Vitamin e why do we need it

Use the following table to help you choose foods with vitamin E. Most people can get enough vitamin E through their food choices. Vitamin E is a fat soluble vitamin, which means that our bodies can store the vitamin in our liver to use for days when we might get less vitamin E than usual. People who may have trouble getting enough vitamin E are those who are on very low-fat diets or who have health conditions that make it difficult to absorb fat. As long as you eat a variety of antioxidant rich foods such as vegetables, fruit, whole grains and moderate amounts of unsaturated fats from vegetable oils, fish, nuts and seeds, you should be able to get a healthy amount of vitamin E each day.

It is not recommended that you take a vitamin E supplement to help prevent chronic diseases like heart disease or cancer. In fact, some research has shown that in certain individuals such as those who have had heart disease, cancer or diabetes , high doses of vitamin E supplements can actually cause harm. More research is needed to determine how vitamin E supplements can affect the risk of chronic disease.

Always speak with your doctor before starting a vitamin E supplement. The amount of vitamin E found in a multivitamin is considered safe and appropriate for healthy individuals. Dietitians look beyond fads to deliver reliable, life-changing advice. Want to unlock the potential of food? What is vitamin E? What are the functions of vitamin E? How much vitamin E do I need per day? How much vitamin E you need per day changes according to your age, sex and life-stage.

What foods contain vitamin E? We can find vitamin E in a variety of foods, but some of its richest sources include: vegetable oils vegetable fat spreads nuts and seeds some fatty fish egg yolk whole-grain cereals. Does vitamin E interact with other nutrients? What happens if I have too little Vitamin E? What happens if I have too much Vitamin E?

When should I pay extra attention to my vitamin E intake? References European Food Safety Authority. Vitamin and mineral requirements in human nutrition. Examples include Crohn's disease, cystic fibrosis, and certain rare genetic diseases such as abetalipoproteinemia and ataxia with vitamin E deficiency AVED.

Vitamin E needs some fat for the digestive system to absorb it. Vitamin E deficiency can cause nerve and muscle damage that results in loss of feeling in the arms and legs, loss of body movement control , muscle weakness, and vision problems. Another sign of deficiency is a weakened immune system. Scientists are studying vitamin E to understand how it affects health. Here are several examples of what this research has shown. Some studies link higher intakes of vitamin E from supplements to lower chances of developing coronary heart disease.

But the best research finds no benefit. People in these studies are randomly assigned to take vitamin E or a placebo dummy pill with no vitamin E or active ingredients and they don't know which they are taking.

Vitamin E supplements do not seem to prevent heart disease, reduce its severity, or affect the risk of death from this disease. Scientists do not know whether high intakes of vitamin E might protect the heart in younger, healthier people who do not have a high risk of heart disease. Most research indicates that vitamin E does not help prevent cancer and may be harmful in some cases. Large doses of vitamin E have not consistently reduced the risk of colon and breast cancer in studies, for example.

However, one study found a link between the use of vitamin E supplements for 10 years or more and a lower risk of death from bladder cancer. Vitamin E dietary supplements and other antioxidants might interact with chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

People undergoing these treatments should talk with their doctor or oncologist before taking vitamin E or other antioxidant supplements, especially in high doses. Age-related macular degeneration AMD , or the loss of central vision in older people, and cataracts are among the most common causes of vision loss in older people. The results of research on whether vitamin E can help prevent these conditions are inconsistent. Among people with AMD who were at high risk of developing advanced AMD, a supplement containing large doses of vitamin E combined with other antioxidants, zinc, and copper showed promise for slowing down the rate of vision loss.

Several studies have investigated whether vitamin E supplements might help older adults remain mentally alert and active as well as prevent or slow the decline of mental function and Alzheimer's disease. So far, the research provides little evidence that taking vitamin E supplements can help healthy people or people with mild mental functioning problems to maintain brain health.

Vitamin E that is naturally present in food and beverages is not harmful and does not need to be limited. In supplement form, however, high doses of vitamin E might increase the risk of bleeding by reducing the blood's ability to form clots after a cut or injury and of serious bleeding in the brain known as hemorrhagic stroke. The upper limits for children are lower than those for adults.

Some research suggests that taking vitamin E supplements even below these upper limits might cause harm. In one study, for example, men who took IU mg of synthetic vitamin E each day for several years had an increased risk of prostate cancer.