Vitamin E's benefits are a matter of balance, which most vitamin E supplements don't provide.

Vitamin E is a supplement category that really hasn’t caught up to the latest research, as we discussed in this blog post from January. As we explained then, vitamin E isn’t one compound but a family of eight compounds, 4 tocopherols and 4 tocopherols, each with specific and unique roles to play.  However, most vitamin E supplements only contain one form, alpha tocopherol.  The best vitamin E’s are those few that contain all eight compounds, but these remain a stubbornly small portion of the vitamin E supplement market. Customers and brands alike may not like the higher prices of full-spectrum vitamin E’s, but there’s growing evidence of their superiority. A soon-to-be published study highlights adds more evidence for a special, protective role of gamma and the other tocopherols, all of which are definitely lacking in most vitamin E supplements and multis. (more…)