Vitamin E

An Important Antioxidant

By Doug Banhoff

You would have heard and read a lot about vitamins and know that they are very important elements in our diet for health reasons. You may well be aware also of the existence of antioxidants, and know that these also include some vitamins. Well, vitamin E can do so much for us that is worth taking a closer look at this marvel of nature.
As regular readers of this publication you without doubt follow a routine of physical exercise and the optimum diet, as these are cornerstones of any fitness program. So you will know that vitamins play an essential role in any good diet.
In broad strokes vitamins are divided into two groups: water-soluble and fat-soluble. The former operate in aqueous solutions, and the latter in lipids, or fat-based solutions.

Vitamin E is of the latter group, which means that any excess in the body is not expelled in urine, as with water-soluble elements, but stored within adipose tissue. It is also of the essential variety of nutrients, given that the body cannot fabricate it and it must be obtained through food or supplements.
The truth is that vitamin E is not a single compound but a collection of isomers called tocopherols and toctrienols that share the same behaviour but to different extents. There are four types of the former: alpha, beta, gamma and delta; the difference between which is in their chemical structure; and the four types of the latter are differentiated in the fact that their lateral chain is unsaturated.
The most active form of vitamin E is alpha-tocopherol. It occurs naturally as d-alpha-tocopherol, and the synthetic version of it is dl-alpha-tocopherol.

Foods Rich In Vitamin E

Wheat germ oil	(170-180mg/100g)		Walnuts	(25mg/100g)
Sunflower oil	(50-62mg/100g)		Almonds	(25mg/100g)
Walnut oil	(39mg/100g)		Palm oil	(25mg/100g)
Sesame oil	(28mg/100g)		Margarine	(14mg/100g)
Hazelnuts	(27mg/ 100g)		Olive oil	(12mg/100g)
Soya oil	(17-25mg/100g)		Scorzonera	(6mg/100g)

The Antioxidant Vitamin E
That fact that antioxidants exist is well known and that the substances that fall into this group include vitamins, which are beneficial to health and play a part in longevity and the prevention of many diseases including heart disease and cancer. Vitamin E happens to be a powerful fat-soluble antioxidant.
Oxidisation is a natural part of metabolism where either oxygen is lost or hydrogen or electrons are gained as a consequence of changes to various molecules. The process creates what are called “free radicals”, highly reactive molecules with an unpaired electron. As such, free radicals search for available electrons, attacking other molecules to liberate them and in the process creating more free radicals in a chain reaction.
Antioxidants act directly and indirectly against free radicals, neutralising them or donating the missing electron and thus ceasing their harmful activity, to protect the body from the damaging effects of free radicals while regenerating without causing further harm.
Vitamin E has been shown to have considerable antioxidant properties in the lipid environment and is very important in preventing the oxidisation and accumulation of fat. Remember, of course, that the oxidisation of HDL, or bad cholesterol, is a factor that can lead to heart disease. The fact is that all the vitamin E isomers include a hydroxile group that can donate a hydrogen atom and thus reduce the free radical count in the substance s that make up cellular membranes.

How Vitamin E Works
Young folks may not be so interested in the antioxidant properties of vitamin E since they are normally associated with anti-ageing, but it also has an important role to play for athletes.
During physical exercise the body uses great quantities of oxygen in dealing with the overload, which is good because it increases metabolic efficiency but bad, as it generates more free radicals. One study showed that both endurance and strength athletes have significantly higher levels of lipid peroxide, a free radical indicator, after intense exercise, in addition to an elevation of certain enzymes that denote muscle damage. The problem is that if the body then uses protein and energy reserves to repair this damage it will then be unable to sustain muscle regeneration and growth, and over time this will lead to muscle loss.
When athletes in the study were given 300mg of vitamin E over a four-week period, the level of free radicals in the body descended significantly and so did enzyme activity. Similarly, another study on elite athletes claimed that after vigorous training they exhibited high levels of the enzyme creatine quinase, a reliable indicator of muscle damage, however, this was able to be reduced when vitamin E was added to their diets. In other words, vitamin E helped athletes to improve their performance and retain more muscle mass.
If you lift weights vitamin E will not help you move more kilos, but if you do endurance exercise, where oxygen supply is crucial, you will find it can improve your capacity for performance, as it s involved in the formation of the red blood cells that transport oxygen. As you are no doubt aware, the more red blood cells you have the greater supply of oxygen throughout the body, giving you greater endurance or delaying fatigue.
The role vitamin E plays in reproduction is also well known and some even call it “the fertility vitamin”, as it helps regulate the creation of prostanoids, compounds that are important to the reproductive processes as well as those of energy production, the creation of desoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), and delaying the effects of aging.
It is also worth noting the importance of vitamin E in protection against oxidizing lipids, which means it helps stop fats going rancid. It also prevents the oxidization of cellular membranes, allowing cells to breath better, and blood clots, and protects fatty tissues in the body, including the brain and the eyes, for example.
The food industry has actually identified vitamin E as the most powerful antioxidant for stopping fat and oil in foods from oxidizing and going rancid.
And lately scientists have been attributing certain benefits to the immune system to the antioxidant properties of vitamin E, which has numerous positive implications for general health. 

Vitamin E Deficiency
There are three particular conditions that are commonly accompanied by vitamin E deficiency. It has been observed in persons that cannot absorb a fat-rich diet, in premature babies of low birth weight (less than 1.5kg), and in those who have a disorder in metabolising fats.
Vitamin E deficiency is generally characterized by neurological disorders due to improperly controlled nervous impulses.
Individuals who cannot absorb fats properly require supplements, as vitamin E is very important to absorption in the digestive tract. For example, sufferers of cystic fibrosis, those who have had part or all of their intestine or stomach removed, those with incapacity to absorb fats and sufferers of Crohn’s disease all need vitamin E supplements.

Sources Of Vitamin E
Vitamin E is found in many foods, principally of plant origin, including broccoli, spinach, soybeans, bran and brewer’s yeast, as well as in some animal products such as egg yolk. Vegetable oils are also considered good sources of vitamin E, specifically wheat germ oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil and peanut oil. Mayonnaise, butter and margarine can also be good sources, as well as some cereals such as whole oats, rice, corn and wheat, and seeds, almonds, peanuts and eggs.
In any case, a vitamin E supplement is recommended for people who work out regularly, as the amount you get from a regular may not be enough to provide all the health benefits mentioned above. Wheat germ oil is the most concentrated source of vitamin E with 177.97iu/100g, far from the 200-400iu shown in studies to provide the best effects and further still from the 1000iu some scientists claim protect against tumour growth and the 2000iu others recommend against Alzeimer’s.

[One milligram = 1.49 international units (iu)].

Although there is no need to go to extremes, remember that vitamin E is non-toxic despite being fat soluble, and, to the contrary, is an excellent overall protection agent.