Excess fat around the waist is one of a cluster of conditions known as Metabolic Syndrome.

Here’s the study. New, out this month:
Metabolic Syndrome Increases Dietary Α-Tocopherol Requirements As Assessed Using Urinary And Plasma Vitamin E Catabolites: A Double-Blind, Crossover Clinical Trial, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, March 2017

The title says it all. People with Metabolic Syndrome* (MetS) need more vitamin E than their healthier peers.

* Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels — that occur together, increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Participants with MetS, compared with healthy participants, excreted lower amounts of urinary vitamin E catabolites. … Overall, we concluded that participants with MetS had decreased vitamin E catabolism.

As we reported previously, plasma alpha-tocopherol concentrations during the 4 milk interventions were significantly lower, and turnover was significantly slower, in participants with MetS than in healthy participants. Moreover, participants with MetS had increased biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation, thereby suggesting that they had increased requirements for alpha-tocopherol.

Of note:

In addition, participants with MetS had lower plasma ascorbic acid concentrations despite having eaten similar amounts of vitamin C as were consumed by healthy participants.

The people with MetS in this study were relatively young, average age 32.8. Imagine the needs of someone with MetS in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s? When absorption and metabolism can be further compromised?

I’m back to thinking that a low-dose vitamin-mineral supplement for older people or anyone with Metabolic Syndrome isn’t a bad idea. Unnatural circumstances call for unnatural solutions. But which one? How to trust an industry that resists regulation and that has been found to lie?