All About Vitamin E

Chances are, you’ve heard about the wonderful immune-boosting properties of vitamin C or the mood-boosting benefits of vitamin D. But what about vitamin E? All vitamins are important, but vitamin E should be at the top of your list. This is because it’s an antioxidant that helps the body fight free radicals. Don’t think the magic stops there – vitamin E is a safe (and natural) way to reduce cataracts, improve your vision and live a generally healthier lifestyle.

We always hear talk of vitamins A, C, or D, but vitamin E often gets pushed to the side. However, popularity doesn’t always prevail in terms of health. Just because it flies low on most of our radars doesn’t mean it isn’t important.

In fact, did you know that vitamin E deficiency can cause impaired vision? Sight is one of our most important senses, so why isn’t anyone talking about how great this vitamin is for your eyes?!

We honestly don’t know. But we’re still here to share all we know about what vitamin E can do for your eyes and body.

What Vitamin E Does

Vitamin E is considered an antioxidant. There are a lot of different types of antioxidants that all have one thing in common: they all fight free radicals in the body, meaning they keep cells happy and healthy.

Without antioxidants, free radicals are free to cause damage to the cells. This sometimes lead to the death of the cell. Dying cells can be extremely harmful in parts of the eye like the retina, but we’ll talk more about that later on.

Like fellow antioxidants, vitamin E is no one-trick pony. Antioxidants are rarely only antioxidants, and this vitamin has several other functions besides fighting free radicals.

Other Benefits

It is especially important for the formation of red blood cells. The vitamin also helps to widen the blood vessels to prevent them from clotting. For this reason, vitamin E is a crucial vitamin for the elderly, who are prone to blood clots. It also works to enable the body to use vitamin K.

The vitamin isn’t just for those of a certain age. Anyone at any time can get a blood clot, but getting your daily intake can prevent that in the long run. It can also give your immune system a boost. Got the sniffles? Get your vitamin E to get over that cold fast!

As a fat-soluble vitamin, it dissolves in fat as opposed to water. The key difference here is those fat-soluble vitamins last longer in the body because they get tucked away. When your body needs some of this vitamin, it can tap into some of what’s stored up in your body fat.  This is a great feature for our bodies to have! If we forget our supplements one day, it’s not the end of the world.

However, this fancy feature comes with a downside. Because it is stored in the body for later use, toxicity can be an issue. When too much vitamin E is going into your system but not being used by the body, it can become toxic. Luckily, this condition is rare and most of the time only occurs when someone has the wrong supplement dosage.

Putting the “E” in Eyes

It goes without saying that vitamin E is something your eyes absolutely need. Like we mentioned, a deficiency can cause impaired vision among other complications. One of these is  muscle weakness, which also impairs the muscles responsible for eye movement. This can sometimes cause eye paralysis.

But don’t worry – a vitamin E deficiency is hard to come by. If you stick to a balanced diet, you’re most likely in the clear. Deficiencies of this vitamin mostly affect those with low-fat absorption often after surgery, or those suffering from certain diseases like Crohn’s disease and cystic fibrosis.

A deficiency is treated with vitamin E supplements. A doctor will assess a patient’s level of deficiency and prescribe the correct amount to be taken daily.

All right, enough with the negativity! This vitamin does some really good stuff for your eyes, too! As we mentioned before, this antioxidant is great for your retina. The retina is filled with hundreds of cells that allow us to perceive colors, shadows, contrasts, and so on. Without the retina, we’d see in fuzzy black and white. Vitamin E protects the cells in the retina from being damaged by free radicals.

It is also an anti-aging vitamin. This title is well earned. According to the American Optometric Association, vitamin E can prevent age-related eye diseases like cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.

It can cut your cataract risk in half by preventing the formation of these conditions on the lens of the eye. According to the same report by the AOA, this vitamin can also slow the progression of age-related macular degeneration by 25 percent in those at risk.

Vitamin E Supplements and Food Sources

Vitamin E is not a vitamin that is produced by the body, which is why it’s so important to get it into your system through either supplements or food.

The most common way to get that much-needed vitamin into your body is to take a daily supplement. Supplements are fun because they don’t always have to come in boring capsules, they can  come in tasty gummies! But don’t be fooled by the candy-like texture of the gummies: take too many in one day, and you may end up with toxic levels of the vitamin.

Another vitamin E-containing supplement that isn’t a gummy is our Ocu-Plus Formula. It’s the perfect source for all 17 essential vitamins and nutrients for your eyes. We’ve carefully measured the daily amount needed and infused them into our vegan, non-GMO, gluten free formula.

Foods are also a great source of vitamin E and make it easy to get into your diet. Eating a regular healthy diet is enough to get the amount of vitamin E your body needs. Here are some of the best foods:

• Wheat germ (this is probably the best source on the list)
• Nuts (almonds, cashews)
• Fish
• Avocado
• Seeds

A midday snack of a handful of almonds is all you need to keep your eyes and immune system up and running at all times. Vitamin E will help your vision and keep it sharp for a long time to come.