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The Truth About Natural Vitamin E (as opposed to other kinds)

Suzy
Cohen

We are all afraid of losing our mind, and our memory. Its scary to forget what you were just saying or where you
put your glasses. No one is clear about what causes memory loss or neurodegenerative brain disorders, but we do
know that fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin E support brain health.
Some people are actually (and sadly) afraid to take vitamin E because of a misleading study years ago that
concluded vitamin E was bad for us. What a disservice that journalist did to spread the news about this famous
study (which will go down in history as one of the most awful tricks to play on sick, vulnerable people)!
Many clinical trials unfortunately use synthetic (man-made) vitamin E on trial participants, which does not confer
healing benefits. Would you expect it to?
They use only a fraction of the whole molecule of vitamin E called ALPHA tocopherol, and for this reason their
results are usually bad. Well of course!!!
What do you think happens in a human trial when you dont use the 7 other parts of vitamin E?
Think about it. Seriously, take a moment to think. This is akin to building a puzzle that consists of 8 pieces, but you
only have ONE (the alpha piece). How far can you get putting together a puzzle with just one piece?
Not very.
What do you think happens to humans when you give them lab-created compounds that do not match what
naturally occurs in nature?
Vitamin E is awesome. Its just as awesome as vitamin A, vitamin D and other essential nutrients that your body
requires for optimal health. Because vitamin E is a fat-soluble nutrient it feeds and nourishes fatty tissue,
especially your heart, pancreas, liver and brain. Your brain loves E, especially if youve had a TBI (traumatic brain
injury) or other hypercoagulable conditions.
Vitamin E is like Superman for your brain unless you take a low-quality form, and then its like kryptonite!
Sadly theres a lot of junk out there. Unnecessary fillers, binders, colors, excipients and even the type of isomer of
your vitamin E matters.
Do you see dl- alpha tocopherol on your label?

You probably do, that is what 99% of vitamin E supplements

contain. All synthetic forms of vitamin E are labeled with a
dl- prefix. I wouldnt put this in my body if you paid me. Now
as I say that please realize Im a self-confessed nut job when
it comes to putting vitamins in my body. Im not saying
synthetic will harm you, Im just saying I prefer natural things,
thats just me! In my experience, studies that use natural
Vitamin E produce better outcomes than those that use
synthetic E. Its common sense.
Natural E has the d- prefix only (not dl-) and is easily
recognized by your cells.
Synthetic E is just another chemical your body has to face.
The bigger surprise to most people is not how much weve
been duped by synthetic E supplements (because many of you are aware of the synthetic vs. natural
shenanigans). No, the bigger surprise is that ALMOST ALL vitamin E formulas contain JUST ONE isomer out
of 8.
True story!
Natural E, as it occurs in nature is part of a family of 8 compounds, and alpha tocopherol is just one of them! So
when you take a conventional E supplement you are only getting one-eighth of what you should be getting.
Feeling cheated?
Please meet the whole fam- these are the 8 naturally-occurring isomers of vitamin E :
alpha tocopherol
beta tocopherol
delta tocopherol
gamma tocopherol
alpha tocotrienol
beta tocotrienol
delta tocotrienol
gamma tocotrienol
The only thing worse than taking one-eighth of pure vitamin E, is to take a poor quality vitamin E supplement. You
end up flooding your body with one isomer, and thus depleting the other 8 forms of E. What Im saying is that
cheap vitamin E (with just the alpha portion) is a drug mugger of 7 natural constituents of vitamin E which (over
time) get tilted out of balance. The more alpha tocopherol you take, the more depleted you become in the beta,
delta and gamma tocopherols (and all 4 tocotrienols). Remember in E, there are 4 tocopherols and 4 tocotrienols,
so taking only a single alpha can deplete the others so to speak. The most affordable supplements (and the ones
that are easy to find) unfortunately contain just 1 tocopherol (the alpha) and its usually synthetic (as in dl) to
boot!
Even though these are cheap to buy, youre better off NOT supplementing in my humble opinion, as you can set
off a lot of free radical damage.
Tocotrienols
These are the less talked about puzzle pieces of natural E. Collectively speaking, the tocotrienols (all four of
them) have very strong antioxidant activity. Tocotrienols are 50 70 times more potent than tocopherols so they
penetrate deeper into fatty tissues like your brain and liver. Tocotrienols are found mostly in palm oil, soybean oil
and rice bran oil with trace amounts in wheat, rye, barley, and oats (however, there is some research suggests
these gluten-containing grains can harm the brain). Other sources of tocotrienols include oats, grapefruit seed oil,
nuts (especially walnuts and hazelnuts) corn (maize), high-quality olive oil, buckthorn berry, flax seed oil, poppy
seed oil and sunflower oil. What do you think the likelihood is youre getting this amazing antioxidant (tocotrienols)
in therapeutic amounts?
Close to zero.

To get enough, youd have to slurp a cup of palm oil per day, or two cups of rice bran oil per day, or eat almost 3.5
pounds of wheat germ per day! Do I need to mention you should sit on the potty if youre going to attempt this?!
No, dont do it! A good vitamin E supplement is better. Much better. High-quality versions contain every
component of vitamin E, including the 4 tocotrienols and the 4 tocopherols. Those both have four subdivisions,
alpha, beta, delta, and gamma. So natural vitamin E contains 8 different parts (4 tocotrienols and 4 tocopherols).
And gamma tocotrienol is the prizewinner of the bunch!
Studies prove it
Natural vitamin E supports all kinds of systems in your body, and possibly contributes to better health if youre
dealing with a complex health issue. For example, studies support vitamin Es use for cholesterol management, for
clotting problems, for certain cancers like breast and prostate cancer, and especially for brain health. Tocotrienols
in particular have been shown to protect against destructive free radicals associated with chronic disease and
inflammation. The bad boys Im referring to include ROS, NF-kappa B, COX, and LOX they have to be stopped
and E can help with that. Medically, there is no cure for Alzheimers disease. Medications such as Namenda,
Aricept, Exelon and others can lessen symptoms and perhaps even delay progression, so do as your doctor tells
you, but. unfortunately, they do nothing to quell these bad-boy free radicals!
Lets talk about nitric oxide for a minute
Peroxynitrite is a dangerous oxidant that is created in activated phagocytes during infections. Phagocytes are a
type of white blood cell. Peroxynitrite can be formed if you have genetic SNPs that cause you to preferentially
break down nitrates into this potent neurotxoin. Peroxynitrite is pro-inflammatory, its a cytokine, and its also
known to be a major player in cancer, heart disease and many neurodegenerative disorders. According to a
powerful study conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, the researchers found that gamma tocopherol
was required to remove peroxynitrite (and other damaging nitrogen-containing molecules). Alpha tocopherol just
didnt cut it. Simply put, gamma tocopherol (not the popular alpha portion) was a good way to reduce peroxynitrite.
Perhaps, and Im venturing out on a limb, but perhaps it could help relieve pain and neurological issues related to
high peroxynitrite levels and thus allow for lower doses of analgesics. Another way to reduce mitochondrial
damage to the heart is with resveratrol.
Please tell me why we didnt hear this over a loud-speaker?!
A recent study in the Journal of Alzheimers Disease on tocotrienols should have made headline news. Why it
didnt is beyond me! I actually festered inside for hours after I read it and so Im taking the opportunity to tell you
today. Researchers know that poor mitochondrial function contributes to Alzheimers disease. We know that.
Mitochondria are the energy generators in you cells. You have trillions (about 3 pounds) of them.
When they malfunction or die, individuals feel fatigued, short of breath, and seem to have a higher incidence of
neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimers disease, MS, ALS, Huntingtons and many others. Researchers
found more beta amyloid plaques with poor mitochondrial function, and the study participants had developed early
stages of Alzheimers. The cells had poor function, low energy levels, and the cells werent breathing right.
Not good! (But good they could at least see this!)
Now, get this. They treated the dysfunctional cells for 24 hours with rice bran oil that contained tocotrienols (as well
as some tocopherols). Not surprisingly, this treatment reduced the dangerous plaques associated with
Alzheimers disease! Wow, so impressive that anything natural could impact this progressive, disabling and heartwrenching illness. I wish this was broadcast to all the world.
Did you know gamma tocotrienol protects mammary tissue? That is huge news to women who live in fear of
breast cancer or those who have recovered. This is just one study, published back in 2005, over 10 years ago!
Has anyone told you? The study title is, Gamma tocotrienol inhibits neoplastic mammary epithelial cell
proliferation
REPEAT- GAMMA, not alpha and certainly not dl-alpha (the synthetic kind).
Heres another brand new study on asthma, comparing tocopherols with tocotrienols, that was very brave and

smart! The researchers come right out and said, Clinical trials of tocopherol supplementation to assess the impact
of antioxidant activity in asthma have yielded equivocal results. Tocotrienol exhibits greater antioxidant activity
than tocopherol in several biological phenomena in vivo and in vitro. The favorable results were just published
(May 2015) in Pulmonary Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
If you go to pubmed, you can do your own research, just type in tocotrienol or gamma tocotrienol or any other
component of vitamin E you wish to research. If you find a negative study, dig deeper and buy the whole study
(rather than reading the free abstract they offer) and more than likely, you will see that the vitamin E used in the
trial was probably synthetic. A lot of negative E studies used just one isomer, not all of them.
Am I selling vitamin E? I sure am!
Im introducing it today.
Im proud of it too, do you know how long it took me to create a vitamin E formula that is both NATURAL and FULL
SPECTRUM?!
OMG, I am very proud of this feat. It is very hard to find, and I decided to make it when Sam needed it and I had
to go to 6 different health food stores in the dead of Colorado winter, just to find something suitable. It was so
frustrating, I came home and told him Take this brand for now, but we need to make a good E available to savvy
consumers because it should not be THIS hard to find natural, clean E!
Being a good husband and he really is (and knowing that when I have a brain worm I canNOT be stopped) he
basically said, Yes dear.
Took me months, but I got all the isomers into one softgel, just one!
That said, I should tell you my E softgels are kind of BIG, they are about the size of fish oils, and perhaps even
bigger. I have no trouble swallowing this, but you might. Its a little easier if you are eating your meal, and the
food will enhance absorption anyway.
You can also puncture it and squeeze Full Spectrum E into your rice cereal, oatmeal, a baked potato, soup, stew,
almond butter, yogurt or any food you want to. Its better with something fatty.

Do you have to buy from me? Of course not, you can (and should) buy from any retailer you want to, and trust.
Things to look for would be that it is natural (not synthetic) and that it contains all the tocotrienols and all the
tocopherols. Id also make sure it is free of artificial ingredients. Vitamin E brands are sold nationwide, at health
food stores and online.
Make your vitamins matter, if youre going to take them, make them count. Feel free to leave your comments in our
forum below and please share this article with any loved one who will benefit.
Copyright 2014 Suzy Cohen, RPh & Dear Pharmacist, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Photography by Melissa Shanley - Web Design by Stephanie Vinson
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with

the prior written permission of Dear Pharmacist, Inc. Suzy Cohen is a clinical consultant for Essential Formulas,
Inc.