Vitamin E helps maintain immune function and normal blood flow and is an antioxidant that protects body cells from breakdown that leads to chronic diseases. While dietary vitamin E plays a role in protecting health, there is no clear evidence that vitamin E supplements have any protective benefits. In fact, taking high-dose vitamin E supplements without medical supervision may be harmful to your health. Good food sources of vitamin E include avocados; sunflower, safflower, canola, corn, soybean and olive oils; sunflower seeds and nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts and peanuts.
Antioxidants
In the body, oxygen contributes to chemical changes that can damage and destroy cells and tissues unless they are protected by antioxidants. Vitamin E is one of the antioxidants that confers that protection. If there is enough vitamin E in a cell membrane when the cell is exposed to an oxidative reaction, the vitamin protects the cell from being oxidized by allowing itself to be oxidized instead. This is especially important in the lungs, where cells are exposed to highly concentrated amounts of oxygen.
Immunity
Vitamin E guards the immune system by protecting white blood cells that defend against disease. In a study of nursing home residents performed by Tufts University's Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, vitamin E supplements were shown to have a protective effect on upper respiratory tract infections such as colds, but no effect on lower respiratory tract infections.
Heart Protection
Vitamin E protects healthy men and women from developing heart disease but has never clearly been shown to protect anyone with established heart disease from heart attacks or death. Separate studies published in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" and the "Journal of the American Geriatric Society" showed that the higher the levels of vitamin E in the blood, the lower the incidence or severity of plaque in the arteries of older men and women.
Physical Stamina
A study published in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" that followed nearly 700 Italian men and women age 65 and older for three years linked low levels of vitamin E with a decline in physical function.
References
- NIH: Office of Dietary Supplements: Vitamin E Fact Sheet
- Book: "Nutrition and Diet Therapy," Cataldo, DeBruyne and Whitney; 1999
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