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Vitamins, Minerals & Other Nutrients
Vitamin E Complex
It’s not as simple as you think!
Vitamin E is perhaps one of the most misunderstood nutrients of our time. How is it possible that one nutrient can have so many conflicting studies regarding its safety and benefits or consequences to our health? Because the “wise diet guides” known as the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) have allowed one molecule of the vitamin E complex to be labeled as Vitamin E, allowing supplement companies and others to produce damaging “supplements” labeled “Vitamin E.” Interestingly, the studies that purport the myth that vitamin E is harmful have almost always used the incomplete and/or synthetic form of vitamin E. The studies that have found vitamin E to be beneficial to health have used the complete form.
In 2009, the widely publicized Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) claimed that supplementation with vitamin E increased prostate cancer risk. This trial used synthetic vitamin E. Why should you care about supplementing with vitamin E? According to The Real Vitamin & Mineral Book, by Shari Lieberman, PhD, CNS, FACN, “…by some estimates, if we all took adequate vitamin E supplements, we could reduce our health-care costs by $8 billion.” So sign me up! I’ll take the complete form of vitamin E. Not so fast. First you have to learn what the complete form of vitamin E is, and then you have to know where to get it!
What is Vitamin E?
Vitamin E is both an antioxidant and an anticarcinogen. It is also a fat-soluble vitamin. It is comprised of eight molecules-four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. These are alpha-, beta-, delta-, and gamma-tocopherol; and alpha-, beta-, delta-, and gamma-tocotrienol. Vitamin E exists in nature only completely as these eight molecules. However, you would never know this if you looked at the information on your vitamin E supplement bottle. This is because the FDA has permitted only d-alpha-tocopherol to be labeled as vitamin E.
D-alpha-tocopherol is only one of the EIGHT molecules that comprise vitamin E.
D-alpha-tocopherol is naturally occurring and is the most bioavailable. The synthetic form of d-alpha-tocopherol is labeled “dl-alpha-tocopherol,” and it contains only a small amount of bioavailable vitamin E. Dl-alpha-tocopherol was the form of vitamin E used in the SELECT trial that claimed that vitamin E increased risk of prostate cancer. So the first ingredient in your vitamin E supplement should be “d-alpha-tocopherol.” You also want to be sure the word “tocopherol” as opposed to the word “tocopheryl” is used in the supplement labeling. “Ol” signifies the form that naturally exists as an antioxidant. The “yl” signifies the synthetic form, which is NOT an antioxidant.
Vitamin E in nature
Vitamin E as it exists in nature generally contains more gamma-tocopherol than the synthetic forms of vitamin E. The FDA forbids a supplement that contains d-gamma-tocopherol to be labeled vitamin E. So do you want the vitamin E that the FDA designates, or do you want the complete form of vitamin E that your body requires, and that is found in its entirety in nature? Regardless of what health problem you are attempting to treat, you will want your vitamin E supplement to resemble vitamin E as it exists in nature, as closely as possible. The different parts of the vitamin E molecule have been shown to be beneficial to different health issues. For example, the d-alpha-tocopherol of vitamin E may improve circulation and cardiovascular functions. However, there is evidence that indicate taking d-alpha-tocopherol alone can deplete the body of gamma-tocopherol. Now the body will suffer another health issue brought on by unnatural supplementation, as it is depleted of a substance that it needs.
Many people claim that since the various molecules of vitamin E compete with each other for receptor sites in the body, it is better to take the incomplete form of vitamin E. However, this incomplete form of synthetic vitamin E generally has much, much less vitamin E than a supplement of bioavailable vitamin E.
There really is no comparison when one looks at synthetic vitamin E versus complete, natural vitamin E. Vitamin E helps protect the fats you consume until they find their way into the body’s cells. Fats can easily be damaged before they reach the body’s cells, and since fat-soluble vitamins are essential to optimal health, the role of vitamin E in the diet and body cannot be understated.
Natural vitamin E, with all of its tocopherols, is much better able to prevent the oxidation of fats in the body than simply d-alpha-tocopherol alone.
In our next blog we’ll explain where to find vitamin E in its natural form, both in foods and supplements, and what ingredients may be found in an optimal vitamin E supplement.
-LINDSAY WIKHOLM
SOURCES
- Attaining Optimal Health in the 21st Century, Instructor David Getoff, CCN, CTN, FAAIM
- The Real Vitamin and Mineral Book, Shari Lieberman, PhD, CNS, FACN