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Article: Vitamin E fights radicals - again and again.
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- May 27, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Vitamin E fights radicals -- again and again
For years, researchers have puzzled over why adults appear to need so little tocopherol, better known as vitamin E. While the body employs this vitamin daily to fend off potentially damaging attacks by many potent reactive chemicals, known as free radicals, tissue levels of the vitamin are usually quite low. And adults never seem to show signs of deficiency -- even while eating diets containing little or no tocopherol. New experiments now suggest why: Certain membranes within cells can recycle the vitamin by rearming it with the vital ammunition lost in its defensive salvos.
Free radicals, possessing an ...