Confused
About Vitamin E?
By Dr. Alice R. Laule
Earlier this year, a new scientific report about vitamin E received a lot of media attention. After years of hearing increasing evidence that vitamin E was useful for heart disease, many of us were shocked to hear the “new” information that taking more than 400 IU a day of vitamin E caused an increase in mortality.
Whenever I hear a report like this, there are several questions I ask: What sort of population received this treatment? How was the placebo group chosen? What form of the vitamin or mineral was used in the research?
What you may not realize is that there are 8 forms of vitamin E. What you will find most readily on the shelves is alpha tocopherol. Alpha tocopherol was used years ago, in the early 20th century, to determine the RDA for vitamin E.
Just how that RDA was determined is fascinating, and meaningful in interpreting this recent study that showed harm from vitamin E. In the early 20th century there was no known deficiency disease for vitamin E in humans. What was known and testable was that pregnant rats would reabsorb their fetus if they were deficient in alpha tocopherol. Pregnant rats were fed diets deficient in vitamin E, and then given just barely enough to stop maternal rat fetal reabsorption. Only the alpha tocopherol form of vitamin E stops fetal reabsorption. The amount as determined from rats was weight adjusted and applied to humans, thus the RDA for vitamin E became “30 IU of alpha tocopherol per day.”
Now we are aware that there are many forms of vitamin E, yet the RDA for humans was derived from rat studies. Rats need alpha tocopherol. Humans don’t require as much alpha tocopherol. As this last decade has unfolded, it becomes clear that humans actually need gamma tocopherol, particularly for heart health. It has also become clear that the tocotrienols are an important, in that they have the ability to reduce cholesterol production. Tocotrienols work on the same cholesterol production pathway as the –statin drugs, but can reduce cholesterol without blocking Coenzyme Q-10 production like –statins do.
Let’s go back now to our initial scientific report that might have confused us. That study used alpha tocopherol acetate. People who may have benefited from some additional gamma tocopherol, and perhaps some tocotrienols received largish doses of only one of the 8 forms of vitamin E. The body’s feedback systems read this as a glut of vitamin E and will shut down absorption of the other 7 forms. In other words, people taking large amounts of alpha tocopherol are telling their body to stop absorbing the heart-healthy gamma tocopherol, which in turn could lead to decreased over all health.
What’s the take-home message from this? Take supplements as close to whole food forms, or at least in balanced forms, as much as possible. The FDA still requires vitamin E to be labeled by its alpha tocopherol content, but there are now forms of E that have “mixed tocopherols and tocotrienols” added to the mixture. And EAT RIGHT.
Stay healthy.
Alice R. Laule, M.D.