| What is vitamin E? Vitamin E is an essential nutrient. It is essential, by definition, because the body cannot make its own vitamin E. It must be provided by foods and supplements. There are two types of vitamin E: natural and synthetic. What are the ways vitamin E works? There are three ways in which vitamin E works: The first, and most important, is as an antioxidant that protects cells from free radical damage. Free radicals are unstable chemicals formed in the body during metabolism and from exposure to environmental sources such as pollution and cigarette smoke. Antioxidants help to control the level of free radicals in the body. When there is an excessive number of free radicals in the body, they attack healthy cells and can contribute to the development of a number of diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and cataracts. Damage from free radicals has also been linked to premature aging. Vitamin E also appears to lessen the severity of disorders such as inflammation, premenstrual syndrome and circulatory irregularities. Vitamin E protects the body from harmful, tumor-promoting chemicals in smoked, pickled and cured foods. How does vitamin E function as an antioxidant? Vitamin E quenches free radicals that are produced by normal metabolism and from environmental pollutants, such as polluted air, radiation and cigarette smoke. Unchecked by an antioxidant, free radicals attack healthy cells. Unless they are neutralized by an antioxidant, free radicals can damage both the structure and function of cells, leading to disease. Is vitamin E a "typical" vitamin? Vitamin E differs from most other vitamins in a number of ways. Most other vitamins have little, if any, benefit when taken in amounts above the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). Vitamin E, however, is an antioxidant, so the amount needed by an individual varies. There are definite health benefits to be gained by supplementing above the RDA. Although diseases like scurvy, beriberi and rickets have been linked to a deficiency of a particular vitamin, deficiency disease from lack of vitamin E is quite rare. Vitamin E deficiency causes symptoms only in persons with fat malabsorption syndromes, premature infants and patients on total intravenous nutrition. It's important to remember, though, that this lack of deficiency disease doesn't mean that vitamin E isn't essential to health and the proper functioning of the human body. The effects of inadequate vitamin E intake usually develop over a long period of time, typically decades, and have been linked to degenerative diseases such as cancers, atherosclerosis and other forms of heart disease. Clinical conditions associated with free redical damage The following is a list of diseases and conditions to which free radicals have been linked. Free radicals are usually not the sole cause of a disease. But they may predispose the body to a disease that's directly caused by other factors, make some conditions worse and weaken the body's natural healing processes. Conditions Involving Multiple Organs Inflammatory-immune injury Glomerulonephritis (idiopathic, membranous) Vasculitis (hepatitis B virus, drugs) Autoimmune diseases Ischemia-reflow states Drug and toxin-induced reactions Iron overload Idiopathic hemochromatosis Dietary iron overload Thalassemia and other chronic anemias Nutritional deficiencies Kwashiorkor Vitamin E deficiency Alcohol damage Radiation injury Aging Disorders of "premature aging" Immune deficiency of age Amyloid diseases Conditions Involving Single Organs Erythrocytes Phenylhydrazine Primaquine Lead poisoning Protoporphyrin photo-oxidation Malaria Sickle-cell anemia Favism Fanconi anemia Lung Cigarette-smoke effects Emphysema Hyperoxia Bronchopulmonary dysplasia Oxidant pollutants Acute respiratory distress syndrome Mineral dust pneumoconiosis Bleomycin toxicity Paraquat toxicity Heart and cardiovascular system Alcohol cardiomyopathy Keshan disease (selenium deficiency) Atherosclerosis Doxorubicin toxicity Kidney Nephrotic antiglomerular basement membrane disease Aminoglycoside nephrotoxicity Heavy metal nephrotoxicity Renal graft rejection Gastrointestinal tractEndotoxin liver injury Carbon tetrachloride liver injury Diabetogenic action of alloxan Free fatty acid-induced pancreatitis Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug-induced lesions Joint abnormalities Rheumatoid arthritis Brain Hyperbaric oxygen Neurotoxins Senile dementia Parkinson disease-MPTP Hypertensive cerebrovascular injury; cerebral trauma Allergic encephalomyelitis and other demyelinating diseases Ataxia-telangiectasia syndrome Potentiation of traumatic injury Aluminum overload Abetalipoproteinemia Eye Cataractogenesis Ocular hemorrhage Degenerative retinal damage Retinopathy of prematurity Photic retinopathy Skin Solar radiation Thermal injury Porphyria Contact dermatitis Photosensitive dyes Bloom syndrome |
| Vitamin "E" |