Feinberg
Northwestern Medicine | Northwestern University | Faculty Profiles

News Center

  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
  • Press Releases
  • Media Coverage
  • Podcasts
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Menu
  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
  • Press Releases
  • Media Coverage
  • Podcasts
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Home » Vitamin E in Canola and Other Oils Hurts Lungs
Clinical Breakthroughs

Vitamin E in Canola and Other Oils Hurts Lungs

By Marla PaulMay 21, 2014
Share
Facebook Twitter Email

A large new Northwestern Medicine study upends our understanding of vitamin E and ties the increasing consumption of supposedly healthy vitamin E-rich oils – canola, soybean and corn – to the rising incidence of lung inflammation and, possibly, asthma.

The new study shows drastically different health effects of vitamin E depending on its form. The form of vitamin E called gamma-tocopherol in the ubiquitous soybean, corn and canola oils is associated with decreased lung function in humans, the study reports. The other form of vitamin E, alpha-tocopherol, which is found in olive and sunflower oils, does the opposite. It’s associated with better lung function.

“Considering the rate of affected people we found in this study, there could be 4.5 million individuals in the U.S. with reduced lung function as a result of their high gamma-tocopherol consumption,” said senior author Joan Cook-Mills, PhD, an associate professor of Medicine in Allergy/Immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

This is the first study to show gamma-tocopherol is associated with worse lung function.

Cook-Mills presented her research in May at the Oxidants and Antioxidants in Biology World Congress. It was also published in the journal Respiratory Research.

Rates of asthma in the U.S. have been climbing in the last 40 years, coinciding with a switch in U.S. diets from lard and butter to soybean, canola and corn oils, which were thought to be healthier for the heart. Looking at other countries’ rates of asthma, Cook-Mills said those with significantly lower rates of asthma have diets high in olive and sunflower oils.

In the U.S., asthma prevalence (the percentage of people who have been diagnosed with asthma and still have asthma) was 8.4 percent in 2010, as reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the U.S., the average blood plasma level of gamma-tocopherol is four or more times higher than those of European and Scandinavian countries that consume sunflower and olive oil, Cook-Mills noted.

“People in countries that consume olive and sunflower oil have the lowest rate of asthma and those that consume soybean, corn and canola oil have the highest rate of asthma,” Cook-Mills said. “When people consume alpha-tocopherol, which is rich in olive oil and sunflower oil, their lung function is better.”

The study examined 4,526 individuals from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study (CARDIA). Cook-Mills had done previous allergy research in mice showing alpha-tocopherol decreased lung inflammation, protecting healthy lung function and gamma-tocopherol increased lung inflammation and airway hyper-responsiveness, a characteristic of asthma. She hypothesized that they might have similar effects in humans.

Cook-Mills examined the CARDIA results for individuals’ lung function tests at four intervals from baseline to 20 years and the type of tocopherol levels in their blood plasma at three intervals from baseline to 15 years. She found that a high level of gamma-tocopherol, 10 micromolar in the blood plasma, was associated with a 10 to 17 percent reduction in lung function. Micromolar is a measure of the amount of gamma-tocopherol per liter volume of blood plasma.

“The blood plasma showed how much they had acquired in their tissues,” Cook-Mills said. “You get vitamin E from your diet or supplements.”

In 2012 research, she identified a mechanism for gamma-tocopherol increasing lung inflammation: protein kinase C-alpha, which binds to both forms of vitamin E. Alpha-tocopherol inhibits the action of the protein, and gamma-tocopherol increases the action of the protein.

“A 10 percent reduction in lung function is like an asthmatic condition,” Cook-Mills said. “People have more trouble breathing. They take in less air, and it’s harder to expel. Their lungs have reduced capacity.”

People with asthma already have lower lung function, so if they have high gamma-tocopherol levels, they would have even more difficulty breathing, Cook-Mills said. The individuals in CARDIA with asthma and high gamma-tocopherol had the lowest lung function.

Other Northwestern authors on the paper include Michelle Marchese; Rajesh Kumar, MD; Kiang Liu, PhD; Laura Colangelo and Pedro Avila, MD.

This study was supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health grant R-1 AT004837.

Health and Lifestyle Pulmonology Research
Share. Facebook Twitter Email

Related Posts

Coaxing Hair Growth in Aging Hair Follicle Stem Cells

Jun 9, 2023

New Therapeutic Target for Osteoarthritis Identified 

Jun 9, 2023

Largest Cell Map of Human Lung Reveals Insights Into Disease

Jun 8, 2023

Comments are closed.

Latest News

Coaxing Hair Growth in Aging Hair Follicle Stem Cells

Jun 9, 2023

New Therapeutic Target for Osteoarthritis Identified 

Jun 9, 2023

Largest Cell Map of Human Lung Reveals Insights Into Disease

Jun 8, 2023

McNally Honored with Walder Award

Jun 8, 2023

Biological Aging Increases Risk of Depression, Anxiety in Adults 

Jun 7, 2023
  • News Center Home
  • Categories
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
  • News Archives
  • About Us
Flickr Photos
ANB05555
ANB08990
ANB09022
ANB09063
ANB09008
ANB08781
ANB08971
ANB09000
ANB08992
ANB09015
ANB09058
ANB09048

Northwestern University logo

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

RSS Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flickr YouTube Instagram
Copyright © 2023 Northwestern University
  • Contact Northwestern University
  • Disclaimer
  • Campus Emergency Information
  • Policy Statements

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.