A transient treatment of hippocampal neurons with alpha-tocopherol induces a long-lasting protection against oxidative damage via a genomic action
While this is a rat study, it does illustrate the potential problems that the recent attempt to scare everyone away from Vit E may have. Thousands of studies have shown a benefit for Vit E (normally given as alpha tocopherol) for a variety of conditions, and yet a recent review of a handful of studies reviewing ONLY alpha tocopherol supplementation (which is not recommended anyway–should give a mixed tocopherol product along w/ additional antioxidants such as Vit C) showed a very small potential increase in harm.
In this study, Vit E actually provided long lasting protection by changing the way the genes were being expressed.
