Ray Peat on Vitamin E

Substances That Counteract Estrogen in Cancer Therapy

"Anything that causes tissue atrophy tends to promote cancer. The important question is: What can trigger differentiation and meaningful function in cancer cells? There are many substances that promote differentiation and counteract the effects of estrogen, and some of these have proven useful in cancer therapy. Substances that counteract estrogen include dopamine and nickel, prolactin inhibitors; chalones, the tissue-specific proteins that inhibit cell division (and possibly – more transiently – the peptides of memory); the aprotic solvents DMF and possibly DMSO; progesterone and testosterone; thyroxine and iodine; magnesium-ATP, the stable form of the biological energy molecule; vitamin A, a protein-sparing nutrient that promotes differentiation, as well as vitamin E (and the closely related coenzyme Q, or ubiquinone)."

Nutrition For Women

Increased Vitamin E Requirement Due to Estrogen During Pregnancy

"Estrogen seems to increase the body's need for vitamin E, just as it does for many other nutrients. A pregnancy, which can leave a woman with elevated estrogen levels, appears to increase the amount of vitamin E needed to sustain a subsequent pregnancy – if one can generalize from animal studies."

Nutrition For Women

Estrogen's Influence on Oxygen Metabolism and the Nervous System

"I suspect that estrogen largely acts through its effect on oxygen metabolism – a kind of biochemical breath-holding. For certain nervous systems, both taking vitamin E and an orgasm could be compared to taking a good, deep breath."

Nutrition For Women

Effects of Vitamin E Deficiency on Tissue Function

"With a vitamin E deficiency, certain tissues lose so much ATP that they can no longer function normally. Muscles cramp and can eventually harden and become dystrophic. Magnesium also helps maintain ATP levels and can be used, for example, to stop menstrual cramps. In an extreme case of vitamin E deficiency, reflexes become abnormal; in some animals, brain softening is the first symptom of a vitamin E deficiency."

Nutrition For Women

Nutritional and Hormonal Influences on Cellular Respiration

"Various nutritional, hormonal, or toxic conditions disrupt respiration in different ways: For example, a vitamin E deficiency, excess estrogen, a toxic thyroid, and DNP (the formerly popular carcinogenic reducing agent) cause oxygen to be consumed without producing the normal amount of usable energy. A deficiency of vitamin B2 or copper can prevent oxygen consumption. Cancer (contrary to a persistent establishment doctrine) involves a defect in cellular respiration and causes a tendency toward hypoglycemia, which is often compensated by converting protein into sugar, leading to the final wasting state (cachexia)."

Nutrition For Women

Vitamin E reduces iron-induced stress arthritis in animals

"Hans Selye sometimes used injected metals, such as iron salts, to experimentally sensitize animals to stress and thus make it easier to trigger arthritis. He found that vitamin E could mitigate this effect of iron."

Nutrition For Women

Aging and Cushing's syndrome: fat distribution and vitamin E

"The distribution of fat is similar in aging and Cushing's syndrome. It is known that vitamin E shifts enzyme activities to balance this distribution, and this could also occur in cases caused by other hormonal disorders besides mere aging."

Nutrition For Women

Effects of vitamin C on cholesterol and related nutrients

"Vitamin C, as is now known, lowers blood cholesterol. Eggs are rich in cholesterol but also contain lecithin, which apparently makes the cholesterol useful—or at least less harmful. Niacin and vitamin E also help regulate cholesterol. High insulin levels caused by eating sugar seem important for cholesterol's ability to damage blood vessels."

Nutrition For Women

Discussion on estrogen's effectiveness in osteoporosis treatment

"The argument for using estrogen to treat or prevent osteoporosis is based on the fact that estrogen reduces calcium excretion through urine. A vitamin E deficiency (and estrogen is known to increase the need for vitamin E) causes calcium to be retained by the muscles. In fact, every toxin causes calcium retention in soft tissue; for example, when the heart is deprived of oxygen, it absorbs calcium. Since no improvement in the skeleton can be detected by X-ray, I suspect that the improved calcium retention is merely a toxic effect of estrogen."

Nutrition For Women

The role of vitamin E in efficient oxidation and energy

"Inside the cells, vitamin E inhibits destructive and wasteful oxidation (such as that involved in aging and cancer) and makes the normal oxidative process more efficient, so that more usable energy is provided for a given amount of oxygen."

Nutrition For Women

The protective role of vitamin E for progesterone stability and blood pressure

"One theory about the action of vitamin E is that it protects progesterone. A more recent discovery is that a prostaglandin (a hormone formed from fatty acids) regulates blood pressure through the kidney—vitamin E protects fatty acids."

Nutrition For Women

Possible side effects of synthetic vitamin E

"Synthetic vitamin E is dl-alpha-tocopherol and may be associated with reports of fatigue and headaches at 800 units per day."

Nutrition For Women

Shutes' vitamin E research: evidence of benefits in heart disease

"The Shutes conducted extensive research on the use of vitamin E in heart disease and found that pharmacological doses of 400 mg per day or more are beneficial. They also recommended it for the prevention of thrombosis elsewhere in the vascular system."

Nutrition For Women

Zinc deficiency related to estrogen excess and its nutritional consequences

"A zinc deficiency is often associated with a vitamin B6 deficiency and an excess of copper; since estrogen is linked to zinc loss, other nutrients—including vitamin E and folic acid—should also be considered when nails have white spots."

Nutrition For Women

Inhibition of cell division by chalones requires ATP and vitamin E

"Normal inhibitors of cell division (chalones) are not maintained at normal levels in cells when ATP and vitamin E are lacking."

Nutrition For Women

Nutrient needs altered by estrogen for blood sugar stabilization and a healthy pregnancy

"Vitamin E, vitamin A, and magnesium are other nutrients that help maintain blood sugar levels. Vitamin B12 is needed to utilize vitamin A. Folic acid, vitamin B6, and zinc are depleted by elevated estrogen levels and are especially important for a healthy pregnancy. Too much copper can lower blood sugar; too much iron can destroy vitamin E, and a vitamin E deficiency can lead to jaundice, which can affect the baby's brain."

Nutrition For Women

Destruction of Vitamin E by Iron Salts in Animal Feed

"Around 1940, laboratory animals fed with a commercially produced feed showed signs of vitamin E deficiency and died from brain softening. The manufacturers knew they had added vitamin E to the mix, but when they tested it, they found that none was present at all. It turned out that the iron salts added to the feed destroyed the vitamin E."

Nutrition For Women

Natural iron sources and their compatibility with vitamin E

"Natural iron sources like red meat, wheat bran, wheat germ, or molasses do not seem to have this destructive effect on vitamin E. So if iron supplementation is necessary during pregnancy, these foods would likely reduce the risk of vitamin E deficiency and dangers such as miscarriage."

Nutrition For Women

The role of vitamin E in preventing hemolytic anemia

"With a vitamin E deficiency, red blood cells become fragile and break apart. This type of hemolytic anemia is quite common in premature infants and is now treated with vitamin E. In adults, however, anemia is too often routinely treated with iron pills without considering whether the anemia is related to fragility of red blood cells, which could be worsened by iron pills that destroy vitamin E."

Nutrition For Women

Adjustment of vitamin E requirement with intake of unsaturated oils

"Unsaturated oils can also trigger a dangerous type of oxidation, breaking down in a way that apparently accelerates the aging process. One of the more conservative vitamin E researchers recently revised his estimate of the required vitamin E intake (in A.J. Clin. Nutr., 1974): He wrote that the requirement rises from 15 mg per day to about 50 mg per day if someone eats a lot of unsaturated oils (fish, seeds, etc.)."

Nutrition For Women

Increased vitamin E requirement with higher intake of unsaturated fats

"The need for vitamin E increases the more unsaturated fat is present in the tissue."

Nutrition For Women

Cod liver oil, vitamin E, and cancer rates in animals

"Animals given large amounts of cod liver oil almost all died of cancer. However, when they were fed the same amount of oil plus a large vitamin E supplement, their cancer rate was normal."

Nutrition For Women

Chemicals for maintaining cellular energy charge and biological function

"Although electronic energy is closely linked to life, there are two chemicals involved in maintaining the energy charge of cells – and this energy charge is most directly related to biological function and structure. Creatine phosphate (CrP) is a type of energy reservoir for muscles, and with a vitamin E deficiency, creatine leaks from the muscles. Aging also seems to be associated with faulty creatine phosphate reserves (Verzar). Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is even more directly involved in all kinds of life functions, such as maintaining the resting state of nerves and muscles, as well as controlling secretion, retaining proteins, and eliminating toxins."

Nutrition For Women

Importance of various orthomolecules for maintaining cell and protein stability

"Other orthomolecules besides niacin would be potassium, vitamin E (improves oxygen supply, facilitates protein storage in the cell), inositol (stabilizer of cells and proteins against denaturing or drying influences, Webb, 1965), the other B vitamins, vitamin C, anabolic steroids (for example androgens and progesterone, ginseng, eleutherococcus), to promote protein synthesis and support the storage of potassium, creatine, and ATP."

Mind And Tissue Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain

Aspirin and the role of progesterone in combating insomnia

"Using aspirin before bedtime to inhibit prostaglandin synthesis is probably helpful for age-related insomnia. Progesterone and vitamin E work in different ways to prevent excessive stimulation by prostaglandins."

March 2018 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Misinterpreted studies on vitamin E in JAMA

"Around 1980, a friend showed me an article in JAMA warning about the dangers of vitamin E and citing many studies. Most of the articles the author claimed showed harmful effects of vitamin E actually reported biological changes that the researchers considered beneficial."

July 2018 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The role of vitamins in protecting against iron-related toxicity

"An excess of vitamin C can contribute to iron toxicity, but in the right amount, vitamin C is metabolically linked with vitamin E to protect against the toxic free radicals produced by iron. Vitamin A also acts as an antioxidant when very little oxygen is present – and that is exactly when iron toxicity is at its worst."

Generative Energy Restoring The Wholeness Of Life

The role of stress-induced cortisone in heart attacks

"According to Meerson, heart attacks are triggered and worsened by the cortisol produced during stress. (Meerson and his colleagues have shown that the progression of a heart attack can be stopped by a treatment that includes natural substances like vitamin E and magnesium.)"

Generative Energy Restoring The Wholeness Of Life

Importance of thyroid, pregnenolone, and vitamin E for fertility

"Thyroid, pregnenolone, and vitamin E are just as important for male fertility as thyroid, progesterone, and vitamin E are for female fertility. (For example, supplementary thyroid hormone and pregnenolone can increase a man's sperm count by balancing the effects of stress.)"

Generative Energy Restoring The Wholeness Of Life

Nutrition and stress resistance in age-related oxidative changes

"Avoiding oxidatively toxic heavy metals and maintaining respiration – while avoiding highly peroxidizable unsaturated fats in the diet (and a lower proportion of them in storage tissue) – would likely make animals more stress-resistant (EFA-deficient mitochondria are more resistant to oxidative damage, and vitamin E prevents many stress-related problems) and could inhibit age-related oxidative changes in serum albumin, red blood cells, and other tissues."

Generative Energy Restoring The Wholeness Of Life

Iron toxicity in the destruction of vitamins in animal feed

"My interest in iron toxicity was sparked by the published discovery that iron, when added to animal feed, destroys the vitamin E also added to the feed. Later it was found that it destroys other vitamins as well."

June 1994 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Factors contributing to premature tissue aging and pigmentation

"The other factors – besides iron overload and oxygen deficiency – that cause premature accumulation of age pigment in tissues are a diet low in vitamin E and/or high in unsaturated fats, as well as an excess of estrogen."

June 1994 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Investigation of the antagonism between estrogen and vitamin E

"At the time these factors were being studied in the formation of age pigment, the Shutes investigated the antagonism between estrogen and vitamin E. Essentially, this antagonism is that vitamin E conserves oxygen and estrogen wastes oxygen."

June 1994 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Vitamin E extends fertility in aging hamsters

"Professor Soderwall and his students at the University of Oregon had shown that the corpora lutea (areas in the ovary that mainly produce progesterone) seemed to fail in aging hamsters and that vitamin E supplements could significantly extend fertility."

October 1990 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Oxygen consumption and estrogen in the aging uterine endometrium

"I found that the uterine endometrium of old animals often consumed oxygen at a high rate and showed other signs of being under the influence of too much estrogen. When I tried to understand this, I saw that several things can contribute to a high oxygen consumption rate. Either too much estrogen or too little progesterone can have the same effect, as the ratio between these hormones controls their effects. A vitamin E deficiency increases oxygen consumption, and too much unsaturated fat has the same effect."

October 1990 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Vitamin E deficiency and the formation of age pigment

"In a vitamin E deficiency, unsaturated oils are oxidized in a way that produces age pigment, also called ceroid pigment or lipofuscin. This pigment consumes both oxygen and fuel but produces no usable energy."

October 1990 – Ray Peat's Newsletter
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Supplements according to Ray Peat

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