Dietary essential fatty acids, vitamin E, and CMT

[Guest guest]

,

After you asked about diet for CMT, I also wondered about certain supplements

and essential fatty acids - especially Vitamin E - so I went back about twenty

years or so and found this about CMT and Vitamin E. Thought you might be

interested. Good news in the last line! I have been taking E myself for about 8

years. ~ Gretchen

Neurology. 1986 Sep;36(9):1200-5.

Dietary essential fatty acids, vitamin E, and Charcot-Marie-Tooth

disease.

LL, O'Dougherty MM, FS, Bobulski RJ, Horrocks LA.

Twenty patients with type I Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease received

dietary supplementation with the essential fatty acids (EFA),

linoleic and gamma-linolenic acids, and vitamin E. A 3-month blinded

trial of placebo (paraffin oil and vitamin E, 81.6 IU/d) was followed

by 1 year of 3 grams daily of EFA and vitamin E. Serum fatty acid

values doubled, but total esterified fatty acid proportions did not

change. Arachidonic acid proportions correlated with the amount of

prostaglandin-mediated lymphocyte suppression measured at the same

times. Improvement demonstrated at the end of the placebo period by

neuropsychological tests and neurologic examination was maintained

during the 1 year of EFA supplementation. This effect may reflect a

membrane stabilization benefit of vitamin E.