Vitamin E is a group of fat-soluble compounds found in a wide variety of foods. Daily requirements of vitamin E can be met with a balanced diet. High-dose supplementation may be hazardous rather than beneficial. Vitamin E serves as an antioxidant, participates in anti-inflammatory processes, inhibits platelet aggregation, and enhances immunity. Vitamin E supplementation can be beneficial against coronary artery disease, eye disorders, cognitive decline, cancer, and skin aging. This book will mainly focus on the diverse functions of vitamin E, importance of vitamin E status to provide a healthy lifespan, and the interaction between vitamin E and several pathological conditions. Readers will receive a general overview of the importance of vitamin E in health and different pathological conditions.

This volume is the newest release in the authoritative series of quantitative estimates of nutrient intakes to be used for planning and assessing diets for healthy people. Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) is the newest framework for an expanded approach developed by U.S. and Canadian scientists. This book discusses in detail the role of vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and the carotenoids in human physiology and health. For each nutrient the committee presents what is known about how it functions in the human body, which factors may affect how it works, and how the nutrient may be related to chronic disease. Dietary Reference Intakes provides reference intakes, such as Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs), for use in planning nutritionally adequate diets for different groups based on age and gender, along with a new reference intake, the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL), designed to assist an individual in knowing how much is "too much" of a nutrient.

Vitamin E is a well described and established fat-soluble essential micronutrient and as such has to be provided to the human body on a regular basis in order to avoid deficiency and maintain a healthy status. This is well established and also reviewed in a number of publications. However, a huge body of evidence has accumulated over the last decade, or so, which provides new insights on the mode of action of vitamin E, and the biological role of the tocopherol isomers, and sheds new light on the role of vitamin E in human health. Both fundamental knowledge gain and new data on the role and challenges of vitamin E as an essential micronutrient, including emerging evidence on clinical benefits, will be addressed to put this essential micronutrient in the appropriate perspective. Given this level of new evidence which has emerged over the recent years, a book on vitamin E will put into perspective the concerns which have been raised on vitamin E and which resulted in a misinformation and confusion of the public regarding the importance of vitamin E for human health. This book will reemphasize that Vitamin E is clearly required for human health and its inadequacy leads to increased risk of a variety of diseases. In addition new data of non-communicable diseases (NCD) dependent on vitamin E status show that a lifetime of low intake increases risks of development, severity and complications of NCDs. This text will put the vitamin E case into an up-to-date, science based, applicable real-life perspective and offer pragmatic solutions for its safe and personalized use beyond the various methodological and statistical controversies. The purpose of this book is also to raise awareness not only in the nutrition and medical community, but also in the public media that there are a number of health conditions where an increased intake of vitamin E can be of potential importance. Further this review should also stimulate funding organizations and agencies to increase their support for vitamin E research in order to facilitate the further exploration of the safe and efficacious use of this essential micronutrient.

This book presents the scientific evidence for the role of vitamin C in health and disease and offers new guidance on vitamin C intake in humans. The importance of vitamin C in preventing cancer and cardiovascular disease, its relevance to aging and stress, and its impacts on each of the human body systems are thoroughly assessed on the basis of the author’s extensive research and his deep understanding, as an anatomy professor, of the body as a whole. Findings published in the international scientific literature are fully taken into account, and due consideration is also given to empirical evidence, bearing in mind that mechanisms of action cannot always be precisely defined in the absence of human experiments. Beyond providing an up-to-date scientific perspective on the effects of vitamin C, the author hopes to promote human health worldwide by encouraging proper use of the vitamin. To this end, recommendations are made on the amount of vitamin C that should be taken daily and on the best way to take it. The book will be of interest to researchers, clinicians, and all others who wish to learn more about this vitamin and its significance.

Every aspect of immune function and host defense is dependent upon a proper supply and balance of nutrients. Severe malnutrition can cause significant alteration in immune response, but even subclinical deficits may be associated with an impaired immune response, and an increased risk of infection. Infectious diseases have accounted for more off-duty days during major wars than combat wounds or nonbattle injuries. Combined stressors may reduce the normal ability of soldiers to resist pathogens, increase their susceptibility to biological warfare agents, and reduce the effectiveness of vaccines intended to protect them. There is also a concern with the inappropriate use of dietary supplements. This book, one of a series, examines the impact of various types of stressors and the role of specific dietary nutrients in maintaining immune function of military personnel in the field. It reviews the impact of compromised nutrition status on immune function; the interaction of health, exercise, and stress (both physical and psychological) in immune function; and the role of nutritional supplements and newer biotechnology methods reported to enhance immune function. The first part of the book contains the committee's workshop summary and evaluation of ongoing research by Army scientists on immune status in special forces troops, responses to the Army's questions, conclusions, and recommendations. The rest of the book contains papers contributed by workshop speakers, grouped under such broad topics as an introduction to what is known about immune function, the assessment of immune function, the effect of nutrition, and the relation between the many and varied stresses encountered by military personnel and their effect on health.

Results from the National Research Council's (NRC) landmark study Diet and health are readily accessible to nonscientists in this friendly, easy-to-read guide. Readers will find the heart of the book in the first chapter: the Food and Nutrition Board's nine-point dietary plan to reduce the risk of diet-related chronic illness. The nine points are presented as sensible guidelines that are easy to follow on a daily basis, without complicated measuring or calculatingâ€"and without sacrificing favorite foods. Eat for Life gives practical recommendations on foods to eat and in a "how-to" section provides tips on shopping (how to read food labels), cooking (how to turn a high-fat dish into a low-fat one), and eating out (how to read a menu with nutrition in mind). The volume explains what protein, fiber, cholesterol, and fats are and what foods contain them, and tells readers how to reduce their risk of chronic disease by modifying the types of food they eat. Each chronic disease is clearly defined, with information provided on its prevalence in the United States. Written for everyone concerned about how they can influence their health by what they eat, Eat for Life offers potentially lifesaving information in an understandable and persuasive way. Alternative Selection, Quality Paperback Book Club

Vitamin E was discovered in 1922 by Evans and Bishop as an essential micronutrient for reproduction in rats. The active substance was isolated in 1936 by Evans and was named tocopherol, although the tocopherols and tocotrienols are actually a group of eight isomeric molecules that are characterized by a chromanol ring structure and a side chain. Providing an overview of the state-of-the-art of the chemistry of vitamin E, this book reflects the issues stemming from the complexity of the role and actions in vivo as well as in vitro. It summarizes information on the properties and function of vitamin E, the current understanding of the advantages and limitations of it, and also its application in promotion of health and prevention of diseases. Based on sound, solid scientific evidence, this is a timely addition to the literature as the centennial anniversary of the discovery of this important vitamin approaches.

This widely acclaimed book is a complete, authoritative reference on nutrition and its role in contemporary medicine, dietetics, nursing, public health, and public policy. Distinguished international experts provide in-depth information on historical landmarks in nutrition, specific dietary components, nutrition in integrated biologic systems, nutritional assessment through the life cycle, nutrition in various clinical disorders, and public health and policy issues. Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, Eleventh Edition, offers coverage of nutrition's role in disease prevention, international nutrition issues, public health concerns, the role of obesity in a variety of chronic illnesses, genetics as it applies to nutrition, and areas of major scientific progress relating nutrition to disease.

The first demonstration of the existence of a vitamin and the full recognition of this fact are often attributed to the work of McCollum, who found that a sub stance in butterfat and cod-liver oil was necessary for growth and health of ani mals fed purified diets. It became obvious that an organic substance present in microconcentrations was vital to growth and reproduction of animals. Following the coining of the word vitamine by Funk, McCollum named this fat-soluble sub stance vitamin A. We can, therefore, state that vitamin A was certainly one of the first known vitamins, yet its function and the function of the other fat-soluble vitamins had remained largely unknown until recent years. However, there has been an explosion of investigation and new information in this field, which had remained quiescent for at least two or three decades. It is now obvious that the fat-soluble vitamins function quite differently from their water-soluble counter parts. We have learned that vitamin D functions by virtue of its being converted in the kidney to a hormone that functions to regulate calcium and phosphorus metabolism. This new endocrine system is in the process of being elucidated in detail, and in addition, the medical use of these hormonal forms of vitamin D in the treatment of a variety of metabolic bone diseases has excited the medical com munity.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Vitamin C in Health and Disease" that was published in Nutrients