A healthy dose of vitamin E

And as long as we’re discussing the wide-ranging benefits of antioxidants, this would be an ideal opportunity to answer this question sent in by an HSI member who identifies himself as “EA”:

“In your Dec 10 e-Alert (“Over The Wave”) you wrote about the benefits of selenium and recommended an intake of around 200 mcg per day. In your Dec 18 e-Alert (“Mineral With Muscle”) you wrote about the synergistic effect between selenium and vitamin E. What daily dosage would you recommend for vitamin E for this synergistic effect to be optimal?”

As with most matters concerning nutrition and vitamins, I called on HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., and here’s the good doctor’s response to EA:

“The ‘standard’ is usually 400 iu (international units) of vitamin E and 200 mcg (micrograms) of selenium for general antioxidant protection. In athletes or in the presence of heart disease I’d take people higher than that. You can get too much selenium, and I’d always stay under 1,000 mcg (personally I never went above 400 mcg).

“Now that vitamin E can be obtained as ‘mixed tocopherols’ (alpha, beta, gamma, delta), that’s the only way it should be taken (and adding the newer ‘tocotrienols’ helps even more). Synthetic vitamin E (dl-alpha) should never be used other than topically, and natural d-alpha is now inferior to the mixed form. Vitamin E is so non-toxic that the dose is difficult to determineheart disease patients can go up to 2,400 iu or higher (though technically ‘iu’ only exists relative to the alpha form, not the other forms).

“Finally, those starting out with vitamin E should start with small amounts and work up. Occasionally the nutrient can be so stimulating to heart muscle that there can be a transient increase in blood pressure, so your health care practitioner should monitor.”

My thanks to Dr. Spreen for taking care of the heavy lifting on this one, and for rounding out our mini seminar on antioxidants.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Health Sciences Institute