[staytrue]

Most who take E supplements are likely taking a very inferior form

The "artificial" vitamin E contains the D and L isomers of which only one is useful to the body and the other one (I think L) is a waste product and as such is possibly bad.

[bluefish]

Yes.. beyond the issue of synthetic vs. natural forms of d-alph is the missing tocopherols / tocotrienols in the synthetics. We are beginning to learn that the other tocopherols and tocotrienols may be necessary to support Vit E's action in the body - playing a support role if you will. Taking only d-alpha in higher doses may do more harm than good by displacing what little of these are left. More research is needed of course.

One poster above said the mixed tocopherols are not stable, which is why the FDA suggested only d-alpha was needed. I always understood that their logic was simply that d-alpha is the only biologically active form, so no need to worry about the others.

I know the FDA well enough to suspect that their original support of d-alpha only was likely based on something else - like the needs of a specific artificial vitamin E manufacturer that can pump out all kinds of synthetic d-alph, which is not the same thing as the 7 forms of vitamin E. Think about the boon to the "vitamin E" manufacturers! It is like saying we only need bread to eat and all other forms of food are useless. The bakers would love it! This of course is simply conspiratorial speculation on my part. The FDA could have simply been overly simplistic and ignorant because that is its general nature.