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Why Is Vitamin E Important?
Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin with antioxidant qualities that helps keep your immune system strong. It occurs naturally in a wide range of foods and is even added to certain food products to help you increase your intake. You should only attempt to correct a suspected vitamin E deficiency after consulting your doctor.
Supplements may cause complications, so it’s best to eat a healthy diet that includes many foods rich in vitamin E.
Diet
You can find vitamin E in a wide range of foods. Supplements aren’t regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, so it can be difficult to determine the quality of the ingredients. Some of the medications that may be affected include:
anticoagulants
antiplatelets
simvastatin
niacin
chemotherapy drugs
radiotherapy drugs
Because they aren’t regulated, it may be unclear what vitamin E you’re getting.
For examples, some supplements only contain one type of vitamin E. Your body needs other types found in various food sources.
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Some infants are born with vitamin E deficiency, which usually improves with supplements. Thus, newborns, particularly premature newborns, are at increased risk of vitamin E deficiency.
Signs And Symptoms Of Deficiency
It is among the body’s main antioxidants, and a deficiency results in oxidative stress , which can lead to muscle weakness. It is among the body’s main antioxidants, and a deficiency results in oxidative , which can lead to muscle weakness. : Damage to nerve fibers can prevent the nerves from transmitting signals correctly, resulting in these sensations, which are also called peripheral neuropathy.
: A vitamin E deficiency can weaken light receptors in the retina and other cells in the eye. This can lead to loss of vision over time. Older adults may be particularly at risk.
Muscle weakness and difficulties with coordination are neurological symptoms that indicate damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems. The peripheral system is the network of nerves located beyond the brain and spinal cord. The central nervous system communicates between the brain and the spinal cord.
When the body has too little vitamin E, it contains fewer antioxidants that protect these fats, and the function of the nervous system breaks down.
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Medical condition
Vitamin E deficiency Specialty Endocrinology
Vitamin E deficiency in humans is a very rare condition, occurring as a consequence of abnormalities in dietary fat absorption or metabolism rather than from a diet low in vitamin E.[1] Collectively the EARs, RDAs, AIs and ULs for vitamin E and other essential nutrients are referred to as Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs). [1] Vitamin E deficiency can cause nerve problems due to poor conduction of electrical impulses along nerves due to changes in nerve membrane structure and function.
Signs and symptoms [ edit ]
Signs of vitamin E deficiency include the following:
Causes [ edit ]
Vitamin E deficiency is rare. [6]
– birth weights less than 1500 grams (3.3 pounds). Rare disorders of fat metabolism – There is a rare genetic condition termed isolated vitamin E deficiency or ‘ataxia with isolated with vitamin E deficiency’, caused by mutations in the gene for the tocopherol transfer protein.
[7] These individuals have an extremely poor capacity to absorb vitamin E and develop neurological complications that are reversed by high doses of vitamin E.
– There is a rare genetic condition termed isolated vitamin E deficiency or ‘ataxia with isolated with vitamin E deficiency’, caused by mutations in the gene for the tocopherol transfer protein. Abetalipoproteinemia is a rare inherited disorder of fat metabolism that results in poor absorption of dietary fat and vitamin E.[8] The vitamin E deficiency associated with this disease causes problems such as poor transmission of nerve impulses and muscle weakness. Diagnosis [ edit ]
The U.S. Institute of Medicine defines deficiency as a serum concentration of less than 12 μmol/L.