Get the “Right” Vitamin E for Your Brain
Why did high-vitamin E foods fend off Alzheimer’s in recent studies, but vitamin E in supplements did not do as well?
It’s because most supplements use the wrong type vitamin E, suggests researcher Martha Clare Morris, at the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging in Chicago and Atlanta.
She explains that most supplements have only one form of E, called alpha-tocopherol. However, vitamin E in food consists of a mixture of tocopherols of 4 types–alpha, beta, delta and gamma–as well as tocotrienols, another form of vitamin E.
Thus, Dr. Morris suggests a mixture of tocopherols, as in food, has the most potent anti-Alzheimer’s activity, rather than alpha tocopherol alone, as found in most supplements.
Dr. Morris finds that eating an extra 5 milligrams of vitamin E daily in food slashed Alzheimer’s risk 26%. Of the forms of E in food, she says, gamma tocopherol appears most protective, probably because it’s a strong anti-inflammatory. Inflammation is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s.
Supplements should provide not just alpha, but also gamma, delta and beta tocopherols, says vitamin E researcher Andreas Papas, adjunct professor at East Tennessee University and author of the book “The Vitamin E Factor.”
“This full range of mixed tocopherols, plus tocotrienols, is far more potent in guarding the brain, heart and entire body,” he says. “Restricting vitamin E to alpha-tocopherol in supplements cheats consumers of full protection.”
You can check supplement labels to be sure they list vitamin E as alpha tocopherol with “mixed tocopherols.”
Source: Morris, M., Amer J Clin Nutrition, Feb. 2006.
