Supplements

According to recent studies, a healthy amount of Vitamin E in our diet can help to prevent Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, progressive neurological disease. When you have Parkinson’s you get tremors, increased muscle rigidity, and are eventually paralyzed. It is not known why people get Parkinson’s, but there are some factors that may lead to a person having a greater risk to get it. Some of these are age, genetics, and environmental influences. Certain drugs may help relieve the symptoms or slow the disease, but it can’t be cured.

Free radicals likely play an crucial role in the nerve damage that happens with Parkinson’s disease patients. There are antioxidants that can help to prevent free radicals from harming cells. Vitamins A, C, and E, beta-carotene and other carotenoids, zinc, and plant chemicals known as bioflavonoids are antioxidants.

There are a few studies that look at antioxidant effects on the risk of Parkinson’s disease. The newest study analyzed the research on the potential link between the risk of Parkinson’s disease and the intake of the antioxidants: Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and beta-carotene. They had different groups of people getting each antioxidant in their diet. The researchers used questionnaires to estimate the amounts of these antioxidants in the participants’ diets and supplements.

Intake was labeled as high if it was within the top 20 to 25% of people’s diets and moderate if it was in the middle 50 to 60%. Medium to high amounts of Vitamin E were shown to have a 19% reduction in the chances of getting Parkinson’s. However, no preventative effects of Vitamin C or beta-carotene were seen.

The study proved that a diet with plenty of Vitamin E can help reduce a persons risk of getting Parkinson’s disease. If you are wondering what foods have high amounts of Vitamin E, they are: nuts, seeds, olives, olive oil, other vegetable oils, and avocados. These foods are a bit higher in fat, but they are essential to having a good diet. Despite their high fat content, it’s important for people to understand that these foods are an important part of a healthy diet.

There also may be more success in Parkinson’s prevention from getting Vitamin E from the foods you eat rather than taking a supplement. Natural Vitamin E may reach brain tissues more successfully.