Find out the real story of vitamin E and how to buy the best form
What’s in your vitamin E supplement?
Vitamin E has many true benefits for our body and we need to take a vitamin E supplement that is well balanced and high in all constituents–alpha, beta, gamma, and delta tocopherols. Read your labels carefully to avoid any vitamin E made by a process called esterification, Most of esterified vitamin E is not labeled as “esterified”, but rather as “acetate” or “succinate”.
Vitamin E is actually a complex family of compounds made up of eight sub-fractions including four types of tocopherols and four types of tocotrienols. Make double-sure that you are taking the mixed tocopherols though because the fractionalized dl-alpha form can be toxic when taken by itself. The alpha without the gamma causes dangerous shortfalls in the gamma form in your body.
What’s wrong with natural alpha tocopherol?
“Natural alpha tocopherol” is the main form of vitamin E used in supplements. The synthetic form, however, is listed as “dl-alpha tocopherol”. The synthetic form should be completely avoided for several reasons, one of which is it contains half or less the biological value as the natural vitamin E. Another reason to avoid the synthetic form is that vitamin E is a complex vitamin and all parts are vital for proper use by the body.
Most of the so called “Natural vitamin E” is made when the gamma, delta and beta forms of tocopherol are chemically changed to alpha-tocopherol. This is done by a process called esterification making a form of vitamin E that is not found in nature. Esterification is supposed to stabilize the molecular structure of vitamin E to decrease rancidity and soon after the discovery of this unnatural process came the production of the notorious trans fatty acids, now rightfully vilified, which became vogue in processed foods as well. The beta, delta and gamma forms of vitamin E are equally important to the body and shortages of one form in a vitamin complex will cause an overall shortage of a vitamin in the body.
Vitamin E in the isolated, esterified, alpha form causes the other vitamin E forms to be shorted in your body by using up the other forms of vitamin E in an attempt to balance the entire vitamin complex.
The more alpha vitamin E you take, the more vitamin E you become deficient in.
The history of tocopherols
Some 70 years ago, mixed tocopherols were the normal way of selling vitamin E. Quite by accident, a Kodak employee learned to extract vitamin E from soybeans and Kodak began to sell it as the first naturally mixed vitamin E. Shortly following this event, the Shute brothers in Canada had clear studies showing decreased arteriosclerosis using mixed tocopherols. Meanwhile, the obstinate allopathic community, true to their form, immediately responded with a storm of propaganda against vitamin E, but the studies were so overwhelming that people ignored the bad press made up by the medical community.
Then the pharmaceutical company Hoffman LaRoche invented a synthetic vitamin E and showed that when people took their synthetic brand there were higher blood levels of vitamin E in the blood. Truth be told, this is only true because the counterfeit vitamin E doesn’t enter the cells but is stuck circulating in the blood until the body can detoxify it. By their big money influence Hoffman LaRoche got an RDA of 30iu of synthetic Vitamin E passed as the international standard in 1941. With this turn of events, the allopathic community and Big Pharma collaborated to unwisely declare alpha tocopherol to be the only beneficial factor in the entire vitamin E complex.
Back to the excellent E
At the 2004 “Vitamin E and Health Conference”, studies were presented that clearly showed that Vitamin E is anti-inflammatory, anti-thrombotic, regulates gene activity, regulates cell signaling, and is an anti-oxidant. Vitamin E has been shown to decrease inflammatory chemicals such as cytokines IL-6, C-reactive protein, and cell adhesion molecules that help begin the process of atherosclerosis. Vitamin E inhibits peroxynitrite formation which is now seen as being involved in Cardio Vascular Disease and even Alzheimer’s development. It helps with gene expression and transcription, ensuring that proper DNA functioning and cell metabolism occurs. Natural Vitamin E in the alpha and gamma forms has been shown to inhibit lung and colon cancer cells, as well as prostate cells while inducing apoptosis (natural cell death) in prostate cancer cells.
People taking natural, balanced vitamin E have less cancer, less cardiovascular disease, less Alzheimer’s, and less age-related macular degeneration, among other impressive benefits.
Authored by cancer nutritionist Craig Stellpflug NDC, CNC, Dayspring Cancer Clinic Scottsdale, AZ
Copyright 2012 Craig Stellpflug© Permission is hereby granted to copy and distribute this article but only in its entirety