New cell study.
Almost all vitamin E PCa studies are rubbish, unfortunately.
Vitamin E consists of 8 compounds - 4 tocopherols & 4 tocotrienols - alpha, beta, gamma & delta. They are never found together in nature. There is no such thing as "balanced" vitamin E, with a little bit of everything, & such concoctions are to be avoided.
The most common variant in the blood is alpha tocopherol, so, naturally, intervention studies have favored it. & laughably, have often used a synthetic form.
Gamma tocopherol (γ-Toc) is the predominant form in the diet, & the only tocopherol with anti-PCa properties.
All of the vitamin E elements compete for transport. If we swamp the body with alpha tocopherol (via supplementation) we drive down gamma tocopherol & increase PCa risk. & yet, intervention studies have done that & given E supplements a bad name..
The new study recognises the importance of gamma tocopherol.
On the tocotrienol side, PCa studies likewise favor the gamma variant, whereas cardiovascular studies favor the delta form. Given that men with PCa have a higher risk of heart disease, I use DeltaGold from annatto beans, which is about 90% delta & 10% gamma.
For some reason, the new study concentrated on delta tocotrienol.
& yet they inevitably used DeltaGold - "δ-T3 (annatto T3 oil)" - and ignored the contribution of 10% gamma tocotrienol.
For delta tocopherol, we see a similar compromise: "γ-Toc (Tmix, γ-Toc-rich oil)".
In neither case was a pure extract used. No matter.
"We found that combined treatment of δ-T3 (10 μM) and γ-Toc (5 μM) resulted in reinforced anti-prostate cancer activity."
The combination induced both cell cycle arrest & cell death.
Based on the studies I have read, the authors have come up with a decent guideline.
Our diets tend to be low on tocotrienols, so a DeltaGold supplement is prudent.
Is a supplement needed for gamma tocopherol? It is abundant in pecans & sesame seed. Also walnuts, although they are also high in alpha linolenic acid.
A gamma tocopherol supplement will necessarily come with other tocopherols, & these will dilute tocotrienols in the diet, so I prefer to go with nuts.
-Patrick
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/292...
J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo). 2017;63(5):349-354. doi: 10.3177/jnsv.63.349.
Combination Effect of δ-Tocotrienol and γ-Tocopherol on Prostate Cancer Cell Growth.
Sato C1, Kaneko S1, Sato A2, Virgona N2, Namiki K3, Yano T1,2.
Author information
1
Graduate School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Toyo University.
2
Research Institute of Life Innovation, Toyo University.
3
Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University.
Abstract
Tocotrienols (T3s) and tocopherols (Tocs) are both members of the vitamin E family. It is known that δ-tocotrienol (δ-T3) has displayed the most potent anti-cancer activity amongst the tocotrienols. On the other hand, γ-tocopherol (γ-Toc) is reported to have a protective effect against prostate cancer. Therefore, we investigated whether the combination of γ-Toc and δ-T3 could strengthen the inhibitory effect of δ-T3 on prostate cancer cell growth. In this study the effect of combined δ-T3 (annatto T3 oil) and γ-Toc (Tmix, γ-Toc-rich oil) therapy was assessed against human androgen-dependent prostate cancer cells (LNCaP). We found that combined treatment of δ-T3 (10 μM) and γ-Toc (5 μM) resulted in reinforced anti-prostate cancer activity. Specifically, cell cycle phase distribution analysis revealed that in addition to G1 arrest caused by the treatment with δ-T3, the combination of δ-T3 with γ-Toc induced G2/M arrest. Enhanced induction of apoptosis by the combined treatment was also observed. These findings indicate that combination of δ-T3 and γ-Toc significantly inhibits prostate cancer cell growth due to the simultaneous cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase and G2/M phase.
KEYWORDS:
combination; prevention; prostate cancer; γ-tocpherol; δ-tocotrienol
PMID: 29225320 DOI: 10.3177/jnsv.63.349