Vitamin E for heartburn: Ambivalent Opinions About Its Effectiveness
Vitamin E is a fat soluble vitamin and is an excellent antioxidant that works as an agent to act against the damage caused by free radicals in the human system. The free radicals themselves are the reason why people have tissue as well as cellular damage and it can be attributed to the fact that it is a by-product of metabolism. Thus, Vitamin E for heartburn helps in protecting the cell membranes and other fat-soluble parts including LDL cholesterol from becoming damaged due to free radicals.
New Light
However, there have been studies conducted that have shed new light over the benefits of Vitamin E for heartburn, which seem to confirm earlier suggestions that Vitamin E really is not all that is claimed it is. These studies have in fact shown that Vitamin E for heartburn does not significantly help in relieving symptoms of heartburn, and on the contrary. there is some potential for it doing harm to the patient.
The majority opinion however seems to favor Vitamin E for heartburn as it helps improve the circulation of the blood and a small dosage could actually help the patient. If the patient also fails to take adequate amounts of vegetables, nuts as also vegetable oils he or she may be at risk of having deficiency in Vitamin E. Being a potent antioxidant, Vitamin E protects the membranes from becoming damaged by peroxides that are formed when fats are oxidized. Such peroxides are known as free radicals due to the fact that they bounce around in a random and unpredictable manner inside the cells while also altering and even destroying them. Vitamin E for heartburn thus plays an important role in limiting oxidation of fats and thus helps protect the cells from free radicals and in the end provides relief from heartburn.
There are even many studies that support the fact that Vitamin E performs sufficiently well to reduce the damage caused by peroxides, even in spite of the fact that other studies find no significant benefit. Thus, one can safely conclude that there is need for more evidence on the effects of Vitamin E for heartburn, though in theory this reduction in damage caused by peroxides should improve a patient's heartburn condition. It is thus advisable to take Vitamin E for heartburn even in the form of supplements, and taking one milligram of alpha-tocopherol would be the same as taking one and a half international units of Vitamin E that could be used to combat heartburn.
