Donald C. Mahan

During the last 30 years there has been a scientific debate over whether natural or synthetic vitamin E is superior to the other.  The rat fetal resorption test demonstrated that natural was superior by a 1.36 ratio.  Synthetic vitamin E is manufactured having several chemical forms which differ in bioavailability, thus the major reason why synthetic vitamin E was poorer on a mg / mg basis.  However, recent research has shown that the 1.36 ratio underestimates the relative bioequivalence of the natural vitamin E form.  Past and current research was used to calculate the bioequivalence of the 2 vitamin E forms in this presentation.  In general, swine of all productive phases seem to utilize both forms of vitamin E but the natural source of vitamin E is more effective.

A.C. Grace Company Advisory Counsel members Robert Stuart, PhD, and Ed Kane, PhD, provide valuable research and data to Donald C. Mahan, PhD, Professor in the Department of Animal Studies at The Ohio State University to provide this report showing how NATURAL Vitamin E is more effective than SYNTHETIC Vitamin E.

(Read the full report here)

By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today
November 06, 2009

BOSTON -- Vitamin E and, potentially, pioglitazone (Actos) may become the first effective treatments for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a researcher said here.

About 43% of NASH patients in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial met the study's primary endpoint -- a composite of improved liver function, decreased ballooning, and stabilization of fibrosis -- after about two years of vitamin E treatment, compared with less than 20% of patients on placebo (P<0.001), according to Arun Sanyal, MD, of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

The data showed that, for most of the individual measures of NASH disease activity, pioglitazone was approximately as effective as vitamin E, Sanyal said, with both agents superior to placebo.

Still, he said, the key finding was that vitamin E was clearly an effective treatment for active NASH.

Patients were randomized to receive placebo, 30 mg/day of pioglitazone, or 800 IU/day of vitamin E, in the form of rrr a-tocopherol for 96 weeks, at which point a liver biopsy was obtained. Other outcomes were measured at week 120.

Just over half of both the vitamin E and pioglitazone groups showed resolution of NASH, Sanyal said, compared with about 25% of the placebo group (P<0.01 for both active-treatment groups versus placebo).

About 55% of vitamin E patients showed improvement in steatosis, as did some 70% of those taking pioglitazone. In the placebo group, 30% improved.

Scott Friedman, MD, president of AASLD and a hepatologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said the study was among the most important reported at this year's meeting.

"This should resurrect our efforts to use antioxidants for NASH," he said.

However, he cautioned that over-the-counter vitamin E supplements may not have the same effect seen in the trial. He noted that quality of commercial supplements is largely unregulated and may vary from one product to another.

(Read article here)

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