The most important of the fat-soluble vitamins for emotional health is vitamin E. It exerts a powerful influence on the cell membrane and the cell’s utilization of oxygen. The brain cells are particularly dependent on a ready supply of oxygen. Also, vitamin E is an aid in hydrogen ion transfers, and thus again affects every cell in the body.

Probably the world’s greatest authorities on vitamin E are the Shute brothers in Canada. He says that in his opinion most vitamin E preparations in the United States are not reliably labeled, and that one cannot be certain how much vitamin E one is getting unless one uses a reliably labeled product. He recommended the Key-E products put out by the Carlson Laboratories in Chicago.

The Shute brothers are primarily interested in vitamin E for its cardiovascular effect, especially its use to prevent coronary artery disease and ameliorate angina pectoris.. Those of us interested in mega-vitamin therapy for emotional disorders have found it equally useful. It is particularly helpful for patients who are depressed and tired two very common complaints among persons suffering from emotional illnesses.

Vitamin E has been used extensively for menopausal symptoms, and can often substitute for hormone therapy in women. It probably aids sexual function in the male. Patients are treated with multiple vitamins, nutritional supple­ments, and specific dietary recommendations so when an impotent male becomes potent, it is hard to say which of the elements of his regimen was responsible for his return to the .sexual arena. I can only say that, if I had a potency problem, I would certainly include vitamin E in my regimen. Some men get the best results when they take 1600-2400 units on an empty stomach one or two hours before having sex.

Unfortunately, vitamin E is one vitamin that can cause difficulties. When I first started taking it, I was unable to take more than 150 units daily without raising my blood pressure. Ordinarily, my blood pressure runs around 110 over 70, but whenever I took more than 150 units of vitamin E it quickly rose to 140 over 90, to the accompaniment of a sizable headache. It took me at least two years to gradually raise my vitamin E intake to its present level of two Key-E capsules of 200 I.U. (international units) at breakfast and lunch.

Although the Shute brothers maintain that the D. Alpha tocopherol is the only active form of vitamin E, I still take a 400 1. U. E-complex tablet in addition to the Key-E. This E-complex (or mixed tocopherol) tablet contains the D-Alpha as well as the Beta, Delta, and Gamma tocopherols as they occur in nature. I consider this mixture added insurance, just in case we do not yet have the final word on all its active principles. As more added insurance I also take 800 I.U. of Alpha-tocopheral acetate at lunch.

It is my feeling that everyone should take vitamin E supplements in amounts of at least 100 or 200 I.U. a day, and possibly much more for instance; if menopausal symptoms are present, or if there is depression and lack of energy. Some of my patients take as much as 4200 I.U. daily and feel the let-down as soon as they reduce their dose level.

Vitamin E should not be taken more than twice daily, since it interferes with iron absorption. Take vitamin E with breakfast and lunch. This leaves your gut free to absorb iron later in the day. Your family doctor should make certain your blood pressure does not go up too high as you increase your vitamin E. If your blood pressure does increase, it often normalizes if you stay on the same dosage level of vitamin E for several weeks. Your elevated blood pressure will fall quickly if you interrupt your vitamin E intake for a few days and then go back to a reduced level.

Since it is likely that we have not yet discovered all vitamins and vitamin-like substances, I feel it is desirable to include many sources of crude vitamins. If a Nobel Prize-winning nutritional chemist these substances in his diet, I think it wise for you and me to do the same. Yeast is an excellent crude source of B vitamins, high-grade proteins, and readily assimilated minerals. I take two-table­spoons a day mixed in water, one of brewers’, or primary, yeast and one yeast. Each type of yeast has slightly different properties, so I consider it good insurance to take both. I cannot stress too much the importance of yeast. Unless sensitive to it, everyone should take it.

In my list of essentials in life I rank: air, water, food, yeast, ascorbic acid. If need be I would sleep on the streets in a blanket roll if I had to choose between adequate shelter and yeast.

Bakers’ yeast. Many nutritionists will tell you that bakers’ yeast is not a good source of vitamins because the live yeast in the gastrointestinal tract will itself use up vitamins. If a person has a normal amount of gastric acid, the yeast will be killed. Bakers’ yeast supplies cocarboxylase, an important metabolic enzyme to the liver. Many people feel better if they eat a one-half inch cube of bakers’ yeast cake three or four times daily. Cake yeast has largely vanished from supermarkets, though some specialty stores still carry it. In any event you can probably talk your neighborhood bakery into selling you a brick. If you get gas from this, it means your gastric acid is not killing the yeast. Always take bakers’ yeast on an empty stomach. Wait two hours after eating to take bakers’ yeast, then do not eat or drink anything for one hour after having the yeast.

Liver. Liver-is also an excellent source of crude B vitamins best taken in the form of powder or capsules. Baby liver is preferred because it has not accumulated as many environmen­tal impurities as the liver of a full-grown animal.

Lecithin. While it is not strictly a vitamin, I believe that a regular intake of lecithin is essential to good health.

Lecithin is an emulsifier, but also contains the two B vitamins inositol and choline. It is used in making chocolate and margarine, because it breaks down their gummy consistency and allows them to flow readily through the production process., Similarly, it works like soap in the bloodstream to emulsify fats and reduce cholesterols to a form that can be readily burned, instead of coagulating in your arteries.

Lecithin is abundant in egg yolk, sunflower seeds, melons, safflower oil and seeds and cereal seeds. Lecithin not only helps to dispose of cholesterol, but it also aids in the absorption of the fat-soluble vitamins, and may act to prevent gallstones.

Your body can manufacture lecithin, but to do so it needs three substances: the B vitamins inositol and choline, both of which are present in lecithin itself and also in yeast; and a particular amino acid (a building block of protein) called methionine, which is also present in yeast. But in addition to yeast I feel you should take lecithin itself, particularly if you are on a high-protein and -fat diet, It comes in granules, capsules, and syrup. Granules are best, because it is almost impossible to take enough, capsules to do any good. The syrup sticks to “the spoon and to the roof of your mouth; also it is not delicious. Take two to four tablespoonfuls a day, straight, as if it were a cereal. Keep the lecithin in the refrigerator after opening the bottle.

Lecithin is an excellent source of two of the less publicized B vitamins: choline and inositol, Studies of these two vitamins in man are very incomplete. But the evidence is quite clear that laboratory animals require these vitamins.

Choline protects the liver. When this vitamin is low, massive fatty infiltration of the liver occurs. When puppies are fed choline-deficient diets they die within three weeks. Rats show kidney damage after being fed choline-poor diets for only four or five days. Also, cancer, muscular dystrophy, anemia; and heart and vascular disorders have been reported in laboratory animals on a choline-deficient diet.

Personally, I want plenty of choline and I think you do too. Lecithin gives me mine..

Inositol also remains much of a mystery as to exact human requirements, but we do know that it is part of the phosphatide present _in, large amounts in brain tissue. Beef heart, as well as lecithin, is a good source. Why is it present in such large amounts in this heart tissue? I don’t know, But if the heart needs it, I want it