CIRCULATION

VITAMIN E

I was looking for treatments for circulation, particularly poor circulation in the lower extremities.  My dad suffered terribly from poor circulation in his legs.  I wish I'd known then, what I know now.  

So what is it that I know now?  Just what I read this morning at DoctorYourself.com:  

According to Wilfrid Shute, M.D. and Evan Shute, M.D., Vitamin E in quantity has many benefits. One is an oxygen-sparing effect on heart muscle.  Another benefit is that Vitamin E helps to gradually break down blood clots in the circulatory system, and helps prevent more from forming. Vitamin E encourages collateral circulation in the smaller blood vessels of the body. It seems to promote healing with the formation of much less scar tissue. Vitamin E helps strengthen and regulate the heartbeat. 

Did you get that?  Vitamin E helps gradually break down blood clots . . . and helps prevent more from forming."  Wow!  Just wow. But that's not all.

Vitamin E encourages collateral circulation in the smaller blood vessels of the body. It seems to promote healing with the formation of much less scar tissue.

It is one thing to hear from a friend or from a commercial or from your own reading what the benefits of a particular vitamin are. How often do we hear that Vitamin C is an anti-oxidant and that people should be taking it for colds?  We hear that a lot.  But there are so many more benefits to Vitamin C that are overlooked. Deliberately overlooked?  Hmm.  I don't know.  Maybe.  Yes, Vitamin C does fight scurvy and is an anti-oxidant.  Yes, but it also builds collagen, which may prove more important than its use as an anti-oxidant.  In fact, turmeric is a more powerful antioxidant than Vitamin C or E.  

Studies have shown that turmeric is effective in halting cancer in all 3 stages, reducing the number of tumors and protecting the throat, stomach, and colon against cancer.  In animal studies, turmeric was toxic to cancer cells within thirty minutes.  

But back to Vitamin E and circulation.  

The above benefits, say the Shutes, mean that vitamin E is important in the treatment of many diseases of the circulatory system. These cardiologists treated heart attacks, angina, atherosclerosis, rheumatic fever, acute and chronic rheumatic heart disease, congenital heart diseases, intermittent claudication, varicose veins, thrombophlebitis, and high blood pressure. That's quite a list, to which they soon added diabetes and burns as well. Many medical authorities were skeptical, to say the least. Vitamin E seemed to be too good for too many illnesses. 

Well, that is quite a list.  And how credible are the authors of these findings?  I mean, how do they know?  What proof do they have? 

Before the Shutes' viewpoint on vitamin E can be disregarded we must consider that they treated more than 30,000 cardiac patients over a period of more than 30 years. Their success cannot be easily dismissed. Today, the Shute Institute in London, Ontario, Canada, continues to see cardiac patients from all over the world, providing what is arguably the most thorough and successful vitamin E treatment for heart disease anywhere. 

So there's that.   

Guidelines on taking Vitamin E.  Dr. Saul summarizes the Shutes' opinion on that question. 

A person in good health may wish to begin with a supplemental amount of 200 I.U. of vitamin E per day and try it for a couple of weeks. Then, 400 IU  might be taken daily for another two weeks. For the next two weeks, 600 I.U. daily, and for the next two weeks, 800 I.U. per day and so on. One ultimately takes the least amount that gives the best results. This approach is essentially that of Richard A. Passwater and is provided in more detail in his book Supernutrition (1975, Pocket Books).  

There were reports about ten years that said taking 400IU is the maximum amount one should take per day.  But a friend of mine takes 3 to 4 to 5 times that and he looks healthy.  Nor do I ever hear of any physical ailments from him.  So there's that.  But Sau's summary above says that the best way is to take a graduated amount, starting at 200I.U. and working up to as high as 800I.U. a day.   

After recognizing Vitamin E's versatility in everything from heart disease to hemorrhoids, Saul explains why a single vitamin or its deficiency can account for so many functions our bodies: 

First, the reason one vitamin can cure so many ailments is that a deficiency of one vitamin can cause many ailments. Each vitamin has many different uses in the human body. There are, after all, just over a dozen vitamins and your body undergoes countless millions of different biochemical reactions daily. Therefore, each vitamin has to have a large variety of applications. 

My own experience with Vitamin E is that is a terrific topical wound healer.  I said healer. Absolutely.  And this has been corroborated by friends who've experienced similar miraculous responses from topical Vitamin E.  I had an open sore on my wrist that would just not go away.  I was suffering some serious stress at work and the open wound that started as a cut just did not heal itself.  It would start to scab and then the scabbing would recede. Frustrated by the lack of progress, I got a Vitamin E capsule.  I knew that Vitamin E was good for skin, I just didn't know how good.  Within 3 days after applying the Vitamin E to the wound, it had almost entirely healed.  The wound had closed and the scab was hardening to its later stages.  I could not believe my eyes.  I shared the information with a friend. He told me "That's why I take it internally.  For healing."  

Now tracking the internal improvements derived from Vitamin E is a lot harder.  I mean if you've got internal ulcers, it's kind of hard to know if they've been treated or healed by swallowing Vitamin E gelatinous capsules. 

For foods rich in Vitamin E, check out this list: 

1.  Spinach

2.  Vegetable oils [but be careful here: I recommend only olive oil, coconut oil, sesame seed oil, and macadamia nut oil.  All others, forget about it, especially forget about Canola and Soybean oils. Ugh!]

3.  Hazelnuts

4.  Sunflower seeds

5.  Avocados

6.  Shrimp

7.  Rainbow Trout

8.  Broccoli

9.  Butternut Squash

10.  Kiwi

CIRCULATORY FOODS BESIDES VITAMIN E
1.  Cayenne Pepper
2.  Gingko Biloba
3.  Ginger
4.  Onions.
5.  Garlic. 
6.  Parsley is really good for you; it's got Vitamin C too.
7.  Horse Chestnut (I've tried this in supplement form only once.)
8.  Willow Bark is Nature's aspirin.
9.  Green tea is "known to improve the function of the cells that line the capillaries."  Hmm.