Vitamin e gamma tocopherol supplementation
Vitamin e gamma tocopherol supplementation is not commonly found in many supplementations. Even though the most common form Vitamin E in the American diet is gamma-tocopherol, no-one really knows what its real function in the human body is. Not only that, but the blood levels are up to ten times less that that of the alpha-tocopherol. The reason for this is because the action of the alpha-tocopherol transfers protein in the liver. It seems as though the liver prefers to incorporate alpha-tocopherol into lipoproteins, which are then circulated in your blood and finally delivers the alpha-tocopherol to all the different tissues that are in your body.
After the conclusion of some studies taken around 4 years ago, results showed that there was a 500% decrease in prostate cancer. This was found to be accruing in men who had the highest levels of gamma tocopherol. Also, this was the first study to show that gamma tocopherol was able to induce death in human cancer cells that were lab grown, yet at the same time, being able to keep the normal cells complete. It is interesting to note that in spite of all the positive results that these studies have shown, most Vitamin E supplements only contain alpha tocopherol. At this point in time, alpha tocopherol does not seem to have any anti-cancer properties.
Some new discovered benefits of gamma tocopherol have taken place from the latest research. It is shown that by take huge doses of alpha tocopherol supplements, plasma levels of gamma tocopherol get depleted. Knowing this, one should seriously think twice before taking supplements that only contain alpha tocopherol.
A further study showed that there was a reduction of up to 60% in the risk of breast cancer from women who consumed most of the vitamin E from food sources than from women who has the lowest consumption.
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