This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Vitamin E
natural-approach-f27/topic18635.html

Vitamin E intake high - is it a problem?
natural-approach-f27/topic18636.html

Vitamin E and Selenium increase the risk of Prostate cancer
natural-approach-f27/topic18637.html

Cerebrospinal fluid levels of alpha-tocopherol in patients with multiple sclerosis (1998)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 409800370X
"The serum levels of vitamin E and the serum vitamin E/cholesterol ratio were significantly lower in MS patients when compared with controls (P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively). These values were not correlated with age, age at onset and duration of the disease in the patients group."

Nonenzymatic antioxidants of blood in multiple sclerosis (1999)
http://www.springerlink.com/content/dflv5gx818uhy8dd/
We investigated the plasma level of lipid peroxides ... (glutathione, α-tocopherol, retinol, plasma sulfhydryl groups, and uric acid) in multiple sclerosis patients with exacerbation or in remission, including a group treated with β-interferon. ... the ratio of plasma α-tocopherol to cholesterol plus triglyceride was decreased (P < 0.001). ... β-Interferon increased plasma α-tocopherol levels (P < 0.001) (:roll:)

Measurement of Low-Molecular Weight Antioxidants, Uric Acid, Tyrosine and Tryptophan in Plaques and White Matter from Patients with Multiple Sclerosis (1992)
http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/pr ... tNr=234298
The levels of the antioxidants ascorbic acid, cysteine, reduced glutathione and a-tocopherol, of the free-radical marker uric acid and of the amino acids tyrosine and tryptophan were measured by means of high-pressure liquid chromatography in plaques, adjacent white matter and distant white matter from patients with multiple sclerosis, and in central nervous system tissue from patients without neurological diseases. ... α-tocopherol was lowest in plaques and highest in distant white matter in all cases.

SELENIUM, VITAMIN E AND COPPER IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS (1976) (i know i have posted this study elsewhere ... wish i could see the full data regarding the values for vitamin e, since we all know my opinion of the value of 'international normal ranges' is so very high :S )
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... x/abstract
There has been accumulation of the nutritional muscular dystrophy of the cattle in a certain western district of Finland where the prevalence of multiple sclerosis (MS) is also highest. This animal disease is due to lack of selenium (Se) and vitamin E. The Se content of whole blood was low (52.8 ± 11.3 ng/ml) in MS patients from this high-risk area compared to the controls (68.8 ± 11.0). The data for serum failed to confirm this tendency. All Se values appeared to he lower than international values suggested. The values for hoth vitamin E and copper were within the international normal range.

Vitamin E in Humans: Demand and Delivery (1996)
http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10 ... 196.001541
"How much vitamin E is enough? An established use of supplemental vitamin E in humans is in the prevention and therapy of deficiency symptoms. ... In healthy individuals, a daily intake of about 15-30 mg of α-tocopherol is recommended to obtain “optimal plasma alpha-tocopherol concentrations” (30 μM or greater)."

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my approach: no meds so far - just balanced whole foods (partial 'paleo', much less outright elimination), science, supplements, & bloodwork
my regimen - www.thisisms.com/ftopict-2489.html
www.whfoods.com, www.nutritiondata.com

excellent detailed article on vitamin E

Newly Discovered Benefits of Gamma Tocopherol (2002)
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2002/oct ... ma_01.html

subtitles..

Report
"Since taking large doses of alpha tocopherol depletes plasma levels of gamma tocopherol, the health-conscious consumer who takes only alpha tocopherol supplements needs to seriously reconsider this practice. Likewise, most vitamin E supplements provide only alpha tocopherol. New evidence strongly suggests that this is inadequate supplementation."

Anti-inflammatory properties of gamma tocopherol

Protection against prostate and other cancers

Gamma tocopherol's role in cardiovascular disease
"In rats, gamma tocopherol supplementation led to a more potent decrease in platelet clumping and clot formation than supplementation with alpha tocopherol (but it should be remembered that supplementing with gamma tocopherol raises the levels of both gamma and alpha tocopherol). Gamma tocopherol was also a more effective inhibitor of ex-vivo lipid peroxidation, LDL oxidation and superoxide generation. Likewise, gamma tocopherol more effectively enhanced the superoxide dismutase (SOD) expression and activity.[7]
Both alpha and gamma tocopherol increased the generation of nitric oxide, or NO, (NO causes the dilation of blood vessels) by increasing the activity of endothelial nitric oxide synthase. However, only gamma tocopherol supplements led to enhanced protein expression of this crucial enzyme."

Other benefits

Sources of gamma tocopherol

"Please remember that taking large amounts of alpha tocopherol lowers the plasma levels of gamma tocopherol; taking gamma tocopherol, on the other hand, increases the levels of both alpha tocopherol and gamma tocopherol. Taking only alpha tocopherol supplements results in gamma tocopherol depletion.
It will take controlled human studies using gamma tocopherol supplementation to explore its benefits more fully"

References

quotes from one of the referenced articles (pre-dates the flawed SELECT supplementation trial by 8 years)

"A total of 117 of 145 men who developed prostate cancer and 233 matched control subjects had toenail and plasma samples available for assays of selenium, alpha-tocopherol, and gamma-tocopherol. The association between the micronutrient concentrations and the development of prostate cancer was assessed by conditional logistic regression analysis. All statistical tests were two-sided."
...
"For gamma-tocopherol, men in the highest fifth of the distribution had a fivefold reduction in the risk of developing prostate cancer than men in the lowest fifth (P:(trend) =.002)."
...
"Statistically significant protective associations for high levels of selenium and alpha-tocopherol were observed only when gamma-tocopherol concentrations were high."

_________________
my approach: no meds so far - just balanced whole foods (partial 'paleo', much less outright elimination), science, supplements, & bloodwork
my regimen - www.thisisms.com/ftopict-2489.html
www.whfoods.com, www.nutritiondata.com

GOD's gift to neurons -> Tocotrienols

jackD

p.s. Find some FULL-Spectrun ones.

The contents should be listed as shown below.

Tocomin® Full-Spectrum Natural 192 mg
Tocotrienol/Tocopherol Complex

Typical Distribution:

Gamma tocotrienol ........... 38.4-46.08 mg
Alpha tocotrienol..............21.12-26.88 mg
Delta tocotrienol...............10.56-13.44 mg
Beta tocotrienol......................... 2.88 mg
Alpha tocopherol............... 19.2-26.88 mg

Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2004 Dec;1031:127-42.

Tocotrienol: the natural vitamin E to defend the nervous system?

Sen CK, Khanna S, Roy S.
SourceDavis Heart & Lung Research Institute, 473 West 12th Avenue, The Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.

Abstract
Vitamin E is essential for normal neurological function. It is the major lipid-soluble, chain-breaking antioxidant in the body, protecting the integrity of membranes by inhibiting lipid peroxidation. Mostly on the basis of symptoms of primary vitamin E deficiency, it has been demonstrated that vitamin E has a central role in maintaining neurological structure and function.

Orally supplemented vitamin E reaches the cerebrospinal fluid and brain. Vitamin E is a generic term for all tocopherols and their derivatives having the biological activity of RRR-alpha-tocopherol, the naturally occurring stereoisomer compounds with vitamin E activity.

In nature, eight substances have been found to have vitamin E activity: alpha-, beta-, gamma- and delta-tocopherol; and alpha-, beta-, gamma- and delta-tocotrienol.

Often, the term vitamin E is synonymously used with alpha-tocopherol.

Tocotrienols, formerly known as zeta, , or eta-tocopherols, are similar to tocopherols except that they have an isoprenoid tail with three unsaturation points instead of a saturated phytyl tail. Although tocopherols are predominantly found in corn, soybean, and olive oils, tocotrienols are particularly rich in palm, rice bran, and barley oils.

Tocotrienols possess powerful antioxidant, anticancer, and cholesterol-lowering properties.

Recently, we have observed that alpha-tocotrienol is multi-fold more potent than alpha-tocopherol in protecting HT4 and primary neuronal cells against toxicity induced by glutamate as well as by a number of other toxins.

At nanomolar concentration, tocotrienol, but not tocopherol, completely protected neurons by an antioxidant-independent mechanism. Our current work identifies two major targets of tocotrienol in the neuron: c-Src kinase and 12-lipoxygenase.

Dietary supplementation studies have established that tocotrienol, fed orally, does reach the brain. The current findings point towards tocotrienol as a potent neuroprotective form of natural vitamin E.

PMID:15753140[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]