Ohio State University researchers have found that tocotrienol—a natural compound in vitamin E—blocks the function of an enzyme in the brain of laboratory animals that causes brain cells to die after a stroke.¹

The Vitamin E found on drugstore shelves is called tocopherol. But Vitamin E occurs naturally in foods in eight different forms (four tocopherols: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, tocopherol and four tocotrienols: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, tocotrienol), each of which has unique as well as complementary biological actions.²

Chandan Sen, PhD, senior author of the study and professor and vice chair of surgery, and deputy director of the Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute at OSU said in an online interview, “Our research suggests that the different forms of natural Vitamin E have distinct functions. The relatively poorly studied tocotrienol form of natural Vitamin E targets specific pathways to protect against neural cell death and rescues the brain after stroke injury."³

In previous studies, the Ohio State scientists found that moderate oral doses of tocotrienol before a stroke significantly reduced stroke injury in hypertensive rats.

In the more recent study, which is available online and scheduled to appear in the print publication of the Journal of Neurochemistry, researchers observed the effects of tocotrienol on neurological damage after a stroke occurs. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter that, in tiny amounts, has important roles in learning and memory. But after a stroke an excessive amount is released in the brain. Too much of it triggers a sequence of reactions that lead to the death of brain cells. Ultimately irreversible brain injury can occur.

The researchers exposed rodent brain cells to excess glutamate to mimic the brain's environment after a stroke. When excess glutamate is present, an enzyme called cystolic calcium dependent phospholipase A2, or cPLA2, releases a fatty acid called arachidonic acid into the brain. Under normal circumstances, this fatty acid is housed within lipids that help maintain cell membrane stability. In the case of a stroke, the free-roaming arachidonic acid undergoes an enzymatic chemical reaction that makes it toxic. Ultimately, brain cells are poisoned and start to die.

In the OSU study, in order to observe the antioxidant effect of the tocotrienols in halting this free radical cascade, the researchers pretreated rodent neural cells with extremely low concentrations of tocotrienol before exposure to glutamate, and treated them after exposure to glutamate. They found that:

1. Brain cells treated with tocotrienol before exposure to glutamate fared much better compared to those exposed to only the damaging levels of glutamate. Cells treated with tocotrienol were almost four times more likely to survive than were cells exposed to glutamate alone.
2. The brain cells exposed to glutamate and then tocotrienol showed a 60% decrease in release of arachidonic acid when compared to cells exposed to just glutamate.³

You only need a little bit

The researchers remarked that it only takes a very small amount of tocotrienols to provide this potent antioxidant protection. But tocotrienols occur at very low levels in nature, with the highest concentration found in palm oil. It is difficult to obtain the amount of tocotrienols that show beneficial effects from a typical daily diet. (For example, one would need to consume a cup of palm olein (cooking oil) a day to get the level required for effectiveness as described in most studies.) To be on the safe side, take an excellent full-spectrum Vitamin E supplement.⁴

What's in your vitamin E supplement?

Make sure you are taking a supplement that contains a full spectrum formula that replicates the ratio of naturally occurring Vitamin E compounds found in nature.

According to the lead author Somdat Mahbir, this is the first study to compare dietary intakes of the four different forms of tocopherols (alpha-, beta-, gamma and delta-tocopherol) and lung cancer risk.

An excellent Vitamin E supplement must have the correct mix of tocopherols and tocotrienols, not just any mix. A mix of three ingredients in an 80-10-10 ratio is not the same as say a ratio of 20-40-40, for instance. For more information on the CORRECT form of Vitamin E supplement, see... Get the Straight Facts on Vitamin E Tocopherols

For more information about Vitamin E read the Longevity Medicine Review article: “y-Tocopherol, but Not a-Tocopherol, Improves Anti-Inflammatory; Decreases Adverse Effects of Aspirins”

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