Benefits of Vitamin E for Liver

Written by Nicole Schmidt
Medically Reviewed by Christine Mikstas, RD, LD on January 02, 2025
8 min read

Vitamin E is a nutrient found in everyday foods like olive oil, almonds, leafy greens, and dairy. In addition to supporting your eyesight, reproductive system, and the health of your blood, brain, and skin, there’s a growing amount of research showing it can also improve the health of your liver. 

Chiti Parikh, MD, an internist and executive director of the Integrative Health and Wellbeing Program at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, explains that your liver is sensitive to damage caused by oxidative stress. This type of damage happens if there’s an imbalance of molecules in your body. Things like exposure to pollution, smoking, radiation, and stress can cause your body to produce harmful molecules called free radicals, which can damage other cells. Antioxidants, on the other hand, are molecules that help protect cells. 

“Vitamin E is a very powerful antioxidant,” she says. “Think about it as a sort of neutralizer that can protect the liver cells from inflammation and damage.”

A healthy liver has some fat in it. But sometimes more fat than is healthy can build up, causing a condition called steatotic liver disease (SLD). You may have heard it called fatty liver disease, but that name is no longer being used in the medical community. 

 

There are two main types of SLD:

  • Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) (formerly called non-alcohol-related fatty liver disease), which is associated with health problems like obesity and diabetes 

  • Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) (formerly called alcoholic fatty liver disease), which is linked to heavy drinking

Most of the research looking into the benefits of vitamin E for SLD has focused on MASLD. While lifestyle changes, like eating well and avoiding alcohol, are the best ways to treat ALD, some smaller studies have found that vitamin E may also help manage some symptoms. However, researchers need to do more studies to confirm this. 

Here’s how vitamin E can help manage SLD:

May improve liver enzyme levels: Your liver makes different proteins (called enzymes) that help speed up important chemical reactions in your body, including those that help you fight off infections, break down food and toxins, and make your blood clot. When liver cells are damaged, these enzymes can leak out into the bloodstream, causing higher-than-normal levels that prevent your liver from working properly. Studies have shown that vitamin E may help lower these levels in some people with MASLD, but scientists are still studying whether there are long-term benefits.

Lowers inflammation: Fat buildup in the liver can cause ongoing inflammation that damages liver tissue and leads to scarring. As an antioxidant, vitamin E helps inflammation, including in the liver. In one study, over half of participants with more advanced SLD had lower levels of inflammation after taking high-dose vitamin E (536 milligrams per day) for 22 months.

May improve fibrosis: Liver damage can lead to a buildup of scar tissue, called fibrosis. While a healthy liver is soft and flexible, scar tissue makes it stiff and prevents it from working properly. This scarring is often caused by inflammation that happens over the long term. Some small studies have found that vitamin E may lower collagen levels in the liver — a protein that helps make up scar tissues — improving fibrosis in patients with MASLD. But more research is needed to show whether vitamin E can effectively treat fibrosis. 

Lowers blood fasting sugar: The liver helps keep your blood sugar levels within a normal range. If you have fat in your liver, it makes this job more difficult, which is why people with SLD are also more likely to have type 2 diabetes. Research shows that vitamin E improves blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes, and early studies have found that it could have a similar benefit for adults with MASLD, but more research is needed to confirm this link.

When fat builds up in the liver and starts to cause long-term inflammation and scarring, it can turn into a more serious condition called metabolic-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), formerly known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. Over time, scarring can get worse and replace healthy tissue, leading to cirrhosis, which is permanent scarring that can cause liver failure. 

Parikh explains that vitamin E can lessen the damage caused by SLD, potentially preventing it from getting worse. “It's an exciting possibility that we can use vitamin E for both prevention and potential treatment in lowering inflammation and damage in the liver cells,” she says.  

Some studies have shown that vitamin E can stop SLD from progressing to MASLD by lowering the amount of fat that can build up in the liver in the first place. It also been shown to bring down inflammation, stop scar tissue from forming, and lower the activity of cells that cause liver damage. These benefits help support liver health and can slow the progression of SLD to more serious liver diseases. One study found that vitamin E delayed the need for a liver transplant for people with MASH.  

Vitamin E offers many benefits for liver health. Here are a few other ways it can support and protect your liver:

Prevents oxidative stress: Oxidative stress happens when your body has too many free radicals and not enough antioxidants to counteract their harmful effects. Over time, this imbalance can damage your cells and tissues, leading to all sorts of health problems — including liver issues. Vitamin E acts as an antioxidant, helping to lower the number of free radicals in your body. By protecting your cells from oxidative stress, it helps prevent the inflammation and fat buildup that can harm the liver. 

Helps liver regeneration: Vitamin E creates a healthier environment for liver cells to be able to repair themselves in a few different ways. If SLD causes damage that leads to scarring, the scar tissue can keep new liver cells from forming. By helping prevent this scarring, vitamin E can help keep your liver working properly. In addition to protecting cells, vitamin E  may also help damaged cells recover. Some research suggests that vitamin E may influence how some genes are turned on or off, which can guide the body’s healing and repair processes.

Improves insulin sensitivity: Your body uses the hormone insulin to turn sugar into energy. If your cells become resistant to it, they can’t process the sugar, so it builds up in your blood. This can lead to health problems like type 2 diabetes or obesity, both of which are closely linked to SLD disease (an estimated 70% to 80% of people with obesity and diabetes also have MASLD). Over time, inflammation caused by fat can lead to insulin resistance. Since vitamin E helps lower inflammation, it may also help with insulin sensitivity. A review of studies that looked at whether vitamin E could help with insulin resistance in people with diabetes found that it offered benefits for both insulin resistance and blood sugar levels. 

Most people can get enough vitamin E from their diet. If you want to boost your intake, Parikh suggests eating more nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables, including avocados, spinach, and peppers. Here’s how much vitamin E is recommended each day for different age groups: 

  • 0 to 6 months: 4 milligrams
  • 7 to 12 months: 5 milligrams
  • 1 to 3 years: 6 milligrams
  • 4 to 8 years: 7 milligrams
  • 9 to 13 years: 11 milligrams
  • 14+ years: 15 milligrams
  • Pregnant adults: 15 milligrams
  • Breastfeeding adults: 19 milligrams

Vitamin E supplements are typically recommended only for people with specific health conditions, like SLD, that may benefit from a higher dose. For adults using it as a part of treatment, Parikh recommends between 180 and 360 milligrams of vitamin E each day. “With supplements, I always believe you should start with low doses,” she says. “Go slow and see how your body responds.”

Parikh adds that supplements can’t replace a healthy lifestyle. “A priority is to make sure we're optimizing our diet, exercise, sleep, and stress,” she says. “This will reduce our dependence on supplements, but really help us get the maximum benefit from all different avenues.”

Always talk to your doctor before starting any new supplement, especially if you have any of the following conditions: 

  • Liver disease 
  • Diabetes 
  • Bleeding disorders 
  • A vitamin K deficiency 
  • A history of heart attack or stroke 
  • Cancer 

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means that if you take too much of it, your body isn’t able to get rid of it through your urine. “With fat-soluble vitamins, they can accumulate in your tissue and lead to toxicity. Too much is not a good thing,” warns Parikh. For this reason, she usually only recommends vitamin E supplements for people with SLD, not for the general population. 

High doses of vitamin E can thin the blood, increasing your chances of bleeding, says Parikh. If you’re taking any blood-thinning medications, you should avoid vitamin E supplements. Parikh also advises cancer patients to steer clear of vitamin E supplements, as antioxidants can make chemotherapy or radiation less effective. 

Taking too much vitamin E can cause symptoms such as:

  • Nausea
  • Diarrhea
  • Stomach cramps 
  • Muscle weakness
  • Headache 
  • Blurred vision 
  • Rash 

Since supplements aren’t regulated by the FDA, Parikh emphasizes the importance of choosing high-quality vitamins that are verified by a third party like US Pharmacopeia (USP). 

Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that has benefits for your vision, skin, reproductive health, and brain. Research shows that it may also help with SLD disease by lowering inflammation and protecting cells from damage. While most people get enough vitamin E from their diet, supplements may help people with SLD or other health conditions. If you're considering taking vitamin E supplements, talk to your doctor first to make sure they’re safe for you.