I don’t know about you, but I rarely hear about vitamin E, compared to its perhaps more glamorous cousins. We hear about vitamin C all the time, and know that it’s present in most fruits (and some vegetables), especially citrus fruits and helps to keep our immune system healthy. We might also know something about vitamin C, scurvy and sailors from the olden days from school history lessons.
Vitamin A we probably associate with carrots and seeing in the dark (carrots are rich in vitamin A and vitamin A is important for healthy vision). Vitamin D is all about strong bones (but also boosted testosterone levels) and the B vitamins help to release the energy from our food.
But what about vitamin E? Why do we need it, where can we find it and can it have an effect on our testosterone levels?
Why is vitamin E important?
Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin that the body stores in its fat reserves. This means that unlike the B vitamins and vitamin C (that are water-soluble vitamins), we don’t have to consume it every day to have enough, as we can turn to our reserves. We just need to eat it most days. (Any excess of the water-soluble vitamins is excreted from the body in the urine, so they need to be consumed every day to avoid a deficiency.)
Nuts, seeds, cereals (with the wheatgerm still present), avocados and plant-based oils such as olive oil are all excellent food sources of vitamin E. We need vitamin E for healthy skin and eyes and for a strong, healthy immune system to protect us from infection and disease.
Vitamin E, athletic performance and testosterone levels
Vitamin E is an antioxidant vitamin. This means that it has a powerful effect on the effects of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress. Let me explain why…
Free radicals are nasty, unstable molecules that move around the body looking for spare electrons to stabilise themselves. They’re caused by poor habits such as eating a diet high in processed or fried foods and smoking. They can also be caused by breathing in toxins and environmental pollutants. But we can’t escape them, as they’re also a by-product of normal biological functions such as breathing and eating.
On their quest to stabilise themselves, free radicals cause damage to our DNA and cells, eventually leading to chronic inflammation and oxidative stress – which can lead to premature ageing, tissue damage and reduced athletic performance.
To add to the issues, endurance sport itself can also cause a build-up of free radicals; hence why our energy levels and strength are eventually self-limiting.
Luckily, antioxidants like vitamin E are on hand (if we consume enough) to selflessly donate their electrons, effectively neutralising free radicals.
Therefore, studies have been devised to test the theory that vitamin E could benefit us when we’re in the gym. And it turns out that vitamin E can indeed help boost our performance when we’re exercising as it helps to prevent exercise-induced oxidative damage allowing us to train harder and for longer.
In terms of testosterone, vitamin E plays a role in the production of steroid hormones, and that includes testosterone. So the more vitamin E we consume, the more chance we have of achieving boosted testosterone levels. The higher our testosterone levels, the more muscle mass and muscle power we’ll have. Which as we know, will serve us well when we’re training, and is why we added vitamin E to our Testoraise testosterone boosting supplement.
So get on board with Testoraise with added vitamin E and reach your potential!
