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Vitamins Versus Heart Disease

Do vitamins protect against heart disease? Surprisingly, to this date few well-designed studies have been done that will permit any correlation between the intake of vitamins and heart disease. Many claims have been made, especially for Vitamin E, but the data did not withstand scientific scrutiny and was mostly anecdotal. Some observations over 30 years ago have suggested that Vitamin C may be important in preventing fatty-cholesterol deposits in arteries.

Guinea pigs, one of the few laboratory animals that cannot make their own Vitamin C from carbohydrates, developed fatty-cholesterol changes when they were deficient in Vitamin C. They had scurvy.

When Vitamin C levels were restored, the fatty-cholesterol deposits regressed. There have been reports of reversal of fatty-cholesterol deposits in leg arteries after taking Vitamin C in men who were deficient in Vitamin C.

A study from the University of Edinburg, Scotland, (1991) suggests there is, in fact, a linkage between certain vitamins and coronary artery disease. The study was of the blood level of Vitamins A, C and E as well as carotene. It showed that the blood levels of vitamins C and E and carotene were significantly lower in men with angina than in those who did not have angina heart pain. There was no correlation with Vitamin A.

The study was of 100 men who had angina pectoris, and were selected from a special study group of 6,000 men for coronary artery disease. None of these men had seen a doctor for their chest discomfort and were not thought to have influenced their blood levels of vitamins because of changes in their diets. They were compared to 394 men who had no chest pain and served as controls.

One important difference in the two groups was that 29% of the controls and 46% of the men with angina smoked. There were no significant differences in the other usual risk factors for coronary artery disease: total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and blood pressure.

Cigarette smoking did confuse the results. When the influence of cigarette smoking was taken into account, there was no significant difference in carotene levels between the two groups. The difference in Vitamin C levels was significantly decreased. But the difference in Vitamin E levels, as an independent factor, persisted.

That does not mean the differences in levels of carotene and Vitamin C are not important. It may simply mean that one way smoking increases the risk of heart disease is through its effects in lowering the level of carotene and Vitamin C in the body.

On Beta Carotene:

What can you do to use vitamins to help prevent heart disease? Keep in mind that it has not been proven that vitamins prevent coronary artery disease. It is quite important not to think that these studies mean large doses of any of these vitamins or carotene will prevent or treat coronary artery disease. Taking large doses can even be harmful. But the evidence may mean that if you have a low level or deficiency of these vitamins, then you need to improve your nutrition. The same nutritional advice that has been given to revent heart disease is what you should follow. The antioxidants are found in fresh fruits, vegetables and cereals. A great emphasis on these in the diet can help to increase antioxidant vitamins to a normal level.