American physicians have underestimated this vitamin to the extent that most of the research on scar tissue prevention and removal has been done in other countries. A few Americans, however, have made outstanding contributions. Early food analysis indicated that vitamin E, or alpha tocopherol, was widely distributed, hence deficiencies were assumed to be rare. Later research revealed that only one of seven natural tocopherols, the alpha form, could function as a vitamin. Corn and soy oils, for example, once considered to be good sources, contain only II and 13 units respectively of alpha tocopherol in a half cup, and the remainder proved to be inactive tocopherols. The same was true of dozens of foods. Even wheat-germ oil, the richest source, supplies only 56 units of alpha tocopherol per half cup, and this small amount is quickly destroyed when exposed to air. The vitamin E once available in oils and whole-grain breads and cereals has been lost in refining until our intake has decreased from an estimated 150 units daily to a mere 8 or 15 units.
The natural vitamin E, or d-alpha tocopherol acetate, obtained by distilling vegetable oils-usually soy oil destined to be used in paints-is customarily measured in units, and the synthetic vitamin E in milligrams. By definition I unit of vitamin E equals I milligram. When reports came from other countries that vitamin E was valuable in preventing miscarriages and in treating heart disease, the mixed tocopherols available in the United States were unstable and practically worthless; hence physicians saw no improvement in patients given the almost vitamin less preparations. Although d-alpha tocopherol acetate sold today is stable, the mixed tocopherols are said not to be. Much prejudice, however, still exists, and doctors frequently make the statement that vitamin E is not needed or that deficiencies rarely occur .
Research indicates that vitamin E is unique in playing a role in a wider variety of body functions than almost any other nutrient. It has been described as a "guardian angel" which protects the essential fatty acids, carotene, vitamin A, B vitamins (indirectly), and the pituitary, adrenal, and sex hormones from being destroyed by oxygen. Without it blood cells break down, several amino acids cannot be utilized or the pituitary, adrenal, and sex hormones be produced, and severe liver and kidney damage can occur. Yet huge amounts have been given without toxic effects being observed. Its outstanding functions, however, are that it reduces the need for oxygen and helps to prevent scarring.
The Need For Oxygen Is Reduced
When vitamin E is generously supplied, the need for oxygen in the tissues is markedly reduced. Because scars form after blood vessels have been cut, burned, mangled, or otherwise damaged to the extent that the oxygen supply is markedly decreased, it has been suggested that scar tissue requires less oxygen than normal tissue; therefore it forms when oxygen starvation prevents healthy cells from growing. Vitamin E also tremendously increases the rate at which new blood vessels develop around damaged areas.
For this reason physicians who have done research on vitamin E believe that it should be given for all conditions where the oxygen supply is limited. Thus vitamin E applied locally and taken internally has repeatedly proved invaluable during skin grafting.
Can old scars be removed?
Facial scars, which often cause lifelong psychological damage, can be prevented by vitamin E and sometimes old scars can be removed. The more recent the scarring, the more quickly it seems to be replaced by normal tissue provided the diet is adequate. Only last week, a 65-year-old man for whom I had planned a nutrition program chanced to remark, "Strangest thing. Vitamin E has been given to colored people who form excessive amounts of scar tissue (keloids), tumor-like growths which may remain tender, painful, itching, and burning for years, making sleep all but impossible. Dramatic relief from pain, sometimes in less than 24 hours, has occurred when such persons were given 1,200 milligrams of the vitamin each day, and they remained pain-free after it was reduced to 100 milligrams daily. When these growths have been removed surgically, they have returned only after the vitamin was stopped. It may be that colored people have an unusually high requirement for vitamin E, which causes them to form scar tissue more readily than those of other races.
This vitamin has been used with considerable success in removing scars from the fingers and palms which sometimes contracts them into fixed useless claws, a condition known as Dupuytren's contracture. When physicians have given only 200 or 300 milligrams of vitamin E daily, within two months the leathery, puckery skin softens, further scar-tissue formation ceases, and scars on other parts of the body are replaced by normal tissue. In some cases, this abnormality has been completely corrected after it had existed for as long as 12 years,20 although 100 milligrams must be continued daily to prevent regression. An abnormality in which scar tissue forms on the penis, causing pain on erection and often resulting in impotency (Peyronie's disease), has been corrected, usually within two or three months, when 200 or 300 milligrams of vitamin E have been given daily. Because such results show that at least some old scars can be removed, when scar tissue interferes with health, every effort should be made to replace it with normal tissue.
Scars Inside The Body
Although most of us are vain enough not to want even a vaccination mark to show-my last one, anointed daily with vitamin E, completely disappeared scars inside the body are far more dangerous than external scars When cells have been damaged or destroyed and the diet is not adequate, scar tissue is formed. It appears that any person who has frequently been ill has dozens of scars inside his body for every one showing on his skin.
For example, healthy thyroid glands in the neck produce a hormone, thyroxin, which keeps body activities at an optimum rate of speed. Thyroxin is made of nothing more than an amino acid and iodine, yet persons whose thyroids are underactive usually do not improve when adequate protein and iodine are given them, a fact that puzzled me for years. The reason is that when too little iodine is supplied, the cells in the thyroid gland break down, hemorrhage, and "appear to be virtually floating in a pool of blood." Eventually they are replaced by scar tissue, which cannot possibly produce the needed hormone, and the entire body suffers accordingly. Similarly, a goiter rarely disappears when iodine alone is given because iodine has no effect upon the masses of scar tissue. A physician who recently removed a friend's underactive thyroid because of a small growth described the scarred gland as "exactly like peanut brittle."
When vitamin E has been given with iodine to persons having underactive thyroids, the amount of iodine taken up by the glands and the quantity of thyroxin in the blood (protein-bound iodine) have increased almost immediately. The contraction of scar tissue formed in the urinary bladder as a result of ulcers, infections, or harm done by toxic medications sometimes causes it to shrink until almost no urine can be held. When vitamin E has been given, the capacity of the bladder has increased and pain subsided, though the condition recurs unless vitamin E is continued.
Scars play some role in almost every disease. In cirrhosis of the liver, the organ becomes a mass of scars, yet biopsies have shown that these scars can be replaced by normal tissue. Scars in arterial walls prevent cholesterol from passing through, thus hastening the production of heart disease.
The contraction of scars on the heart valve resulting from rheumatic fever causes heart murmurs. Scars from old ulcers are sometimes almost as troublesome as the ulcers themselves. The scar tissue formed after hemorrhoid surgery may interfere with evacuation for years. Adhesions sometimes cause such difficulty that repeated surgery is necessary to remove them, yet they are nothing more than scar tissue. The main damage done by smoking, perhaps a forerunner of lung cancer, appears to be that non-functioning scars take the place of normal cells. Some physicians believe that the acute pain of bursitis, arthritis, and chronic gout is in part caused by the contraction of scar tissue. Doctors working with patients having Peyronie's disease and severely scarred hands observed that other forms of stiffness and inelasticity, such as bursitis, wry neck, gout, arthritis, and "frozen shoulders," also improved when vitamin E was given. It appears that if vitamin E is undersupplied, no damage can be done inside the body without leaving scars.
Because vitamin E is only one of the 40 essential nutrients that work together, to expect results by adding it alone is like trying to play chess with nothing but a bishop. In the same way that every diet should be planned to meet the needs of stress, so should each prevent the formation of both external and internal scarring regardless of the type of illness involved.
Author Resource:-
David Crawford is the CEO and owner of a Male Enhancement Reviews company known as Male Enhancement Group which is dedicated to researching and comparing male enhancement products in order to determine which male enhancement product is safer and more effective than other products on the market. Copyright 2010 David Crawford of http://www.maleenhancementgroup.com This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
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