Vitamin E, sold in pharmacies, does not protect against cancer
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
The advertisement of vitamin preparations details all the medical characteristics of a particular vitamin. But advertising is silent about the fact that these substances are found in nature in various forms - and they are not at all identical in their qualities.
Recently, many scientific works have appeared that studied the characteristics of vitamin E and the effect of taking this substance on the growth of malignant tumors. Perhaps, in addition to vitamins E and D, not one of the other vitamins received such contradictory data: some scientists claim that vitamin E (tocopherol) can prevent the development of cancer and slow the spread of existing tumors, other scientists confirm that this vitamin is tricky - with constant admission, it just contributes to the growth of cancers.
American scientists from the New Jersey Cancer Institute made a clear explanation of this confusing situation: they found that of the three types of vitamin E (alpha, gamma and delta tocopherols), the latter alone have the ability to prevent the development of malignant tumors such as malignant tumors of the intestine , lung, breast and prostate cancer. And alpha-tocopherol does not possess similar qualities.
An interesting fact here is that gamma and delta-tocopherol are found mainly in natural food products: soybean products, corn oil, various nuts and others, and alpha-tocopherol is a part of synthetic vitamin drugs that are sold in pharmacies .
In experiments with laboratory animals, they were exposed to all kinds of carcinogens. As the researchers inform, in the experimental group in which animals received gamma and delta-tocopherols along with food, the number of cases of cancer of animals was lower, and the tumors were smaller in comparison with the animals from the control group who did not receive products rich in these kinds of tocopherols.
When the cancer cells were inoculated into animals, in rats that periodically received gamma and delta-tocopherols, the spread of tumors occurred much more slowly.
Delta-tocopherol was especially successful in resisting intestinal cancer.
"Those who take vitamins or are going to strengthen their health with their help, it will be useful to learn about the results and to understand the difference between the forms of tocopherol", - points out the co-author of the study, Dr. Chung Yeng (Chung Yang)