Texas injury lawyer warns that burn victims at risk for vitamin E loss

Did you or someone you love suffer a serious burn injury?  Were you warned about potentially serious vitamin E loss?

 

A new study has shown that burn injury victims – especially children – are at risk of depleting their body levels of vitamin E.  A bad burn can remove this key vitamin from fat tissues more quickly in a few weeks than usually happens over the course of years.

 

Not only that, but supplementation did not restore children’s vitamin E levels.  The study examined eight children with third degree burns over a large part of their bodies.  Researchers found that these kids had lost almost half of all the vitamin E stored in their bodies – even though they were being given 150 percent of the US daily recommendation for vitamin E intake.

 

Why is vitamin E loss a concern?  Vitamin E is important to humans for many reasons, not the least of which is to support nerve function.  Severe burn victims can suffer from nerve damage, and researchers speculate that rapid vitamin E loss may be one of the culprits.  In fact, one expert called the findings of this study “dramatic, unexpected and somewhat alarming.”

 

The next step will be for studies to be done to determine if high levels of vitamin E supplements can help burn victims replenish their vitamin E levels.  Until these studies are done, serious burn victims should talk with their doctors about this issue.