Vitamin E Complex and Nitric Oxide

 NeoLife has always maintained that vitamin E should be supplemented as a complete complex. There are 8 members of the family. Each member has an affinity for different tissues and functions differently. Nitric oxide is a chemical produced by the immune system to fight cancer and infectious agents. The only problem is that this compound is so unstable that is is converted to nitrate or nitrite within 10 seconds. Both of these can be a source of dangerous nitrogen based free radicals.

Gamma-tocopherol and gamma-tocotrienol, two lesser known members of the vitamin E family prevents the conversion of NO to these dangerous cancer promoting chemicals. Alpha-tocopherol does not. This may explain why Stephan Christen found that supplementing laboratory animals with large amounts of synthetic vitamin E increased the incidence of tumors by depleting the body of gamma-tocopherol. Nature knows best when she combines nutrients into complexes and vitamin E is one of the clearest examples of this important nutritional principle.

References:

Papas, Andreas, The Vitamin E Factor, New York:HarperPerennial, 1999, p.37.

Christen, Stephan, γ-Tocopherol, the major form of vitamin E in the US diet, deserves more attention, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 74, Issue 6, December 2001, Pages 714–722, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/74.6.714

Vitamin E Deficiency

Vitamin E has been called the vitamin without a disease. Dramatic cures as one sees with scurvy when vitamin C is added to the diet were not seen. Early research showed that deficiencies of the vitamin developed slowly and symptoms generally tend to appear only after extensive and often irreversible damage has taken place.

It takes a long time to increase tissue levels of vitamin E. This reminds me of the story of Earl Pearson who was diagnosed with emphysema. After supplementing with large quantities of vitamin E for five years under his doctor's supervision he was told he no longer had the disease.

The following warning by Papas should encourage us to make sure the vitamin E intake is adequate: "We have learned...that vitamin E deficiency may go unnoticed for years without clinical symptoms....unnoticed muscle and nerve damage can pile up...depleted tissues get replenished slowly and the nerve tissue even more slowly. When clinical symptoms appear it is usually too late for repair!"

References:

Papas, Andreas, The Vitamin E Factor, New York:HarperPerennial, 1999, p.14-15.