We’ve known for a long time how important vitamin E is. After all, it’s essential … you can’t live without it.
But why is it so important? Well, for one thing, it protects the membrane of every cell in your body. That means it is a first line of defense against anything that wants to attack your cells, including diseases like cancer, diabetes, and protecting the aging brain.
Vitamin E takes it one step further than just defending against disease though.
It can keep your cells young … especially your muscle cells. This is very important as you age because we tend to lose muscle mass as we get older. Vitamin E can protect you from this negative consequence of aging.
Bodybuilder have used vitamin E for years, but recently, scientists took a look at why it worked to help muscles stay young and strong.
As you work out to build muscle, multiple muscle cells tear through their cellular membranes and then patch them back together. Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University have shown that vitamin E plays a crucial role in keeping these membranes in good repair and creating stronger muscles.
While many studies have looked at vitamin E’s importance as a potent antioxidant, the Georgia scientists decided to look at how the vitamin interacts with cell membranes.
“Every cell in your body has a plasma membrane, and every membrane can be torn,” says researcher Paul L. McNeil, a cell biologist.
McNeil points out that this role of vitamin E in fixing muscle cells is also important for examining ways to deal with diabetic muscle problems, muscular dystrophy and traumatic brain injuries that occur in the military, athletes and victims of traffic accidents.
When your head hits the dashboard or another unyielding object, membranes in your nerve cells tear and have to be fixed. And for that, the Georgia research demonstrates, you need a strong supply of vitamin E.
“This means, for the first time,” says McNeil, “83 years after its initial discovery, we know what the cellular function of vitamin E is, and knowing that cellular function, we can now ask whether we can apply that knowledge to medically relevant areas.”
After a tiring workout, I always make sure to get some high quality protein – eating eggs, meat or fish. A protein bar if I’m out and can’t prepare my own food. Now, I guess, I’ll include some vitamin E with that snack.
Other snacks that have a lot of vitamin E in them are sunflower seeds, almonds, spinach, avocadoes and peanuts.
When you take vitamin E, make sure you take natural vitamin E, not synthetic which the body has a lot of trouble using. Look for a vitamin E supplement that has mixed tocotrienols and tocopherols so it has all 8 isomers of vitamin E.
