Vitamin therapy

Vitamin therapy has moved from the fringes of the health community to a more central position as scientific evidence of the value of certain vitamins for certain therapies or as preventives has been demonstrated. Often, the evidence is inconclusive and only points to a possible link, and many people respond by taking vitamins at suggested doses in case the possible benefit is real. Research continues on such substances as Vitamin E, to which a number of health benefits have been linked by research and by anecdotal evidence that is less powerful to the scientific community but often quite powerful to the general public. Research is certain to continue on these questions, and in the meantime many people will take doses of Vitamin E to assuage health problems or to stave off possible health problems.

Vitamin E refers to any or all of the group of fat-soluble vitamins consisting of tocopherols. Vitamin E is essential for normal reproduction, muscle development, the resistance of erythrocytes to hemolysis, and various other biochemical functions in the human body. The substance acts as an intracellular oxidant and works to maintain the stability of polyunsaturated fatty acids and other fatlike substances, including vitamin A and hormones of the pituitary, adrenal, and sex glands. A deficiency in vitamin E leads to muscle degeneration, abnormalities in the vascular system, megaloblastic anemia, hemolytic anemia, infertility, creatinuria, and liver and kidney damage. Deficien

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rmittent claudication, and varicose veins. More recent evidence has been offered to show that low blood levels of vitamin E put a person more at risk of a heart attack than high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and other risk factors. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health recently reported that daily supplements of vitamin E appear to reduce the risk of heart disease by onethird to onehalf (Murray 6). A role has been suggested for vitamin E as an antioxidant that may prevent serious disease by preventing the harmful oxidation of fats in the blood and so protecting arteries from the damage that leads to heart disease. Blood cholesterol comes in two forms, the "good" high-density lipoproteins (HDLs) and the "bad" low-density lipoproteins (LDLs). A theory now suggests that some LDLs are worse than others, with oxidized LDLs being the ones that clog arteries. A recent study from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas demonstrated that the LDLs of men receiving 800 International Units (IU) of vitamin E a day were only half as likely to become oxidized as those receiving no supplemental vitamin E. While the total cholesterol levels for these men remained the same, it is believed that th

Category: Medical - V