The Role of Vitamin E

Vitamin E is an essential fat-soluble, non-toxic vitamin that plays a vital role in the optimum function of muscular, circulatory, nervous and immune systems. Vitamin E is a natural antioxidant, protecting body tissue from oxidative damage from free radicals. Anti oxidants are natural substances produced by the body or supplied in the diet. They combine with free radicals to produce water and other stable products, preventing a chain of damaging oxidative reactions to occur. Vitamin E is a "free radical scavenger".

Recent nutritional research points to the importance of protecting the body from the damaging effects of oxidative radicals. Radicals are molecules that have at least one unpaired electron, making them extremely unstable and reactive. One free radical can set off a series of reactions that can quickly alter hundreds of other molecules and contribute to substantial tissue damage. Because the arrangement of electrons in oxygen are so unstable, free radicals are a common by-product of normal metabolism. They are produced in higher quantities when the horses metabolism is increased due to factors such as growth, exercise, injury, disease, stress and environmental factors