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By Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS, July 20, 2006, abstracted from “Characterization of the potent neuroprotective properties of the natural vitamin E a-tocotrienol” posted in the Journal of Neurochemistry

As a fat soluble vitamin with a wide range of antioxidant functions,1 vitamin E comes in two types: tocopherols and tocotrienols, each of which has four different forms (alpha, beta, gamma, delta) for a total of 8 different forms of vitamin E.² When considering the forms of vitamin E that represent its antioxidant properties, 98% of all the literature on vitamin E focuses on tocopherols.³

But emerging research on tocotrienols has found that tocotrienols help protect the cardiovascular system against damage4 and provide just as many overall health benefits as tocopherols.³

Now a new study5 has found that tocotrienols may also help maintain the health of your nervous system.

In the study, researchers took pig brain cells and exposed them to two different known triggers of nerve damage: homocysteic acid (HCA)7 and linoleic acid (LA).8 They then treated the cells exposed to HCA and LA with different dosages of both alpha-tocotrienol and alpha-tocopherol. The dosages of tocotrienol and tocopherol ranged from 0.12 mg to 5 mg.

The researchers found that alpha-tocotrienol, but not alpha-tocopherol, “completely inhibited” HCA toxicity, thereby “demonstrating increased neuroprotective ability” of alpha-tocotrienol compared to alpha-tocopherol. When looking at LA toxicity, they found that both alpha-tocotrienol and alpha-tocopherol also “completely inhibited” nerve cell death by LA.

This inhibition, however, only happened in the larger doses (greater than .5 mg).

For the researchers, “it is prudent to conclude that orally supplemented alpha-tocotrienol may protect neurons from toxic insults.”

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Danville, CA. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at mailto:ChiroDocPSUalum@msn.com or visiting his website www.CompleteChiropracticHealthcare.com

Reference:

1 Traber MG and Packer L. Vitamin E: Beyond antioxidant function. Am J Clin Nutr 1995;62:1501S-9S.

2 Brigelius-Flohe R and Traber MG. Vitamin E: function and metabolism. FASEB J 13: 1145–1155, 1999.

3 Sen CK, Khanna S, and Roy S. Tocotrienols: vitamin E beyond tocopherols. Life Sci 78: 2088–2098, 2006.

4 Sen CK. Neuroprotective Properties of the Natural Vitamin E alpha-Tocotrienol. Stroke 2005; 30(10): e144-e152

5 Khosla R. Postprandial Levels of the Natural Vitamin E Tocotrienol in Human Circulation. Antiox Redox Sig 2006; 8(5-6), f1-f10

6 Khanna S. Characterization of the potent neuroprotective properties of the natural vitamin E a-tocotrienol. Jou Neurochem 2006 doi:10.1111/j.1471-4159.2006.04000.x

7 Baydas G. (2005) Melatonin inhibits neural apoptosis induced by homocysteine in hippocampus of rats via inhibition of cytochrome c translocation and caspase-3 activation and by regulating pro- and anti-apoptoticprotein levels. Neuroscience 135, 879–886.

8 Terrasa A. M. (2005) Pulmonary surfactant protein A inhibits the lipid peroxidation stimulated by linoleic acid hydroperoxide of rat lungmitochondria and microsomes. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1735, 101–110.