Scientists figure out how vitamin E keeps muscles healthy

Vitamin E has long known as a powerful antioxidant, and now scientists have shown that without it, the plasma membrane, which essentially keeps a cell from spilling its contents and controls what moves in and out, cannot properly heal.

The scientist suspects knowing the cell membrane repair action of vitamin E has implications for muscular dystrophy, and common diabetes-related muscle weakness, as well as traumatic brain injury, resulting from collisions on a football field, battlefield, or roadway. With a traumatic brain injury, for example, one of the first events that happens is that the plasma membrane of the neurons, key cells in the central nervous system, tear.

"Part of how we build muscle is a more natural tearing and repair process -- that is the no pain, no gain portion -- but if that repair doesn't occur, what you get is muscle cell death. If that occurs over a long period of time, what you get is muscle-wasting disease,"

"This means, for the first time, 83 years after its initial discovery, we know what the cellular function of vitamin E is, and knowing that cellular function, we can now ask whether we can apply that knowledge to medically relevant areas," McNeil said.

The antioxidant requirement for plasma membrane repair in skeletal muscle. Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 2015; 84: 246 DOI: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2015.03.016

Vitamin E results in a 49% reduced risk of cardiovascular death

Optimal dose of vitamin E maximizes benefits, minimizes risk

* published in the November 2008 issue of Nutrition Reviews

- One of the most compelling studies of the benefits of vitamin E is the Women's Health Study, in which 40,000 healthy women, 45 and older, took 600 IU vitamin E supplements or a placebo every other day for 10 years. Women taking the supplements had 24 percent fewer deaths from heart disease. Vitamin E's protective effect appeared even stronger in women 65 and older. Those taking the vitamin experienced a 26 percent reduction in cardiovascular events and a 49 percent reduction in cardiovascular deaths.

Vitamin E intake critical during ‘the first 1,000 days’

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- “surveys show that 90 percent of men and 96 percent of women don’t consume the amount currently recommended”

* Published in Advances in Nutrition Sep 2014

Compared to the mice that had normal amounts of vitamin E in their diet, the mice fed extra vitamin E had:

• 1,000 times fewer bacteria in their lungs
• Two times fewer the number of white blood cells (neutrophils)

The reduced numbers of bacteria and white blood cells resulted in less lung damage in the older mice who received extra vitamin E. These mice were able to control the infection as efficiently as young mice.

* Published online before print December 15, 2014, doi: 10.4049/​jimmunol.1402401

Study results showed that lower levels of serum albumin and four dietary antioxidants - vitamins A, B2, E, and folate -- were associated with a higher risk of HR-HPV infection. Albumin is the most bountiful circulating protein in plasma, and decreased serum albumin was found to be associated with increased systemic inflammation and impaired immune response. Based on the four dietary antioxidants, the researchers developed a nutritional antioxidant score.

#HPV #Antioxidants #infection

Hui-Yi Lin, Qiufan Fu, Yu-Hsiang Kao, Tung-sung Tseng, Krzysztof Reiss, Jennifer E Cameron, Martin J Ronis, Joseph Su, Navya Nair, Hsiao-Man Chang, Michael E Hagensee, Antioxidants Associated with Oncogenic HPV Infection in women, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2021;, jiab148, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab148

HPV, antioxidants, infection, vitamin a, riboflavin, vitamin e, folate, folic acid, dietary antioxidants, carcinogenesis, HR-HPV, serum albumin, cancer, plasma, oncogenic, NHNES, human papillomavirus