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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. > > ******************************************************************** > Please recommend Nutrition News Focus to your family and friends. > If you like, point your browser to > http://www.nutritionnewsfocus.com/cgi-bin/birdcast.cgi > where you'll find an easy recommendation form. > > DISCLAIMER: The information in Nutrition News Focus is intended > only to help you understand the Nutrition News. We do not recommend > any treatment, food or supplement. It is not intended to replace > the advice of a physician. If you read something in this newsletter > that in any way contradicts what your physician tells you, TAKE YOUR > PHYSICIAN'S ADVICE, NOT OURS. > > Copyright 2000 Nutrition News Focus Inc. > > ******************************************************************** > * NUTRITION NEWS FOCUS > * We take the confusion out of the nutrition news > * For a free subscription to our daily email newsletter: > * Send a blank email to [log in to unmask] > * Or visit our website at http://www.NutritionNewsFocus.com > ******************************************************************** > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > To subscribe, send a blank message to [log in to unmask] > To unsubscribe, send a blank message to > [log in to unmask] > To change your email address, send a message to > [log in to unmask] > with the other address in the Subject: line > ================================ > > 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/ > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn