Vitamin E used in many orthomolecular health studies

Orthomolecular medicine is a form of complementary and alternative medicine whose practitioners claim to prevent and treat a wide range of diseases with nutrients. According to advocates of the concept, nutrients are prescribed as dietary supplements or are derived from diets designed to eliminate what proponents consider deleterious substances,[1] such as allergens, refined foods, sugar and transfats.[2][3]

The term "orthomolecular" was coined in a 1967 letter[4] by Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling and later elaborated on in a 1968 paper[5] on micronutrients and psychiatry to express the idea of "the right molecules in the right amounts" (ortho is Greek for "right"[6]). . .

Use of vitamin E in orthomolecular medicine

Vitamin E comprises eight related chemicals, which are classed as either tocopherols or tocotrienols. These chemicals also exist as several stereoisomers.[129] In supplements these are usually present in stabilized ester forms, which are converted into the active form in the intestines.[130] Research has focussed on alpha-tocopherol, since this is the form preferentially taken up by the body and the most abundant form in tissues.[131] Alpha-tocopherol is also regarded in orthomolecular medicine as the form with greatest nutritional significance.[132] In supplements this is either a mixture of stereoisomers (all-rac-alpha-tocopherol), or the biological stereoisomer RRR-alpha-tocopherol.[129]

Initial hopes for the usefulness of vitamin E in orthomolecular medicine were based on epidemiological studies. . . [NOTE: footnotes can be found in information via link below]

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