The Vitamin E Story

Beans

Do you get confused by news on vitamins and nutrition? One day you hear that a certain vitamin is good for you; the next day, it’s bad. Take vitamin E, for example.

A study published in 2007 in the Archives of Internal Medicine supposedly discovered that vitamin E and other antioxidants were of no real health benefit. The news was splashed all over the media. But what wasn’t reported was that most of the people in the study did not consistently take their vitamins.

(You do have to take your supplements for them to work!) In truth, the people who did take their vitamins regularly had some significant benefits: Vitamin E reduced the risk of heart attack by 22 percent, and a combo of vitamins C and E reduced stroke risk by 31 percent.

Vitamin E is certainly a good supplement to have in your nutritional arsenal. It is an antioxidant, meaning it helps fight many diseases. It is a friend to your white blood cells too, since it appears to enhance the ability of these cells to destroy disease-causing bacteria. Overall, vitamin E helps build a strong immune system and promotes a healthy heart, eyes, and prostate.

Vitamin E is important if you exercise regularly. A “side effect” of being active is that slight muscle damage can occur with vigorous exercise. As you jog, run, or cycle, you take in more oxygen than normal, thus exposing your muscle tissue to more of this highly reactive gas, as well as to pollutants in the air. Taken together, oxygen and pollutants can upset the delicate chemical structure of the cell – a reaction known as “oxidative damage.” Vitamin E helps prevent this cellular damage.

A great natural supplement source of vitamin E is Parrillo Natural E-Plus™. If you decide to use it, take it with a meal that contains some fat to enable the nutrient to be absorbed. Vitamin E can also thin your blood, so make sure you inform your physician that you are taking it.

Vitamin E occurs naturally in vegetable oils, whole grain cereals, dried beans, and green leafy vegetables – yet the content is not high. Consequently, many researchers feel that vitamin E supplements are more effective than foods for obtaining adequate levels of this antioxidant – so don’t avoid it because of negative headlines!

References

Cook, N.R., et al. 2007. A randomized factorial trial of vitamins C and E and beta carotene in the secondary prevention of cardiovascular events in women: results from the Women’s Antioxidant Cardiovascular Study. Archives of Internal Medicine 167:1610-1618.