How many international units of vitamin E are in the Gamma E Tocopherol/Tocotrienol product?
A The only form of vitamin E that has a standard conversion formula from milligrams to international units is alpha tocopherol. The other forms of vitamin E, beta, gamma and delta, do not have a conversion formula and are therefore listed in milligrams on the bottle. The standard conversion formula for alpha tocopherol cannot be applied to the other forms, since their molecular weights vary. The point to remember is to make sure that your daily total intake of vitamin E contains at least 20% gamma tocopherol. A study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (April 1997) suggests that it could be dangerous to take high doses of alpha tocopherol without also consuming gamma tocopherol. What makes this study interesting is that it showed that high doses of alpha tocopherol displace gamma tocopherol in tissues. While alpha tocopherol inhibits the production of free radicals to some degree, it is gamma tocopherol that is required to trap and neutralize existing free radicals. A re
