Had a heavy night drinking? Then eat KALE: Scientists
reveal how vitamin E rescues the body’s immune cells.
Published:
08:37 a.m., 10 April
2015
Source: Ellie Zolfagharifard for mailonline.
Science
field: Study investigation
Summary:
Drinking makes body go under oxidative stress and weakens immunity. Study
has shown that higher doses of vitamin E can mitigate this stress. Vitamin E
can be found in high doses in foods such as kale and almonds.
Glossary:
- - Weak: lacking
in strength or vigor; feeble. Lacking in force, intensity, or ability to
produce an effect.
- - Toll: the
extent or amount of loss, damage, or suffering resulting from some action.
- - Cell: the
most basic unit of structure of an organism.
- - To gather:
to bring or come together into one group, collection, or place; collect;
accumulate.
- - Deprive: to
keep (someone) from having or enjoying something; keep or prevent (someone)
from having or using.
Review:
After a heavy night drinking,
your immune system is bound to be weaker. This is because your body is under
oxidative stress, a process that can also happen after smoking, breathing in
pollution and even sunbathing.
Now, researchers say that higher doses of vitamin E, found in foods such
as kale and almonds, can mitigate the stress on immune cells.
Whenever a virus or other pathogen enters our bodies, a certain class of
immune cells, the T-cells0 jump into action, spreading rapidly. One sub-class
of these cells, the CD8+T-cells, eliminate the virus by killing cells it has
infected. Other T-cells, known as CD4+T-cells, coordinate the immune response
to all kinds of pathogens.
But a week can pass before these T-cells start to take their toll on a
virus. And with cells dividing every eight to twelve hours, it takes a few days
to gather a strike force of cells in the hundreds of thousands: enough to
overwhelm the infection.
But this immune response does not work if significant oxidative stress
is damaging the T-cells and depriving the body of tools it needs to repair
them.
If the immune cells lack repair enzyme Gpx4, the T cells die off as they
divide, which means the immune system becomes weak and the infection can be
chronic. This is the enzyme responsible for repairing oxidative damage to the
cell membrane.
When testing mice whose immune cells lacked the repair enzyme researchers
were able to save the immune cells by mixing a high dose of vitamin E into the
animals' food. That was enough antioxidant to protect the T-cells' cell
membranes from damage, so they could multiply and successfully fend off the
viral infection.
At 500 milligrams per kilogram of mouse feed, this quantity of vitamin E
was ten times higher than was present in their normal food.
The benefit of vitamin tablets is a controversial topic. Work shows that
even a genetic defect in a major part of a cell's antioxidative machinery can
be compensated for by delivering a high dose of vitamin E. That is new and
surprising. What scientist don’t know yet for sure of what impact the results
of their study will have on human health.
People with a normal level of health and a balanced diet shouldn't need
vitamin supplements. But it could well make sense in the event of oxidative
stress, which can arise in everyday situations such as an infection or exposure
to sunlight.
Written by Rebeca Mees
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