Vitamin E Benefits for Men - Vitamin E Helps Men Build Muscle and Enhances Male Fertility

Vitamin E benefits for men are greatest in improving athletic ability and in increasing a man's chances of becoming a father. In both cases, vitamin E boosts male health by preventing free radical damage.

Popping a vitamin E pill want grown muscles without exercise and it won't make a man automatically virile. But over the long run, vitamin E is extremely valuable because of what it prevents.

Vitamin E for athletic prowess. Vitamin E is well known as a supplement for elite athletes.

• Mountain climbers on a six-week trek who used vitamin E needed less oxygen, because their bodies could tolerate the free radicals generated by anaerobic exercise much better.
• Elite cyclists generate enormous amounts of the "bad" form of cholesterol when they exercise. Vitamin E keeps this LDL cholesterol from turning in plaques.
• In one clinical trial, volunteers ran on a treadmill until they were exhausted. In the volunteers who did not take vitamin E, blood tests revealed DNA damage from the free radicals of oxygen generated during the workout. In volunteers who took a single dose of 2,400 IU of vitamin E before heavy exercise, DNA damage was minimal.

But most men don't spend six weeks trekking across the Himalayas, ride in the Tour d' France, or even work out until we drop. Vitamin E has benefits for amateur athletes, too.

• Older men doing weight lifting who took vitamin E got better increases to muscle mass because the vitamin preventing excessive breakdown of muscle during the workout.
• Taking vitamin E before a weekend workout also reduced the stress on the immune system caused by generation of excessive amounts of free radicals, preventing colds and flu.

Vitamin E won't substitute for exercise. But it will help exercise do a man's body more good. It will prevent excessive aches and pains from weightlifting, encourage muscle growth (assuming there is a rest day between workouts for each muscle group), and keep the immune system in healthy balance, neither too weak nor too strong.

Vitamin E can compensate for lower fertility. Similarly, vitamin E is not a wonder drug for male infertility. If for some reason a man has no sperm production at all, vitamin E will not restore it. But if a man has low sperm counts, vitamin E may help his sperm reach their destination so he and his partner may become parents.

Sperm store fructose sugar for their journey from the cervix to the fallopian tubes where one sperm will fertilize the egg. Burning fructose generates so many free radicals that many sperm cells literally become bloated and distorted, so "out of shape" that the tail of the sperm cannot propel them forward. In some cases, the tail of the sperm disappears.

Taking vitamin E helps the sperm survive the trip to the egg. In an Israeli study, taking just 200 IU of vitamin E every day for two months increased the chances of fatherhood of men who had low sperm counts by nearly 50 per cent. Of course, couples seeking to conceive a child should also pay close attention to timing intercourse to match the female partner's window of fertility. (Visit Vitamin E and Fertility for more information)

Exercise and reproduction are the areas in which vitamin E is of special benefit to men. The best supplement program for men involves a balance of 200 IU of d-alpha-tocopheryl succinate and 200 mg of mixed tocotrienols. This is also a great foundation for acquiring all the benefits of vitamin E against cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, which are enjoyed by both men and women.

Selected References:

Aitken RJ. The role of free oxygen radicals and sperm production. Int Jour Androl 1989; 12: 95-97.

Zini A et al. Reactive oxygen species in semen of infertile patients. Int Jour Androl 1993; 16: 183-88.

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