Wellness experts have expressed concerns that a high intake of vitamin E can actually be damaging to your wellbeing, but a new review have found this not to be the case. According to the review, which was just published in the Journal of Lipid Research, your body contains biological mechanisms which exist to routinely eliminate excess levels of the vitamin, which makes it almost impossible to take a harmful amount.
According to an expert from the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, you should not be concerned about your intake of vitamin E, whether through diet or from any normal use of supplements – regardless of how much you take. Maret Traber, an internationally recognized expert on this micronutrient and professor in the OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences, commented, ‘I believe that past studies which have alleged adverse consequences from vitamin E have misinterpreted the data. Taking too much vitamin E is not the real concern. A much more important issue is that more than 90% of people in the US have inadequate levels of vitamin E in their diet.’
Vitamin E is a very important nutrient for the proper function of many of your organs, nerves and muscles. The vitamin is also an antioxidant and anticoagulant, which means that it can reduce blood clotting. You can find vitamin E in oils, meat and some other foods, but many people do not get enough of this vital nutrient in their diets, especially as more and more people are emphasising a need for a low fat intake in their diet.
For their review, the researchers investigated how vitamin E is metabolised, and discovered that two major systems in your liver work to your body’s vitamin E levels. These systems routinely excrete excessive amounts of the vitamin, and even if you achieve a very high intake by taking supplements, all you will do is double your tissue levels of vitamin E, which is not harmful. Traber explained, ‘Toxic levels of vitamin E in the body simply do not occur. Unlike some other fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A and D, it’s not possible for toxic levels of vitamin E to accumulate in the liver or other tissues.’