Re: Dr. Mercola: "Although vitamin E has many uses it appears that cancer prevention is not one of them"

He perfectly knows that these days there are natural balanced vitamin E supplements.
Troubles begin when disbalance among different forms emerges- I present long article from aor.ca about that below. It is like when disbalance between omega-6 and omega-3 takes place has its consequences- very similar with at least eight different vitamin E forms. If mr. Mercola doesn't know that it is very disturbing if lying (hopefully not) is even worse.

Unless totaly necessary? He needs to update his knowledge about our needs of vitamins and minerals (natural ones are abound). Do you know what terrible traffic congestions there are in the Schaumburg where he does his practice? I do. How do you think body fights all that? Veggies are not enough. "Unless necessary" almost equals "you don't need them".


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Say “vitamin E” to most health-conscious people, and they immediately think of one molecule: alpha-tocopherol. But vitamin E is not just this one molecule, but also a complex, like the B-complex. The E complex is an eight-member family, composed of eight closely related vitamin E molecules (or “vitamers”): four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. Each member of the vitamin E complex has its own unique strengths, and even unique properties not shared with other E vitamers. If your “vitamin E” contains only alpha-tocopherol – or alpha tocopherol with token quantities of “mixed tocopherols” – you’re missing out on the benefits of the “other” vitamin E molecules. But more than that: studies show that unbalanced alpha-tocopherol supplementation actually depletes the body of the other members of the family, and can negate many of their benefits!

▪ After just one month of supplementing with 400 IU of alpha-tocopherol, peoples’ gamma-tocopherol levels are reduced by two-thirds. It may take as much as two years for the ratio of alpha- and gamma-tocopherol to normalize after unbalanced alpha-tocopherol supplementation is stopped!

▪ By contrast, gamma-tocopherol supplements actually raise alpha-tocopherol levels. Over the long term, tocotrienols may have a similar effect, as they are slowly converted to alpha-tocopherol over time.

▪ One of the key benefits of the tocotrienols is their ability to reduce cholesterol synthesis, by reducing the activity of HMG-CoA reductase, a key enzyme in this process. Alpha-tocopherol supplements have been shown to interfere with this action in animal experiments.

▪ While one study (the ATBC trial) found that low-dose alpha-tocopherol reduced the risk of prostate cancer, two studies suggest that high-dose alpha-tocopherol may actually increase prostate cancer risk. Some researchers think that the reason may be due to alpha-tocopherol’s ability to deplete gamma-tocopherol, since (as discussed below) some studies have found that higher levels of gamma-tocopherol, but not alpha-tocopherol alone, reduce the risk of this killer.

So just what can these other vitamin E molecules do that alpha-tocopherol can't?

▪ The tocotrienols' unique chemical structures allow them to move around more freely in cell membranes. As a result, the tocotrienols are forty to sixty times more potent antioxidants than the tocopherols in biological membranes.

▪ Extracellular fluid pressure plays a key role in the regulation of blood pressure, and high extracellular fluid pressure puts you at risk of congenstive heart failure, cardiac fibrosis, and liver cirrhosis. It was recently found that gamma-tocopherol and gamma-tocotrienol, but not alpha-tocopherol, help control extracellular fluid pressure through a key metabolite.

▪ Five studies have found that that delta-tocopherol, as well as all four tocotrienols, but not alpha-tocopherol, can cause Breast Cancer cells to commit "cellular suicide" in a test tube.

▪ Alpha-tocopherol is a good antioxidant against many kinds of free radicals, but gamma-tocopherol is much more effective in detoxifying “reactive nitrogen species,” the class of free radicals found in smog. In fact, alpha-tocopherol cannot effectively remove peroxynitrite (a key reactive nitrogen species) without gamma-tocopherol as a partner.

▪ Double-blind, placebo-controlled trials have shown that high-dose tocotrienol complex can help restore cholesterol balance in people whose levels are too high. In one such trial, tocotrienols actually reversed the thickening of the arteries leading into the brain in patients with advanced carotid stenosis.

▪ COX-2 is a key enzyme in the inflammatory process. It is targeted by “COX-2 inhibitor” drugs such as Celebrex® and Vioxx.® Researchers have recently reported that gamma-tocopherol, but not alpha-tocopherol, is an effective COX-2 inhibitor. The researchers also mention that "the current finding is consistent with our recent [unpublished] observation that g[amma]T[ocopherol] supplementation attenuated inflammation-induced damage in rats."

▪ A recent study found that men who had the most gamma-tocopherol in their blood were an astounding five times less likely to develop prostate cancer than men whose blood gamma-tocopherol levels were lowest. In the same study, alpha-tocopherol and selenium levels were only found to be protective in men whose gamma-tocopherol levels were also high!

▪ When scientists tested members of the E complex to see what effect they would have on brain cells exposed to glutamate in a test tube, they found that alpha-tocotrienol, but not alpha-tocopherol, could block brain cell death caused by glutamate.

▪ A key step in the development of atherosclerosis is the invasion of injured blood vessel walls by immune cells called monocytes. A recent study found that alpha-tocotrienol actually inhibited the sticking of monocytes to the endothelial cell. Alpha-tocotrienol was much more potent than alpha-tocopherol.

▪ Researchers recently reported that tocotrienols, but not alpha-tocopherol, extend the average lifespan of flatworms, and protected them against carbonylation, a kind of free radical damage to the body’s proteins. What might this research bode for mammals?

Which “E” For the Heart?
Many studies (the HOPE, GISSI, CHAOS, Primary Prevention Project (PPP)) have now found that, despite all expectations, alpha-tocopherol does not give any protection against death from a heart attack or other heart hazards in people at high risk. Many objections have been raised against these trials, but the problem may have been that they had the wrong "vitamin E."

When you consider all the heart-protective properties of the "other" E vitamins – cholesterol-lowering, anti-inflammatory, blood-pressure reduction, inhibition of adhesion molecules, and on and on – you might expect that alpha-tocopherol, alone, is not going to be the heart cure-all many people expect it to be. It's interesting, therefore, that several studies have found that low plasma levels of gamma-tocopherol – but not alpha tocopherol – are found in patients with atherosclerosis. Three such studies have specifically found an unbalanced ratio of alpha- to gamma-tocopherol in such patients!

Likewise, in two large epidemiological studies (one involving American women, and the other including Finnish people of both genders), it’s been found that vitamin E from food, but not from supplements, was protective against death from heart disease. Why would this be? Maybe the problem lies, again, in the form of vitamin E being used. Crucially, most of the vitamin E in the food we eat is gamma-tocopherol, while most “vitamin E” supplements are overbalanced with alpha.

Alzheimer’s Disease and the E Family
There’s been evidence for a long time that free radicals are important in the degenerative process of Alzheimer’s disease. But until recently, it hasn’t been clear which kinds of free radicals are perpetrating these acts of neurological terrorism. And without an understanding of which free radicals are doing the damage, you can’t know which antioxidants are likely to be most effective in putting out the fires.

Recent research has begun to provide evidence that nitrogen-based free radicals, such as peroxynitrite, is especially virulent in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. As noted above, gamma-, but not alpha-tocopherol can detoxify nitrogen-based free radicals such as peroxynitrite. So researchers looked at levels of gamma- and alpha-tocopherol in the brains of people who had died with Alzheimer’s disease. The results: victims of Alzheimer’s disease were found to have a specific depletion of gamma-tocopherol in areas of the brain affected by the disease: alpha-tocopherol levels were the same in the brains of the Alzheimer’s casualties as in people without the disease, but gamma-tocopherol levels were found to be lower throughout the brains of people with the disease compared to the brains of those without.

These depleted levels of gamma-tocopherol corresponded with increased levels of a waste product left over when gamma-tocopherol is used up in fighting nitrogen-based free radicals. Crucially, the region-by-region pattern of used-up gamma-tocopherol followed the pattern of nitrogen-based free radical damage already established in earlier studies.

Finally, the same team showed that gamma-, but not alpha-tocopherol could significantly protect the enzyme alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase from damage by peroxynitrite. Levels of this enzyme have been found to be reduced by 50 to 75% in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s than it is in the brains of people not suffering with the disease. The researchers confirmed their suspicions: as much as 55% of the peroxynitrite damage to this Alzheimer’s-sensitive enzyme was prevented by gamma-tocopherol, while alpha-tocopherol offered only a 15% reduction at the optimal concentration.

One large, double-blind, placebo-controlled study has already shown that alpha-tocopherol supplements can provide some limited support for people with Alzheimer’s, slowing the progression of the disease. This new research suggests that gamma-tocopherol may provide far greater protection. In fact, these scientists suggest that, since “Dietary supplementation with alpha-tocopherol will decrease plasma levels of gamma-tocopherol ...it is conceivable that the beneficial effect of alpha-tocopherol supplementation are confounded by a diminuition of gamma-tocopherol pools in [Alzheimer’s disease] ... A better clinical paradigm might entail cosupplementation with gamma-tocopherol.”

Total E MAX is the first complete, full-spectrum, balanced E complex supplement in Canada, providing alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta- tocopherols and -tocotrienols in a potency designed to create an excellent E complex profile. The formula also includes Coenzyme Q10, because this nutrient plays a vital role in “recharging” E vitamins to their active antioxidant form when they are deactivated in the battle against free radicals.

Vitamin E is a team, not just a goalie: eight molecules, not one. Make sure your team is complete.


References
i. Baker H, Handelman GJ, Short S, Machlin LJ, Bhagavan HN, Dratz EA, Frank O. “Comparison of plasma alpha and gamma tocopherol levels following chronic oral administration of either all-rac-alpha-tocopheryl acetate or RRR-alpha-tocopheryl acetate in normal adult male subjects.” Am J Clin Nutr. 1986 Mar; 43(3): 382-7.



ii. Qureshi AA, Pearce BC, Nor RM, Gapor A, Peterson DM, Elson CE. “Dietary alpha-tocopherol attenuates the impact of Gamma-tocotrienol on hepatic 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase activity in chickens.” J Nutr. 1996 Feb; 126(2): 389-94.



iii. Packer L, Weber SU, Rimbach G. “Molecular aspects of alpha-tocotrienol antioxidant action and cell signalling.” J Nutr. 2001 Feb; 131(2): 369S-73S.



iv. Jiang Q, Christen S, Shigenaga MK, Ames BN. “Gamma-tocopherol, the major form of vitamin E in the US diet, deserves more attention.” Am J Clin Nutr. 2001 Dec; 74(6): 714-22.



v. Schwenke DC. “Does lack of tocopherols and tocotrienols put women at increased risk of breast cancer?” J Nutr Biochem. 2002 Jan; 13(1): 2-20.



vi. Helzlsouer KJ, Huang HY, Alberg AJ, Hoffman S, Burke A, Norkus EP, Morris JS, Comstock GW. “Association between alpha-tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol, selenium, and subsequent prostate cancer.” J Natl Cancer Inst. 2000 Dec 20; 92(24): 2018-23.



vii. Liu M, Wallmon A, Olsson-Mortlock C, Wallin R, Saldeen T. “Mixed tocopherols inhibit platelet aggregation in humans: potentialmechanisms.” Am J Clin Nutr 2003 Mar; 77(3): 700-6.



viii. Tomeo AC, Geller M, Watkins TR, Gapor A, Bierenbaum ML. “Antioxidant effects of tocotrienols in patients with hyperlipidemia and carotid stenosis.” Lipids. 1995 Dec; 30(12): 1179-83.



ix. Ohrvall M, Sundlof G, Vessby B. “Gamma, but not alpha, tocopherol levels in serum are reduced in coronary heart disease patients.” J Intern Med. 1996 Feb; 239(2): 111-7.



x. Kontush A, Spranger T, Reich A, Baum K, Beisiegel U. “Lipophilic antioxidants in blood plasma as markers of atherosclerosis: the role of alpha-carotene and gamma-tocopherol.” Atherosclerosis. 1999 May; 144(1): 117-22.



xi. Nojiri S, Daida H, Mokuno H, Iwama Y, Mae K, Ushio F, Ueki T. “Association of serum antioxidant capacity with coronary artery disease in middle-aged men.” Jpn Heart J. 2001 Nov; 42(6): 677-90.


xii. Williamson KS, Gabbita SP, Mou S, West M, Pye QN, Markesbery WR, Cooney RV, Grammas P, Reimann-Philipp U, Floyd RA, Hensley K. “The nitration product 5-nitro-gamma-tocopherol is increased in the Alzheimer brain.” Nitric Oxide. 2002 Mar; 6(2): 221-7.



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