Vitamin E
Using Vitamins E and C for Burns
Vitamin E is excellent for burns. Piercing the capsules with a sterilized needle and squeezing the contents
onto the wounded area brings relief from pain within minutes. In addition, wounds which otherwise would require
skin grafts heal with little or no scarring when the vitamin is reapplied daily during the healing process, and
there is no drawing or itching of the wound.
Vitamin C is another excellent remedy for burns. A 3% solution (6,000 mg. per cup of water)
can be sprayed onto the wound, and brings almost immediate relief. Like vitamin E it prevents scarring. The spraying
should be repeated every few hours. You may lay cloths moistened with the solution on the wound. I find it simpler
to spray it on, and children are more willing to have a wound sprayed than touched.
To prepare the solution take twelve 500 mg. tablets of vitamin C, crush them, and dissolve the powder in one cup
of water. Vitamin C is unstable in water, so prepare it fresh every couple of days. I use 6,000 mg. of vitamin
C crystals. It mixes easily with water and no crushing is necessary. You could crush the tablets and keep them
in a spray bottle marked with a line for the water to be added later, and keep it in the refrigerator until needed.
These remedies come from Adelle Davis' book Let's
Eat Right to Keep Fit.
Little-known Facts About Vitamin E
Do you know that all vitamin E is not created equal? Ever wonder why some is so much more expensive than others?
According to Adelle Davis' book Let's
Eat Right to Keep Fit it exists in several forms (mixed tocopherols). Only d-alpha tocopherol is stable enough
to be relied on.
The dl-alpha tocopherol found in the less expensive vitamin E bottles is synthetic, and only 60% of it is effective.
Look very closely at the labels next time you shop and consider the true cost of your vitamins.
How and When to Take a Vitamin E Suppliment
Now that you know about the different types of vitamin E it is important to know when to take it.
Vitamin E is fat soluble, so take it with the daily meal having the most fat. It can only be absorbed in the presence
of fat and bile (which is normally secreted into the stomach when fats are eaten).
Vitamin E supplements should be taken 8 hours after any supplement contain iron salts, as many of them destroy
vitamin E.
How Vitamin E is Used in the Body
According to Adelle Davis' Let's
Eat Right to Keep Fit, vitamin E has only one function, "to prevent unsaturated fatty acids and fat-like
substances from being destroyed in the body by oxygen. These substances include vitamin A, carotene, the essential
unsaturated fatty acids, and the pituitary, adrenal, and sex hormones." The vitamin E is itself destroyed
or used up in the process. Before foods were refined, the average daily diet had 150 I.U. (or mg.) of this essential
nutrient. Today's average is about 7.4 units.
Ms. Davis devoted an entire chapter in Let's
Eat Right to Keep Fit, "Needed By Every Cell", to Vitamin E. It is highly recommended reading,
and the book is available at libraries and bookstores. Among the numerous symptoms a deficiency of vitamin E can
cause are: muscle weakness, enlarged prostate, infertility, birth defects, premature babies, jaundice, liver and
kidney damage, anemia, scar tissue, varicose veins, phlebitis, detached retina, embolisms, and strokes.
