All varieties of animals kept on vitamin-E-deficient diets develop muscular dystrophy provided they can live long enough. Human muscular dystrophy and atrophy appear to be identical to this experimentally produced illness. In both the laboratory and the human disease the oxygen requirement is tremendously increased; many enzymes and coenzymes needed for normal muscle function are markedly reduced; and muscles throughout the body become injured and weakened as the essential fatty acids forming structural parts of muscle cells are destroyed. Numerous nutrients leak out of the damaged cells, and eventually the muscles are largely replaced by scar tissue. The muscles split longitudinally, which, incidentally, makes one wonder if vitamin-E deficiency plays a causative role in hernia, especially in babies known to be woefully deficient in this vitamin.

For months or years before muscular dystrophy can be diagnosed, amino acids and a substance known as creatine are lost in the urine, both showing that muscles are breaking down. If vitamin E is given at this time, before the disease has progressed too far, the destruction of muscle tissue stops completely, as shown by cessation of creatine excretion. In animals--and probably humans--the disease is produced much more rapidly if the diet is deficient in protein and/or vitamins A or B6 as well as vitamin E, but even then the dystrophy can still be corrected by vitamin E alone.

When a severe vitamin-E deficiency has been prolonged, muscular dystrophies in humans are irreversible. Massive amounts of vitamin E and many other nutrients have been repeatedly tried without effect. The facts that this disease is "hereditary"--several children in the same family may suffer from it--and that alterations in chromosomes can be detected have made many physicians believe nothing can be done to prevent it. The hereditary factor may only be an unusually high genetic requirement for vitamin E, which is needed to form the nucleus, including the chromosomes, of every cell.

The point at which muscular dystrophy or atrophy becomes irreversible cannot be accurately determined. In the early stages, either has sometimes been corrected by fresh wheat-germ oil, vitamin E, or vitamin E given with other nutrients. Some patients have recovered after early diagnosis merely by adding to their diets wheat germ and homemade bread of freshly ground wheat. Cases of muscular dystrophy have also been described which, when the diet was made adequate, do not get worse for years; and others have improved without complete recovery. Furthermore, the muscular strength of persons who had had the disease for many years has been markedly improved when a variety of vitamins and minerals was given.

Children with muscular dystrophy have a history of sitting up, crawling, and walking late, of being slow at running, and of having difficulty in climbing stairs and especially in getting up after falling. Frequently a child is ridiculed for being lazy and/or clumsy for years before a physician is consulted. Because huge masses of scar tissue are usually mistaken for large muscles, mothers of such children are often pathetically proud of their "fine development." Eventually the scar tissue contracts and thus causes extremely painful sway-back and/or shortened Achilles' tendons, which result in as much disability as the weakened muscles themselves. The Achilles' tendon is frequently lengthened surgically years before the actual disease can be diagnosed, yet no vitamin E is given as a preventive measure.

Any person with a muscle problem should have a urine test immediately, and if any creatine is being excreted, his entire diet should be markedly improved and include generous amounts of vitamin E. Muscular dystrophies might be stamped out if vitamin E were given to all pregnant women and to bottle-fed babies and if refined foods lacking the vitamin were avoided.

The causes are many. Like most diseases, abnormalities of the muscles stem from multiple deficiencies rather than a few. Unless the diet is adequate in every nutrient, recovery can be neither expected nor maintained.

About The Author
David Crawford is the CEO and owner of a men enhancement company known as Male Enhancement Group which is dedicated to researching and comparing male enhancement products in order to determine which male enhancement product is safer and more effective than other products on the market. Copyright 2010 David Crawford of sexual enhancement products This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.