We have been saying that most Americans get enough Vitamin E and that a deficiency is rare. However in recent years as we have learned about the antioxidant properties of the vitamin, there has been renewed interest. And recent research has presented even more interest. Recent research at the Ohio State University is showing that Americans who have metabolic syndrome do not absorb dietary vitamin E as effectively as other Americans.
Metabolic syndrome is defined as the presence of at last three of the five factors that increases the risk for heart disease and diabetes – excess belly fat, elevated blood pressure, low ‘good’ cholesterol and high levels of blood glucose and triglycerides. An estimated 35 percent of Americans have metabolic syndrome.
In the recent study persons with metabolic syndrome absorbed less vitamin E than the other participants and thus possibly receive less of the beneficial antioxidant properties of vitamin E.
The amount of vitamin E absorbed after it is consumed refers to its bioavailability or the amount of the vitamin that enters the bloodstream. From previous research it has been known that humans absorb about 10 percent of a vitamin E supplement it eaten without fat. The bioavailability of vitamin E is influenced by processes that regulate fat absorption and the delivery of fat to the bloodstream.
It was expected that persons with metabolic syndrome had lower bioavailability of vitamin E, but had never been studied. This research shows that at least one-third of Americans have higher vitamin E requirements than persons without metabolic syndrome.
Researchers concluded that the study may imply that persons with metabolic syndrome either have an impairment of absorption of vitamin E at the intestine or an inability for vitamin E to get out of the liver or both.*
* The research was funded by the National Dairy Council and is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The study was also supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
For additional reading about vitamin E, see www.foodcrumbs.com, Vitamin E, 10/30/2011.
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