Ahhh Kathrynne .....
I can appreciate your view point of conservancy on this issue with your
professional position. We are all different and react differently, as well
as benefit differently  from  various drugs  and therapies.

I find in this case,  your post is along the lines of the  doctor  who
informs his patient that a multiple vitamin won't hurt a person but one can
get all they need from their  diet .....  Obviously a doctor who spouts this
line of bull has never read  Adelle Davis' books ..... almost flunked  Bio
Chem in college ..... and hasn't kept up with the clinical studies and the
rest of the info that is available to us on the net and elsewhere. Informed
decisions are made with all of the facts and not understanding the total
role that vitamins play in our health isn't doing that. A simple B vitamin
will not fix nutritional deficiencies that occur all to easily with over
processed foods and with the stress of illness or injury.

Unless something new has come up since I graduated from college,
D-alpha-tocopheryl is still the same chemical regardless of it's source
...... is there an isomer that we  missed in bio chem? Could just be that
you feel better spending more money on the natural therefore it is better
and it must work better. It would seem that this viewpoint  is approaching
the "organic" this and that and the old  "food faddism" Vs. actual
chemistry.I imagine just about anything can become toxic but a more sane
level for PD is about 2000iu/day.

 If  a person isn't eating enough meat to get natural forms of  the NADH
enzyme, which is a super antioxidant, that restores  vitamin C to an active
usable state which is necessary to restore Vitamin E to a active state to
combat disease causing free radicals that occur in the body THEN one needs
supplemental NADH , 5 or 10 mg. per day usually does it to feel the
difference. This is particularly important for VEGETARIANS. Dr. Birkmeyer
has done some wonderful studies on NADH and PD, but  this coenzyne has been
around for a long time  and has been known to be necessary for the
synthesis of dopamine by the body. You will also find that NADH is  one of
the key players in the good old "Kreb's Cycle", need I say more?
One needs E but they also need C and other vitamins and minerals to balance
out the defense mechanism that depends on ingestion of proper nutrients to
fight disease. Doing this allows meds that are being taken such as
antibiotics to work even better because the body is being supplied
nutritionally while it is sick.
The old Adage: " to feed a cold and starve a fever " certainly didn't arise
without some merit of rudimentary research that nutrition works. With PD
being a stressful neurological disease, the first thing to go is the storage
of body nutrients.  PD is a dysfunctional disease at the mitochondrial level
that can be helped at that level biochemically with enzymes, minerals, and
vitamins that do not have the bad side effects like the wonder drugs.   So
feed the body with good sound nutrition.

MOST OF THIS INFORMATION HAS BEEN OUT THERE IN CONTROLLED STUDIES AND
RESEARCH FOR OVER 20 YEARS BUT THE PUBLIC IS KEPT IN THE PROVERBIAL DARK.

I have a hard time accepting the  line that  "it is not approved by the FDA"
etc. etc. is as bad as accepting the first doctor that diagnoses one that
doctor has all of the answers for the proper treatment and  one need look no
further.  That is foolishness.  DON'T FORGET that Thalidomide was an
"approved" medicine and look at all of the deformed babies that came out of
that wonder drug.  Some things work for many of us that are not FDA
approved treatments ......NADH and Co Q10 to name but a few.  When the
"approved medications" some times cause other  problems, they are to be an
acceptable trade off for not showing the symptoms of PD .......... really
great, then we can take more " approved medications" to counter act  those
problems.  Nothing is set in stone and an FDA approval or RDA are not gospel
just as  these meds  affect us all differently. Quite frankly I really enjoy
not shaking anymore by going a biochemical nutritional route instead of
blindly following the route the doctors laid out with Requip,sinemet and
selegiline and the prognosis of more debilitation as the PD progressed and
the drugs could not cover up the symptoms anymore. We should all be
interested in improving the quality of life, and when the conventional
"approved methods are not yeilding results, then we MUST look to
alturnatives. I shudder every time  I come back from a support group meeting
having seen the folks there (who are in a fog from the  meds and  anti
depressants) who have all of these other problems cropping up and still
trusting blindly in their doctor while they are not  really improving. The
"FIRST DO NO HARM" for doctors is supposed to be a goal BUT my goal is
Getting Better and that I am doing without the drugs. Not that eveyone is
the same or reacts the same but I am 100% better than a year ago and 200%
better than when I was diagnosed with PD. My thinking is clearer, my
reactions are improved , the shaking is greatly reduced, the dyskensia is
gone, the seizures are gone, and my quality of life is improved to the point
I never thought I would see again with as bad as it was for me to formulate
ideas and maintain concentration with the first years of living with PD on
drugs.
   I'M sorry for the soapbox but I can feel now enthusiastic about things
because I remember , much of which I thought I had lost somewhere in a foggy
brain,  and encourage all that are willing to use nutrition to the best of
their advantage. Put off those final bad years of stomach tubes and
uncontrollable seizures for a drug free existence for as long as it works
and enjoy life again.
----- Original Message -----
From: Kathrynne Holden, MS, RD <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2001 5:15 AM
Subject: Re: Vitanin E - toxic?


> David Meigs wrote:
> > Kathyrene,  (or all)
> > At what level does Vitamin E become toxic?  I have been looking all over
the
> > net.  I was taking 4 - 8,000 IU per day.  Then 2 days ago I read that
too
> > much can be toxic.....  Is there a guideline until I can ask my doc?
>
> David, Murray's post pretty well sums it up. Some additional information
> (plus subscribing instructions come Nutrition News Focus, an e-mailed
> daily letter:
> ------------
> May 24, 2000
> NUTRITION NEWS FOCUS
> "Nutrition news is important.  We help you understand it!"
>
> Today's Topic: New Vitamin E Recommended Dietary Allowance
>
> The new, May 2000 recommended dietary allowance for vitamin E has
> been raised from the 1989 level of 12 mg/day to 15 mg/day for adults
> of both sexes.  The chief source of vitamin E in the diet is
> vegetable oils, but other rich sources are nuts, seeds, liver, and
> wheat germ.  Good sources are leafy green vegetables.  The natural
> form of vitamin E is d-alpha-tocopherol (also called
> RRR-alpha-tocopherol).  The synthetic form, dl-alpha-tocopherol, is
> only half as active.  The other seven naturally occurring forms are
> not converted to alpha-tocopherol in the body so the panel no longer
> includes them in estimating vitamin E content.
>
> The vitamin E requirement was set based on data from induced
> vitamin E deficiency in people and the amount of hydrogen peroxide it
> took in a test tube to poke holes in red blood cells in the presence
> of different amounts of the vitamin.  This is a reasonable way to
> judge the body's need for vitamin E.  A tolerable upper limit of
> 1,000 mg/day has been established for vitamin E, primarily because of
> the risk of stroke and other types of bleeding problems.
>
> HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Some scientists think
> the RDA should be higher, some lower.  Any committee is going to
> reach a compromise value, and this one seems reasonable.  It is very
> difficult to get much more that 25 mg from the diet so it is unlikely
> we have evolved to consume the large quantities people take from
> supplements.
>
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> only to help you understand the Nutrition News.  We do not recommend
> any treatment, food or supplement.  It is not intended to replace
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> that in any way contradicts what your physician tells you, TAKE YOUR
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> Copyright 2000 Nutrition News Focus Inc.
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> ================================
>
> NNF is pretty conservative, and this message does not take into account
> conditions which may raise the need for vitamin E -- such as PD (IMO). I
> do recommend the natural form of vitamin E -- although it's a bit more
> expensive, it's also preferentially absorbed, so you'll get "more bang
> for your buck" so to speak. I met with a researcher who studies vitamin
> E and he assured me that the natural form in fact crosses the
> blood-brain barrier, which the synthetic form does not.
>
> Also, Consumer Labs has issued a report on manufacturers of vitamin E
> supplements:
>
> The findings of ConsumerLab.com's Vitamin E Product Review were released
> today.  The review included 19 natural and 8 synthetic vitamin E
> supplements and one synthetic vitamin E cream.  A summary of the results
> is available at http://www.consumerlab.com/results/vitamine.asp.
> ConsumerLab.com's paid subscribers can access the full Product Review,
> including the complete list of CL Approved Quality Products and
> ConsumerTips for vitamin E by logging in at the top right corner of the
> Product Review page.
>
> A press release is also available at
> http://www.consumerlab.com/news/news_031301.asp.
> ===================================================================
>
> And, finally, I also recommend getting as much vit. E as possible from
> foods, because foods contain all the active and inactive forms of E,
> some of which have recently been found to support and enhance the other
> forms. Foods high in vitamin E include:
> raw nuts (roasting destroys much of the E), vegetable oils, mayonnaise
> (forget that fat-free stuff!), and wheat germ.
>
> Best regards,
> Kathrynne
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Kathrynne Holden, MS, RD
> Author: "Eat well, stay well with Parkinson's disease"
> "Constipation and Parkinson's" --  audiocassette & guidebook
> "Guidelines for Medical Nutrition Therapy for Parkinson's
> disease" & Risk Assessment Tools
> "Risk for malnutrition and bone fracture in Parkinson's
> disease," J Nutr Elderly. V18:3;1999.
> http://www.nutritionucanlivewith.com/
>
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