I was taking it a few months ago - mainly as a fertility supplement - but stopped when I ran out and we went into lock down. I have recently taken a dive in symptoms with FT3 going down to an all time low (for me). Wondering if that might be it, though to be fair I was also taking vitamin c and selenium but have stopped (tested selenium and was over range) so really not a fair test at all!
Just wondered what people think? Or if anyone else takes it and has noticed a difference?
Written by
Arlie123
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
Hi, not sure about e, but no doubt the vit c and selenium change has probably had an effect on you. Perhaps you need the selenium to be quite high (within reason).
I’m always considering vitamin effects myself, but it is difficult to assess with so many variables, diet, stress etc
Hi and thanks for the links - hadn't seen those before. I started to take natural vit E (d-alpha not dl-alpha plus occasionally tocotrienols) as a blood thinner. I know that it is supposed to offset some of the negatives of oestrogen, in the same way that progesterone and thyroid hormones do and as all of these things are so interlinked it makes sense that it would support your thyroid function. But, Ray Peat suggested that it probably shouldn't be necessary to supplement if we weren't getting so many polyunsaturated fatty acids.
"Since the requirement for vitamin E decreases as the consumption of unsaturated fats decreases, the requirement, if any, would be very small if we didn't eat significant quantities of those fats."
Cutting those fats and replacing with good fats, and balancing hormones, might be a good plan either instead or as well. (I'm doing all of the above!) Best wishes
Thanks - that's interesting. But I'm confused because unsaturated fats (nuts, seeds, fish etc) are generally thought of as the healthier fats (in moderation of course)?
I think most people are confused about fats. I avoid trans fats like the plague and go for monounsaturated plus good saturated. We do need fat and fat pays for some further investigation. Be prepared to forget what you thought you knew. Dr Murray is pretty reliable and this is short. tipsonlifeandlove.com/diet-...
But if you want to look at saturated and carbs and cardio health, DrKendrick is your man every time ( very good on the thyroid too) drmalcolmkendrick.org/2016/.... Good luck
I did some research into vitamin E several years ago. I read that vitamin E isn't just one substance, it is made out of 8 different forms of vitamin E called tocopherols and tocotrienols, four of each.
In nature vitamin E exists as a mixture of these various forms. The supplements that are sold are often completely artificial and are not the same biochemically as vitamin E in its natural form.
Supplementing vitamin E has had some bad reviews as a result of research. I have two responses to that :
1) The form of vitamin E used in research is usually artificial, not natural (when the type is mentioned at all).
2) The form of vitamin E used in research is usually just alpha-tocopherol - the other seven compounds making up natural vitamin E are rarely included.
If research used a complete form of vitamin E I would be more inclined to take it seriously, but it is often difficult or even impossible (for me) to work out which form of vitamin E was used.
I would only want to supplement the natural form of vitamin E, i.e. substances whose names start with "d-" rather than "dl-" e.g. d-alpha tocopherol rather than dl-alpha-tocopherol. The "dl-" form is artificial.
In the above meta analysis it mentions a non-significant increase in total mortality in those taking vitamin E for a year. In my opinion, if its not statistically significant then its unlikely to be of any importance.
When I first read about the different forms of vitamin E and how unnatural/artificial so many vitamin E supplements are I went looking for a complete vitamin E supplement. I didn't find many, and the ones I did find were all very expensive and way out of my budget.
Maybe there is more competition for good quality vitamin E supplements now and the price has dropped. But I haven't looked into the subject for years.
If I was going to supplement vitamin E I would try to supplement the most natural product I could find for one or two months. Then I would decide if any benefits made it worth the cost.
Natures Way sell a natural vitamin E supplement which works out at just over £4 for the month, no soya, gluten, dairy or yeast but they do contain Gelatine i think they're a new product in their range i thought they seemed reasonably priced 😊
Hi, I may be wrong but I think these are made from soy like a lot of vit E supplements. Corn is often also an issue, as I have found to my cost. Just thought I'd say in case you have a soy issue esp as soy may interfere with thyroid. The Solgar are not soy but do have corn. Cheers
Check the ingredients on their website but definitely says no Soya, plus no Carrageenan which is what i liked about them, they don't look to contain anything nasty so worth a look.
I wonder if they have reformulated. I found a review that said the E was from purified soy oil and the ingredients listed soybean oil. I couldn't find 'no soy' and then found a second website that does, but neither mention carrageenan. Probably me. I don't use anything with that in, like you, and also re-capsule all my HPMC capsule supplements. Cheers
Possibly, i didn't even know they sold separate vitamin E, just came across them by chance. Maybe worth emailing the company to get written confirmation of the ingredients and to check for corn etc. If you have severe allergies but they're a reasonable price and well known uk brand too! sorry to hijack your post Arlie123 x
Thanks. I use the Truly Gluten Free supplement Master List that Micki Rose has (purehealthclinic.co.uk/2019... so I know that my supplements are ok and that I shouldn't react. Companies often don't actually know or can't /won't tell you and it is a lot of work. I have found these lists hugely helpful since I found I have a corn intolerance (not an allergy), as it is in just about everything! Best wishes
Thanks, this is super interesting. Appreciate you posting it. I take this solgar one solgar.co.uk/products/solga... which looks to be natural as you mention.
Hi Arlie123, the solgar brand you take contains Carrageenan which comes from seaweed which is natural but also quite a controversial ingredient. I suffer with digestive issues so personally choose not to use any products containing this (lots of soya milks/products use it as a thickening agent) due to the studies on inflammation but I'm sure somebody else is more knowledgeable than me and this is just my personal choice 😊
Well spotted - I only got as far as noticing the corn and didn't go any further as that ruled it out for me. Carrageenan is a digestive and bowel irritant and best avoided. It is also often in the HPMC used for capsules (not in tablet coatings) so can be in medications and supplements. Best wishes
Interesting, thank you. I did similar when I was looking for a natural blood thinner and found a palm oil (corn and soy free) 4 tocopherol and 4 tocotrienol supplement (Tocomin Suprabio) and some research, - it worked but I couldn't afford to stay on it. Been using a still too-expensive (and getting harder to source) d-alpha with mixed tocopherols for some time and slowly lowering dose but know that it helps so don't want to stop altogether. I think if anything the price has gone up, unless you can tolerate corn, soy etc which I can't. Cheers
I just had a look and the wording of the info about ingredients is quite confusing. At different points it describes the product as "mixed tocopherols and tocotrienols" then mentions "d-alpha tocopherol" then "gamma e tocopherol".
The other problem I have with that info is that it doesn't mention how much of the DRI (Dietary Reference Intake) of vitamin E is included in the product. It makes a big difference whether it contains 10%, 100% or 1000% of your daily requirement. Given that vitamin E is a fat soluble vitamin taking a very high dose would probably be a bad idea because it could build up in fat. But on the other hand a very low dose probably won't do much good.
You can find out the DRI for various nutrients here :
"Both the tocopherols and tocotrienols occur in α (alpha), β (beta), γ (gamma) and δ (delta) forms, as determined by the number and position of methyl groups on the chromanol ring.[3][10] All eight of these vitamers feature a chromane double ring, with a hydroxyl group that can donate a hydrogen atom to reduce free radicals, and a hydrophobic side chain which allows for penetration into biological membranes. Of the many different forms of vitamin E, gamma-tocopherol (γ-tocopherol) is the most common form found in the North American diet, but alpha-tocopherol (α-tocopherol) is the most biologically active.[1][11] Palm oil is a source of tocotrienols. "
So, if you are eating a North American diet you may not need gamma tocopherol anyway.
If you've watched the video I linked in this thread the speaker suggests that most people get plenty of tocopherols in their diet but get too few tocotrienols. That was new info to me, and I haven't done any checking to follow it up. But it may be of interest when picking a vitamin E supplement.
Seriously, I think I'd go looking for another product. Sorry!
Humanbean - don't be sorry! you have been a huge help. Thank you so much for such a comprehensive reply! I hadn't ordered it and am going to look again. Someone else suggested that the Gamma form of Vitamin E was good but I did look at the post with the video you tagged and also read the comments people had posted to it with various suggestions of vitamin E brands which might tally with his recommendation of tocotrienols and will have a look at some of those. I'm intending to use it for menopause hot flashes, liver function and detoxing excess estrogen.
I don't know to be honest. I watch some of his videos and he is very popular (not that that means anything). I don't think he suggests anything controversial, but I would suggest checking what he says.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
Supplements and blood tests
Selenium over range, can’t figure out why!
Little bit of hope for hair loss sufferers 
Myo Inositol in Combination with Selenium for subclinical Hashimoto's
