**Preface XI**


Preface

Oxidative Stress (OS) constitutes an alteration produced by a disequilibrium between the generation of free radicals and the oxidative system, which can contribute to a state of dam‐ age, in particular in terms of biomolecules. Similarly, there are natural and synthesized mol‐ ecules that are capable of inactivating free radicals. These free-radical trappers are classified in groups or families of compounds that are in general called "antioxidants". The main ob‐ jective of the mechanisms of defense is that of transforming the free radicals into less harm‐

Diet and nutrition are very important in the promotion and maintenance of health through‐ out the entire human lifetime. There has been an attempt to seek, in foods, all of the proper‐ ties that are of benefit at the time of increasing or maintaining our state of health. There are elements in the diet that, in addition to their nutritional characteristics, are antioxidant agents. Among the most studied of these we find vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin D, vitamin A, some amino acids, the flavonoids and certain oligoelements. All of these antioxidant ele‐ ments represent an alternative for the treatment and prevention of Chronic Degenerative

Vitamin E was discovered in the 1920s by Evans and Bishop. Later, it was discovered that vitamin E possesses a lipidic antioxidant effect *in vivo*, in that it blocks the oxidation chain reaction of the lipids that form part of the phospholipids of the cellular membranes. In the present book, *Vitamin E in Health and Disease*, the chapter by Dr Lisa Schmölz et al., The Hep‐ atic Fate of Vitamin E, includes the hepatic metabolism of vitamin E, its storage, release, dis‐ tribution, and its effects on the metabolism in great detail, as well as its effect on the prevention of diseases, in addition to its role in anti-aging. The chapter by Dr Rusu Anca Elena reports on the effect of vitamin E in patients with hemodialysis, finding a favorable effect of vitamin E in these patients. In a similar manner, the chapter of Drs Rayan Ahmed and Paul W. Sylvester describes g-Tocotrienol, a natural isoform within the vitamin E family of compounds, which displays potent antiproliferative, apoptotic and reversal of epithelialto-mesenchymal-transition activity against breast cancer, employing treatment doses that have little or no effect on normal cell viability. The chapter by Milka Mileva and Angel S. Galabov describes how vitamin E could be recommended as a reliable agent, indeed as a component in multiorgan flu therapy. Last, Dr Juan José Godina-Nava et al. describe the cytoprotector effect of the 120-Hz electromagnetic fields in early hepatocarcinogene sis.

My congratulations to each of the authors for their chapters in *Vitamin E in Health and Dis‐*

**Dr. José Antonio Morales-González** Escuela Superior de Medicina Instituto Politécnico Nacional Investigador Nacional nivel 2

Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico

Medalla Alfonso Caso, al mérito académico, UNAM

Diseases (CDD), which represents a very high morbimortality rate worldwide.

ful products or to neutralize their malignancy totally.

*ease* and for their commitment in developing this book.
