Vitamin E for Heart Health and Skin Care: Are You Getting Enough?

In the media, Vitamin E looks like a miracle drug. It's touted effects include such magnanimous wonders as lowering triglycerides, improving cholesterol, curing acne, fixing chapped skin and treating depression. Vitamin E is used in many forms, including creams, gels, pills, lotions and salves. Vitamin E is a fixture in skin care products, and its presence fortifies beauty products from nail lotion to petroleum jelly. With all of the claims being made in favor of Vitamin E's healing effects, it's hard to know what Vitamin E supplementation truly does.

Vitamin E is a basic nutrient that is contained in many foods that are essential to the daily diet, but for some reason, many people do not get enough Vitamin E. Sufferers from Vitamin E deficiency look to a variety of treatments and foods to get their Vitamin E. Along with Vitamins A and C, Vitamin E has been shown in clinical studies to be an effective treatment for acne. Vitamin E has also been shown effective on treating chapped skin, so it is a common ingredient in many beauty products such as lip balm.

According to an EHow article about Vitamin E's effects on triglycerides, "Vitamin E is found in concentration in wheat germ, corn, sunflower seeds, spinach, and broccoli." Even if you cook these foods, the Vitamin E should still be available for you to absorb because Vitamin E can survive most cooking, except for cooking at a high heat for a long time. This means that you can stew your healthy vegetables and still get all the Vitamin E you need.

Unfortunately, though studies show that Vitamin E does lower a patient's risk of cardiovascular disease in most instances, studies have also found that it is not because Vitamin E lowers triglycerides. Triglycerides have been associated with heart disease. Vitamin E has been tested in studies with patients who needed to lower their triglycerides, and no consistent effect was shown in triglyceride patients who took Vitamin E during the trial period. See Resources for an article that outlines the study done to find out Vitamin E's effect on triglycerides.

You can get a great dose of Vitamin E just eating some fresh broccoli with ranch dressing. If you add sunflower seeds and make it a broccoli salad, the skin-healing dose of Vitamin E goes up even higher. So, don't delay and gamble with your health; talk to your doctor about the benefits that a supplement of Vitamin E might have on your dietary lifestyle. See these Resources for helpful articles with more information about Vitamin E's healing effects, and how to make sure you're getting enough Vitamin E.

Resources
Vitamin E and Triglycerides
Vitamin E and Acne