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alpha-Tocopherol

Protecting Your Brain from Dementia One Supplement at a Time

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While teasing one another that we’ve lost our mind may be funny, the literal experience of losing your mind to dementia is not likely as entertaining.

However, the rates continue to increase at a startling rate and no hope is in sight for a cure. Some pharmaceutical companies have even given up the fight to find a cure because the failures have been too expensive.

The ability to prevent dementia with lifestyle, however, is very solidly proven in the medical research. This may include higher education (or, in lieu of a degree, continual challenging your brain by reading this blog several times through on a daily basis), exercise, a plant based diet and maintaining an anti-diabetic lifestyle.

Personally, I do not feel that we will ever find a cure for Alzheimer’s dementia or Parkinson’s disease (the other neurodegenerative disorder that shares many of the same underlying damage to the brain). By the time a diagnosis is made, the brain has lost a very large chuck (upwards of 70%) of the cells in the affected region. In other words, it’s a freight train moving at a high rate of speed.

I do, however, believe that we can slow the freight train down, even if it’s just a little bit. Antioxidants like CoQ10, magnesium threonate and n-acetyl cysteine (NAC) may play a role here. Another very powerful antioxidant for the brain is vitamin E.

I have an entire eBook dedicated to vitamin E (that can be found by clicking here) and the benefits it has been shown to have on the heart and brain. This particular study supports vitamin E’s ability to protect the brain yet again and compares it to the effects of memantine (aka Namenda—one of the newest classes of drugs used to treat Alzheimer’s dementia). Here are the details:

  1. Researchers looked at 613 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s dementia who were already taking drugs for Alzheimer’s dementia (acetylcholinesterase inhibitor).
  2. Participants took either 2000 IU/day of alpha tocopherol, 20 mg/d of memantine, both of these or a placebo for an average of 2.27 years.
  3. ADCS-ADL (Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study/Activities of Daily Living) scores declined by 3.15 units less in the alpha tocopherol group compared with the placebo group, who showed greater declines in the scores over the time of the study). This corresponded to 19% slower decline, or about 6.2 months delay in cognitive decline.
  4. Caregiver time increased the least in the alpha tocopherol group (about 2 hours less).

While these changes aren’t life altering, this is still a very powerful advantage from something as simple, safe and inexpensive as vitamin E. I must, however, interject that the form used here, alpha-tocopherol, is definitely not the most potent of the vitamin E family to be using to protect your brain. This honor goes to gamma-tocopherol, the form of vitamin E found more often in nature (such as in nuts and seeds).

It makes me wonder just how much stronger the results of the study would have been had the researchers used a mixed tocopherol product high in gamma tocopherol…

Long-Term alpha-Tocopherol and Vit C Have No Detectable Anti-Inflammatory Effects in Healthy Men – (04-16-03)

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Long-Term alpha-Tocopherol and Vit C Have No Detectable Anti-Inflammatory Effects in Healthy Men

Thought I would comment on this one in case any readers come across this article first. Basically, Vit E and C had no effect on inflammatory markers such as TNF-alpha, IL-6 or CRP. Many would use this as another opportunity to denounce these supplements in disease prevention, but I would disagree. I generally do not consider these supplements as having direct anti-inflammatory effects. Rather, these antioxidants serve more of a protective function; protecting cells and cellular components from damage from oxidation from both normal and pathological processes.

nutrition.org — Abstracts: Bruunsgaard et al. 133 (4): 1170

Click here for more information.

Flavonoids in grape juice protect the LDL from becoming oxidized – (12-05-02)

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Comparison of antioxidant effects of Concord grape juice flavonoids & alpha-tocopherol on markers of oxidative stress

While the findings that flavonoids in grape juice have potent antioxidant properties should not drop anyone’s jaw, this is a good time to remind everyone that, while we throw on our blinders and look only at cholesterol as the “bad guy” in CVD, the reality is that LDL cholesterol does not do any damage until the LDL itself gets damaged. The flavonoids in grape juice protect the LDL from becoming oxidized.

AJCN — Abstracts: O’Byrne et al. 76 (6): 1367

Read entire article here

Malnutrition in Pregnancy and later heart disease risk – (01-08-01)

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CVD in Offspring Linked to Maternal Malnutrition in Early Gestation

I often say that it’s never too early and never too late to make changes towards a healthy lifestyle. This mantra of mine really seems to be coming under assault lately!! We really need to focus on maintaining proper nutrition throughout periconception, pregnancy and lactation. For the high numbers of women experiencing nausea preventing proper nutrition, ginger has worked wonders for many women.

Heart 2000;84:595-598 The first evidence to link maternal malnutrition during early gestation with the development of coronary heart disease in offspring is reported by Dutch researchers. “Prenatal undernutrition had permanent effects on cardiovascular risk factors, Dr. Roseboom told Reuters Health. “We found that people who were exposed to the famine in early gestation had an increased risk of coronary heart disease in later life.” The prevalence of coronary heart disease in those exposed to famine during early gestation was 8.8% compared with 3.2% for those not exposed. However, the investigators observed no increase in the prevalence of coronary heart disease in subjects exposed to famine during middle and late gestation, compared with the nonexposed group. Although individuals with coronary heart disease tended to have lower birthweights and smaller head circumferences at birth, Dr. Roseboom’s group found the relationship between early e! xposure to famine and coronary heart disease to be independent of birthweight. These findings suggest “that we may be able to prevent coronary heart disease by optimizing maternal diet during pregnancy,” she concluded. “Pregnant women are very eager to change their lifestyle for the sake of their babies, so it may be a very efficient way of preventing coronary heart disease in future generations.”

Gamma-Tocopherol Associated w/ Lower Risk of Prostate Cancer** This concept of antioxidants lowering levels of many diseases is nothing new, but I thought I would use this chance to enlighten. Gamma-tocopherol is what most people think of when Vit E is mentioned, but nature actually makes many types of tocopherols. By eating whole fruits, veggies and whole grains we get a wide range of these tocopherols.

J Natl Cancer Inst 2000;92:1966-1967,2018-2023 High concentrations of gamma-tocopherol, the most common dietary form of vitamin E, are associated with a statistically significant reduction in the risk of prostate cancer, study results suggest. Dr. Kathy J. Helzlsouer, of Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, and a multicenter team conducted a nested case-control study of 117 men with prostate cancer and 233 cancer-free men. Concentrations of selenium, gamma-tocopherol and alpha-tocopherol were measured in plasma and toenail samples. The researchers report that higher concentrations of alpha-tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol and selenium were associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer, but only the association with gamma-tocopherol was statistically significant. The risk of developing prostate cancer was five times lower in men with the highest fifth of gamma-tocopherol levels than in men with the lowest fifth. The beneficial effects! of alpha-tocopherol and selenium appeared to be related to levels of gamma-tocopherol, according to the report. For these substances, “protective associations with prostate cancer risk were observed when gamma-tocopherol concentrations were above the control subject-based median value,” the authors write in the December 20th issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The results suggest that increasing the concentration of gamma-tocopherol may magnify the risk reduction, according to the report. In an editorial that accompanies the study, Dr. Edward Giovannucci, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, notes that the findings raise the question of whether displacement of gamma-tocopherol by alpha-tocopherol in vitamin E supplements has adverse health effects. “The balance of these agents, as well as potential modifiers of risk, such as smoking, should be considered in the design and interpretation of results of future ob! servational and intervention studies,” he concludes.

 

VITAMIN E PROVIDES LONG LASTING PROTECTION – (11-07-05)

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A transient treatment of hippocampal neurons with alpha-tocopherol induces a long-lasting protection against oxidative damage via a genomic action

While this is a rat study, it does illustrate the potential problems that the recent attempt to scare everyone away from Vit E may have. Thousands of studies have shown a benefit for Vit E (normally given as alpha tocopherol) for a variety of conditions, and yet a recent review of a handful of studies reviewing ONLY alpha tocopherol supplementation (which is not recommended anyway–should give a mixed tocopherol product along w/ additional antioxidants such as Vit C) showed a very small potential increase in harm.

In this study, Vit E actually provided long lasting protection by changing the way the genes were being expressed.

Read entire article here

WHY TO STAY AWAY FROM VITAMIN E? – (04-30-07)

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Antioxidant vitamin therapy alters sepsis-related apoptotic myocardial activity and inflammatory responses

I realize this is a mouse study (probably hard to find living humans willing to have their hearts homogenized…) but it has some pretty important implications for cardioprotection, especially given the irrational fear induced by several studies released indicating that Vit E may worsen cardiac risk. Keep in mind that, of the tocopherols, alpha is NOT the most cardioprotective, and that we realize that the gamma fraction is most likely the much stronger player in protecting the heart. Unfortunately, given high levels of alpha tocopherol (what is commercially known as “Vit E”) will lower serum levels of gamma.

So, if your cardiologist told you to stay away from Vit E, he/she was misinformed and probably just did you a great misservice by NOT explaining what likely happened in those studies showing an increase in CVD risk.

Read entire article here

DIFFERENT FORMS OF VITAMIN E – ALPHA AND GAMMA TOCOPHEROL – (03-05-07)

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A pecan-enriched diet increases gamma-tocopherol/cholesterol and decreases thiobarbituric acid reactive substances in plasma of adults

While the addition of any type of nuts to the diet improving health is not surprising, the blood levels of the tocopherols were interesting. Recall that most supplement forms of Vit E are in the alpha tocopherol form. While the alpha form was initially thought to be the most potent of the tocopherols, research has since shown that the gamma tocopherol is much more protective for heart disease.

This study found a very nice 10% increase in serum gamma tocopherol when pecans were added to the diet and well as lowered markers of oxidative stress. Interestingly, levels of alpha tocopherol dropped. This illustrates why some of the higher quality Vit E supplements will have mixed tocopherols–because supplementation of one form may lower the levels of another form (it is known that supplementation of the alpha form will lower levels of gamma in the blood).

Read entire article here

IS YOUR VITAMIN E CAUSING PROSTATE CANCER?

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As “beat up on vitamins” month continues, one of the current scares centers around the risk of prostate cancer and the use of vitamin E.  Several years ago concern was raised over vitamin E increasing the risk of heart attacks, so it’s nice to see that “they” have shifted their focus.  So, does vitamin E cause prostate cancer?

To answer, this, we first need some clarification.  When most people talk about Vit E (physicians included) most are referring to the alpha tocopherol version of Vit E.  However, Vit E actually has 8 forms (4 tocopherols and 4 tocotrienols).  Alpha tocopherol is what is present in almost all low quality Vit E supplements, and yet the gamma form of tocopherol is more common in nature and is a more potent antioxidant. 
 
The reason why the alpha form came to be used in all the supplements is that this was the compound that was found to allow rats to give live births (hence “tocos” meaning childbirth and “phero” meaning to bring).  If rats were having more babies, alpha tocopherol must be…an aphrodisiac!! 
 
Hence the dominate use of alpha tocopheral was born… Ironically, giving higher levels of the alpha form lowers levels of the gamma form in the bloodstream, making this the likely mechanism by which we saw the small increases in heart attacks in large Vit E supplementation trials.  Physicians who are unaware of how Vit E works have mistakenly told their patients to stop taking Vit E.  This is strongly incorrect.  The other forms of Vit E are potent antioxidants, and in other studies have shown that the other forms of Vit E are very protective of the brain in the case of seizures and migraines as well as heart disease and cancer.
 
In this particular study, researchers found a small (17%) increased risk of prostate cancer with the use of vitamin E.  However, there is quite a bit of sound research suggesting that gamma tocopherol protects against prostate cancer.  So, with the supplementation of alpha tocopherol lowering blood levels of gamma tocopherol, this relationship between “vitamin E” supplementation and prostate cancer may actually make sense.
 
What the article should conclude is that vitamin E as alpha tocopherol, lowers blood levels of gamma tocopherol and lowers the protection to the prostate, increasing prostate cancer risk.  Ok–so maybe that’ s a bit long for a title, but you get the point.
 
The bottom line is to not avoid Vit E, but this is definitely a vitamin worth spending the extra money on and make sure you’re buying a mixed tocopherol product.