VITAMIN-E STATUS AND RESPONSE TO EXERCISE TRAINING

Vitamin E is an important intramembrane antioxidant and membrane stabi liser. Over the past 40 years, vitamin E supplementation has been advo cated for athletes in the hope of improving performance, minimising ex ercise-induced muscle damage and maximising recovery. However, there i s currently a lack of conclusive evidence that exercise performance or recovery would benefit in any significant way from dietary vitamin E supplementation. Exceeding current recommended intakes of vitamin E ev en by several orders of magnitude will result in relatively modest inc reases in tissue or serum vitamin E concentrations. Most evidence sugg ests that there is no discernible effect of vitamin E supplementation on performance, training effect or rate of postexercise recovery in ei ther recreational or elite athletes. There is very little evidence, pa rticularly involving humans, that exercise or training will significan tly alter tissue or serum vitamin E levels. While there is some eviden ce that certain indices of tissue peroxidation may be reduced followin g dietary vitamin E supplementation, the physiological and performance consequences in humans of these relatively minor effects are unknown. Although there appears to be little reason for vitamin E supplementat ion among athletes, it does not appear that the practice of supplement ation is harmful.