experiences. As we age and accumulate new knowledge and understanding, we increase our crystallized intelligence.

While many people claim that their intelligence seems to decline as they age, research suggests that while fluid intelligence begins to decrease after adolescence, crystallized intelligence continues to increase throughout adulthood.

Parahippocampal Cortex Mediates the Relationship between Lutein and Crystallized Intelligence in Healthy, Older Adults

Tex

[tex]

I wonder if parkinsons and alzheimers is more prevalent in highly processed food eating countries.

Yes, that appears to be the case for Alzheimer's, but not for Parkinson's disease. Here's a link to a table of 2015 death rate statistics for Alzheimers that clearly indicates a correlation. Note that these are listings of death rates, which tend to be different than prevalence rates.

http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/caus ... y-country/

Here's a link to a similar table for Parkinson's disease:

http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/caus ... y-country/

But while the tables appear to be similar, the community with the world's highest prevalence of Parkinson's disease is along the nile river in Egypt, among the rural illiterate Egyptians. They have a prevalence rate of 1,103 per 100,000. And yet death rates from Parkinson's in Egypt are at the very bottom of the overall ranking with a prevalence rate of 0.12 per 100,000, as you can see from the table at the link above. The second highest prevalence of Parkinson's is among the Amish community in the NE U. S., and as far as I'm aware, they're not known for eating processed foods. The prevalence of Parkinson's disease among the Amish community is 970 per 100,000, which is enormously high (the overall U. S. death rate (not prevalence rate) is 4.51 per 100,000). The Amish are afflicted by genetic disorders. So it was thought that the cause might be genetic. However, the more closely related they are, the less they seem to be affected.

Also, it's claimed that the spouses of Alzheimer's disease patients are 600% more likely to develop the disease themselves. That certainly suggests that either dietary or other environmental effects are a primary factor.

Tex

[Gabes-Apg]

my 2 cents worth on this discussion

there is more linkage to toxins, ie excess heavy metals like mercury, aluminium, lead, etc linked to Alziemers adn Parkinsons, multiple sclerosis
excess heavy metals need 'additional' things like Vit E, Vit C, magnesium etc to be cleared.
(and the food sources in current day life do not have enough essential nutrients to help us expel excess metals)


http://drlwilson.com/Articles/PARKINSON.htm

Sources of toxic manganese. Manganese is added to our gasoline today, ever since lead was removed in the 1970s. Therefore, there is a significant chance that millions worldwide are exposed to higher levels of manganese. Manganese miners, welders and some metal workers are also exposed to manganese in their workplace.
Excessive levels of manganese are also common in some well water, especially some drinking water supplies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. This is causing havoc there in a few communities, as it is quite high and reflected on hair analysis charts of those who bath or drink the water. One town, Spenser, Massachusetts, has been sued by those harmed by the town water supply. So manganese toxicity is far more widespread than one might imagine.

based on this comment from the link - I wonder if the Amish drink well water - that is high in manganese??



http://drlwilson.com/Articles/dementia.htm

Toxic metals and toxic chemicals. Everyone’s body accumulates more toxic substances as they age. This is due to:
a) Much more sluggish metabolism, and with age most people’s kidneys, liver and bowel do not work as well.
b) Impaired nutrition. When one eats fewer essential minerals, the body absorbs more toxic metals from the environment.
c) Drug use. Many pharmaceutical items contain a little toxic metals such as mercury in flu shots and blood pressure drugs, aluminum in antacids, and so forth.
F) Food and other environmental exposure. The worst offender here is aluminum, which is directly associated in some studies with memory loss and perhaps other dementia symptoms.
Aluminum. For example, excess aluminum is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. When aluminum builds up in the brain, the brain shrinks or atrophies.
Aluminum is added to almost all municipal drinking water as a flocculating agent. This means it makes dirt clump and go to the bottom of the settling tank. As a result, some aluminum finds its way into all foods made with water such as beverages, breads, and cooked items of all types.
Aluminum is also added to table salt as an anti-caking agent. It is also found in anti-perspirants, antacids (except Tums), buffered Aspirin and some other over-the-counter products. Aluminum can also be acquired by contact with the metal in some occupations, for example. For more, please read Aluminum on this website.

Other metals. Mercury, copper and other metals can also accumulate in the brain and contribute to dementia.
Toxic chemicals. Aspartame, Olestra and other toxic chemicals can cause symptoms of dementia. For more details, please read Toxic Metals and Toxic Chemicals on this site.

[tex]

Tex

[brandy]

Thanks for the lutein tip.

[JFR]

Brandy - Are you familiar with Amy Berger at Tuit Nutrtion? She's written a book on diet and alzheimers. A new edition is coming out in March.

http://www.tuitnutrition.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Alzheimers-Antid ... amy+berger

Also Dr Dale Breseden referenced by Dr Perlmutter:

http://www.drperlmutter.com/wp-content/ ... 100690.pdf

Supposedly Dr Bredesen has a book coming out this spring also but I can't find any reference to it so maybe not.

My mother had alzheimers. It's sad and devastating and, in my perspective, worth paying attention to diet if that lessens ones chances of acquiring it. It must be so frustrating when others won't follow your dietary advice. My mother refused to even consider changing her diet. I suspect that when I suggested it for intestinal reasons not dementia she was already in the relatively early stages of alzheimers and wrapping her head around any change felt overwhelming to her

Jean

[Gabes-Apg]

came across this today

http://www.thevaccinereaction.org/2016/ ... ment-78471

In support of our quantitative data, we have also used a recently developed and fully validated method of fluorescence microscopy to provide stunning and unequivocal images of aluminium in brain tissue from familial Alzheimer’s disease donors.
Familial Alzheimer’s disease is an early-onset form of the disease with first symptoms occurring as early as 30 or 40 years of age. It is extremely rare, perhaps 2-3 percent of all cases of Alzheimer’s disease. Its bases are genetic mutations associated with a protein called amyloid-beta, a protein which has been heavily linked with the cause of all forms of Alzheimer’s disease.
Individuals with familial Alzheimer’s disease produce more amyloid beta and the onset of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are much earlier in life.
This new research may suggest that these genetic predispositions to early onset Alzheimer’s disease are linked in some way to the accumulation of aluminium (through ‘normal’ everyday human exposure) in brain tissue.
Aging is the main risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and aluminium accumulates in human brain tissue with aging. Environmental or occupational exposure to aluminium results in higher levels of aluminium in human brain tissue and an early onset form of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease. The genetic predispositions which are used to define familial or early-onset Alzheimer’s disease also predispose individuals to higher levels of brain aluminium at a much younger age.
Aluminium is accepted as a known neurotoxin, for example being the cause of dialysis encephalopathy, and its accumulation in human brain tissue at any age can only contribute to any ongoing disease state or toxicity.

We should take all possible precautions to reduce the accumulation of aluminium in our brain tissue through our everyday activities and we should start to do this as early in our lives as possible.

[brandy]

Thanks Jean, buying the book.

Brandy