You may have heard of the popular nutrient tocopherol. Actually, you are probably more familiar with its common name – vitamin E. Ive used tocopherols in my practice for years to fight heart disease, cancer, and to boost the overall immune system. Its a very powerful nutrient.
But you probably have not heard that tocopherol has a twin? Actually, its a non-identical twin. And this twin is even more powerful than its more popular sibling. In fact, this twin can lower cholesterol, improve your insulin sensitivity, and reduce vascular inflammation far better. And it may even reverse vascular disease.
Unfortunately, knowledge of this twin was lost for years. Then in the 1980s, researchers rediscovered it.
These researchers, from the University of Wisconsin, found it in a natural barley extract. And when they tested it, they discovered that it significantly reduces liver production of cholesterol.
That is when the drug company Bristol-Meyers Squibb became interested. Company researchers studied its impact on cholesterol metabolism well into the 1990s. But the company abandoned its research when the statin craze erupted. They knew they could make more money with Pravachol than a simple nutrient.
So why was Bristol-Meyers Squibb interested in this twin in the first place?
Common vitamin E tocopherol is well known to protect your lipids from dangerous oxidation (rusting). That oxidation is one of the early steps in your development of vascular disease. But tocopherols do not have much effect on your level of lipids (cholesterol, etc.). But this twin does! In fact, it can significantly reduce your total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol.
The twin is tocotrienols. Many savvy Second Opinion readers have heard about tocotrienols. But theres one particular form that you may not know about – or how powerful it is. Ill tell you about it in just a moment.
Grouped together, tocotrienols and tocopherols make up vitamin E. Tocopherols come in various forms and are more abundant in nature than tocotrienols. Alpha tocopherol is the most common, but there are also beta, delta, and gamma. The latter protects your prostate.
Tocotrienols, which comes in many of these same forms, are almost identical to tocopherols. But the slight difference makes a world of difference. Its a major breakthrough in lipid control.
The nucleus of both molecules is the same. The difference between the two is the side chain or tail. The tail of tocotrienols is 30% shorter than the tocopherol tail. That is what gives it special healing properties. The longer tail of tocopherol firmly anchors it into your cell membranes for a long haul. The shorter tail of the tocotrienols does not anchor as deeply. This makes the molecule more mobile. It can easily move from one membrane to the next.
Heres why this is important. We know that free radicals can be bad guys. Tocopherols act as a local sheriff, arresting the free radicals whenever they come into their local territory. But tocopherols cant go outside the city limits. Tocotrienols, on the other hand, are more like the state troopers, which can cross through local jurisdictions to catch the bad guys over a much wider area.
This is great news for your cardiovascular system. Now theres a nutrient that can go throughout your system and protect it from elevated risk factors, such as LDL cholesterol, C-reactive protein, and even triglycerides.
The cholesterol craze alone is driving many Americans crazy. Big media makes you scared of everything you eat. But cholesterol in your diet plays a very small role. Your liver is the culprit. It makes 80% of your total cholesterol. Cholesterol in your diet has little impact. Your liver uses the enzyme called HMG co-reductase to manufacture the cholesterol. This is the enzyme statins inhibit. And tocotrienols impact that enzyme as well. Two small trials show you just how well it works.
In each of the trials, researchers gave five subjects 25 mg three times daily of the delta form of tocotrienols (dT3).
The researchers measured fasting blood lipids prior to supplementation and two months after the supplementation. The tocotrienols they used was 90% delta-T3 and 10% gamma-T3 mixed with rice bran oil. The latter helps with absorption.
The results were terrific. This formulation lowered total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol by 13%. Hard-to- raise HDL (good) cholesterol rose by 6% and triglycerides fell by 23%. These results were similar to what Bristol-Meyers Squibb saw in a much larger study. This is the same type of results expected from taking approximately 20 mg of Lovastatin per day.
But the good news for your vessels does not stop there. These studies also followed C-reactive protein (another well-known risk factor for vascular disease) levels. They decreased on average 20-50% in one of these groups. CRP is an indicator of inflammation in your arteries! For alpha tocopherol to do the same, you would need approximately 800-1,200 IU per day. So dT3 was 7 to 11 times more effective at reducing CRP than alpha tocopherol.
But what about CoQ10? If you reduce the HMG enzyme by statins, you drop both cholesterol and CoQ10. The enzyme makes both. Dr. Barry Tan, who conducted these studies on tocotrienols, explained that the special tail of dT3 inhibits the HMG enzyme differently than statins, so that CoQ10 production is not compromised.
In fact, in one of the groups of five patients he reported on, dT3 actually increased CoQ10 levels by 20%. That is equivalent to you taking 10-20 mg daily of CoQ10 as a supplement.
The cholesterol news gets even better. Yet another study followed 90 people with high cholesterol. The researchers gave the participants 100 mg of tocotrienols every day. They found that the supplement lowered their total cholesterol by 20%, LDL by 25%, and triglycerides by 12%. Furthermore, it lowered another major risk factor, apolipoprotein-B by 14%.
The authors of the study concluded that 100 mg of tocotrienols may be the optimal dose for controlling the risk of coronary artery disease if you have high cholesterol. Hmmm, why are not you seeing TV ads or news reports for tocotrienols instead of chemical statins?
The triglyceride reduction was a pleasant surprise. If you have high triglyceride levels, you are at serious risk for metabolic syndrome (insulin resistance). Triglycerides are a huge marker. Tocotrienols significantly lowers triglycerides. That strongly suggests that it can improve metabolic syndrome.
The good news gets better. Many people use aspirin or the prescription drug Plavix to keep their blood from easily clotting. Blood clots can cause heart attacks and strokes. The powerful chemical Thromboxane A2 usually causes these clots. This chemical induces platelets to aggregate and actually constricts and damages your blood vessels. The aspirin and Plavix inhibit this chemical.
Tocotrienols work the same way. They strongly inhibit Thromboxane A2, preventing clots and the resulting heart attacks and strokes. But being a natural ingredient in food, theres no risk like with the drugs. Why use a petrochemical when what God made will do the job?
Now, can tocotrienols really reverse vascular disease? A 48-month study suggests exactly that. Researchers studied patients with carotid artery stenosis (obstruction). This is a major cause of stroke. The researchers gave the participants 200-300 mg daily of tocotrienols or placebo.
After only six months, some had complete regression of their stenosis. After the full four years, 60% in the placebo group deteriorated – 8% improved. In the tocotrienols group, only 12% deteriorated, but 40% improved!
Overall, 88% of the patients in the tocotrienols group either had improvement or no progression of disease. That is incredible! Vascular obstruction is a disease that all orthodox guys say progresses if you do not use their dangerous drugs or invasive surgery. Just preventing progression is terrific!
From all the research Ive seen, delta tocotrienols is the most powerful of the vitamin E family. Its shorter tail gives it much greater versatility. And your body can convert T3 to tocopherol on demand. This delta tocotrienols information has significantly altered my practice and use of vitamin E.
The brand I am using now is specifically pulled from the annatto plant. You can find annatto in tropical regions of the Americas. Its unique to other sources of tocotrienols. It has a rather high content of the very active delta fraction of T3. With dT3, you get cholesterol management without compromising CoQ10. You also significantly limit clotting problems.
I am so impressed with the great news on tocotrienols, in particular dT3, that Ive asked the good people at Healthy Resolve to carry Delta-Fraction. Its the dT3 extract from annatto. I suggest 50 mg 2 times a day to prevent or treat vascular disease.