The Benefits of Vitamin E in Holistic Medicine

Vitamin E is found naturally in some foods, added to others, and available as a dietary supplement. "Vitamin E" is the collective name for a group of fat-soluble compounds with distinctive antioxidant activities.

Antioxidants protect cells from the damaging effects of free radicals, which are molecules that contain an unshared electron. Free radicals damage cells and might contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Unshared electrons are highly energetic and react rapidly with oxygen to form reactive oxygen species (ROS). The body forms ROS endogenously when it converts food to energy, and antioxidants might protect cells from the damaging effects of ROS. The body is also exposed to free radicals from environmental exposures, such as cigarette smoke, air pollution, and ultraviolet radiation from the sun. ROS are part of signaling mechanisms among cells.
Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant that stops the production of ROS formed when fat undergoes oxidation. Scientists are investigating whether, by limiting free-radical production and possibly through other mechanisms, vitamin E might help prevent or delay the chronic diseases associated with free radicals.

Recommended Intakes

Intake recommendations for vitamin E and other nutrients are provided in the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) developed by the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) at the Institute of Medicine of The National Academies (formerly National Academy of Sciences).

• Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA): average daily level of intake sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of nearly all (97%–98%) healthy people.
• Adequate Intake (AI): established when evidence is insufficient to develop an RDA and is set at a level assumed to ensure nutritional adequacy.
• Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL): maximum daily intake unlikely to cause adverse health effects

See references below:

http://ccdb-portal.crbs.ucsd.edu/web/student66542/holistic-medicine

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/wseltzer/User:Student878721

http://galle.crbs.ucsd.edu/web/student762923/holistic-medicine

http://ccdb-portal.crbs.ucsd.edu/web/student66542/about-holistic-medicine

http://comweb.upc.edu/blog/index.php?postid=33770

http://ieee-hardware.gatech.edu/wiki/User:Student77765

http://dmtools.brown.edu/DMWiki/index.php/User:Student8723

http://galle.crbs.ucsd.edu/web/student762923/about-holistic-medicine

http://suif.stanford.edu/mediawiki/index.php?title=User:ValeraArriaga487

http://www.neurobio.ucla.edu/~iclm/index.php?title=User:DickenBracey313

Holistic Medicine community has know the benefits of Vitamin E in slowing Alzheimers for years

Holistic Medicine

The new research, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. (JAMA), also cast doubt on earlier findings suggesting that vitamin E supplements hastened death in those with Alzheimer's. The study found that subjects taking vitamin E were no more likely to die of any cause during the study period than those taking memantine or a placebo.

Holistic Medicine providers have been stressing the use of Vitamin E for years and supporting the use of Vitamin E supplements.

The findings offer a slim ray of hope that the progressive memory loss and mental confusion that characterizes Alzheimer's can at least be slowed by an agent that is inexpensive and easily accessible. Far more expensive drugs that come with greater risks and more side effects have failed to do as well in altering the trajectory of the disease and Holistic Medicine providers have been stressing on the use of natural herbal holistic medicine supplements and minerals.

The authors of the study called the outcomes seen among those who took vitamin E "a meaningful treatment effect" that was on a par with those seen in clinical trials of prescription drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration. They expressed surprise that those taking memantine along with vitamin E did not show a delay in functional loss. Possibly, the researchers noted, memantine may disrupt or hinder the metabolism or absorption of vitamin E.

"For people who are in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease, I think any delay in the rate of progression is good," said Conroy for Holistic Medicine and lead provider in Jamaica at the University of West Indies.

While memantine has shown itself effective in slowing loss of function among patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's, its effectiveness in earlier stages of the disease has been less well explored.

In an accompanying editorial in JAMA, Dr. Denis A. Evans, a neurologist at Rush University Medical Center, called the effects of vitamin E "modest" in that it appeared to ameliorate symptoms rather than disrupt or reverse the inexorable march of the disease. Given the expected swelling numbers of those at risk and the discouraging record of progress in finding therapies that could reverse or cure Alzheimer's, Evans wrote, a shift in emphasis toward the prevention "seems warranted."

The Holistic Medicine community have seen a major increase in the use of Natural Herbal Supplements from official pharma companies.

The study is one of the largest and longest to track participants with mild to moderate Alzheimer's. It followed 561 patients, 97% of them men, from 14 Veterans Affairs medical centers around the country. Researchers tracked each subject for as little as six months and as long as four years after diagnosis with possible or probable Alzheimer's disease of mild to moderate severity.
Subjects were assigned randomly to one of four groups: 139 subjects got a hard-gelatin, liquid-filled capsule of 2,000 IUs of DL-alpha-tocopherol acetate ("synthetic" vitamin E) and a maintenance dose of 10 mg. of memantine; 140 got the vitamin E capsule and a memantine placebo; 142 got a placebo vitamin E capsule and memantine; and 140 got placebo vitamin E and placebo memantine.
Using a 78-point inventory of "activities of daily living," researchers evaluated subjects' function every six months, and asked caregivers to report on dementia-related behavioral problems and how much assistance the subjects needed in six major areas of activity. They also assessed subjects' memory, language, gait and general mental function.


This has been seen as a major win for Holistic Medicine providers around the world.