(EMAILWIRE.COM, December 20, 2010 ) Greenville, SC – For several decades, Vitamin E has been touted for its role in fighting cancer, delaying aging, maintaining a healthy heart and much more. However, according to leading Functional Medicine advocate Dr. Ron Grisanti, D.C., most commercially available Vitamin E supplements use the least effective form of Vitamin E, in which case consumers are not receiving this vitamin’s scientifically documented benefits (www.yourmedicaldetective.com ).
“Vitamin E consists of a family of eight substances – four tocopherols (alpha, beta, gamma, delta) and four four tocotrienols (alpha, beta, gamma, delta),” explains Dr. Grisanti, who is the Founding Director of Functional Medicine University, an online training program for credentialed health care professionals.
“All the research done on the tremendous benefits of Vitamin E has used tocotrienols derived from palm, which are very high in delta tocotrienols,” Dr. Grisanti says. “But most commercial Vitamin E supplements use alpha tocopherols, which are the least effective form of Vitamin E. Moreover, many companies that acknowledge the superiority of delta tocotrienol actually use tocotrienol products derived from rice bran, which is significantly cheaper and less effective than the highly researched tocotrienols derived from palm. This means that people taking commercial Vitamin E supplements are receiving only a small portion of the benefits demonstrated in the scientific literature.”
Dr. Grisanti notes also that although many foods and cosmetics boasting of Vitamin E as an ingredient want consumers to believe that itÂ’s there for its health benefit, the real reason itÂ’s there is usually to protect the flavor or color of the product components.
Besides running Functional Medicine University, Dr. Grisanti has created a health information site for consumers, YourMedicalDetective.com. For a free membership that offers access to a large and constantly growing library of straight-talk, research-based information on a wide variety of health issues, sign up at http://www.yourmedicaldetective.com .
