Vitamin E is a nutrient essential to the human body. It helps your body form red blood cells and use vitamin K. Vitamin E is also an antioxidant that protects your body from damage caused by free radicals, which are unstable substances that can harm cells, tissues, and organs. Free radicals are also believed to affect certain age-related conditions.

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Vitamin E is found in many foods, including asparagus, corn, margarine, nuts, olives, seeds, spinach and other green leafy vegetables, vegetable oils, and wheat germ. If you are on a low-fat diet, you need to make careful food choices to ensure that your vitamin E intake is adequate. However, too much vitamin E can be harmful. Amounts in excess of 400 IU per day may lead to bleeding problems, since vitamin E can act as an anticoagulant (blood thinner). The amount of vitamin E found in most multivitamins is generally not harmful.

Vitamin E deficiency is rare. It is likely to occur in people who cannot absorb dietary fat, those with certain kinds of rare genetic abnormalities, and very low-birth-weight infants. Sometimes people with zinc deficiency also have decreased levels of vitamin E. Insufficient levels of this vitamin can lead to neurological problems associated with nerve degeneration, which causes tingling and burning sensations in the hands and feet.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. It’s recommended that individuals ages 14 and older take 15 milligrams of vitamin E a day. Children need different amounts of vitamin E based on their ages. Breastfeeding women may require more vitamin E and should check with their doctors.
  2. Vitamin E supplements are usually sold as alpha-tocopheryl acetate, a form of alpha-tocopherol that has antioxidant properties.
  3. Vitamin E exists in eight different forms. The most active form in humans is alpha-tocopherol.