January 30, 2008 – Vitamin E may help prevent decline in physical ability in the elderly. This is one of the observations made by a team of researchers from Yale University School of Medicine.1.
For five years, they studied the impact of diet, especially the concentration of nutrients like vitamins, on physical decline associated with aging.
According to the results2, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, older people with low levels of vitamin E did less well on three physical performance tests (walking, balancing, getting up from a sitting position).
It even seems that a low concentration of this vitamin would have an even more marked impact in people aged 81 and over. The other nutrients studied, vitamins B6, B12, D and folic acid, had no effect on the test results.
Vitamin E is an antioxidant that plays an essential role in protecting the membrane of all cells in the body.
Foods or supplements?
The body would need 15 mg to 30 mg of alpha tocopherol, a component of vitamin E, daily, the researchers say. In general, nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, and to a lesser extent green leafy vegetables are good sources of vitamin E.
Study participants were not taking vitamin E supplements. In fact, the researchers do not recommend supplementation. However, to reach the daily dose of 30 mg of alpha tocopherol only through food, a person will have to provide “a lot of effort”, underlines the pharmacist Jean-Yves Dionne, specialist in natural health products.
Unlike the study authors, he does not recommend taking natural vitamin E supplements. “Up to 400 IU per day, there is no problem,” he argues. However, he warns against the synthetic form of vitamin E, which is less well absorbed by the body.
A 2004 study, however, concluded that too much vitamin E could be harmful or even fatal. The researchers did not distinguish between the natural and synthetic vitamin, specifies Jean-Yves Dionne. They also did not take into account the intake of other antioxidants and essential fatty acids in the subjects treated, he adds.
Julie Fortier and Claudia Morissette – PasseportSanté.net
1. Bartali B. et al. Serum micronutrient concentrations and decline in physical function among older persons. JAMA 2008; 299 (3): 308-315.
2. The study was conducted among 698 people aged 65 and over, living in the Florence area, Italy. The researchers compared their test results for three years, 1998, 2001 and 2003.