Would Vitamin Prevent Heart Disease?

Many studies have shown that vitamins such as Vitamin-C and Vitamin-E will help prevent heart disease. However, there is also research that highlighted the harmful side of vitamin.

Just like a nutrition scientist at MedStar Research Institute of Hyattsville, Maryland said, people should not just look at whether vitamin could help but should also worry about the potential harms vitamin will cause.

For instance, in a previous study, male smokers taking Vitamin-E had a high risk of bleeding strokes, while several other studies also found that Vitamin-E did not benefit heart health. Meanwhile, some research even suggested Vitamin-C might aid cancer instead of fighting it. A previous study on women at high risk of heart disease also indicated that Vitamin-C did not help prevent heart attack for these women.

In fact, a few long-term studies have been done to find out the effect of Vitamin on heart health. The latest one is co-called the “Physical Health Study” conducted by Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and several vitamin makers, commenced in 1997 that involved 14,641 male doctors aged 50 or older, with 5 percent of whom already had heart disease. These participants were divided into 4 groups and each given either Vitamin-C, Vitamin-E, both or dummy pills. The researchers prescribed 400 international units of Vitamin-E on every other day and 500 mg Vitamin-C on a daily basis.

After an average of 8 years, it was found that there was no difference in the rates of heart attack, stroke or heart-related deaths among the 4 groups. Nevertheless, there were 39 men in the group prescribed with Vitamin-E suffered bleeding strokes yet only 23 were found in other groups. In other word, there was a 74 percent greater risk of bleeding strokes for vitamin-takers.

Since the results were so clear, the researchers argued that they would be unlikely to change even if the study were done in women, minorities, or with different formulations of the vitamins. They even suggested people should save some money by stopping to buy these supplements.

Another study on Vitamin-B12 and Vitamin-B9 (folic acid) also found that these vitamins did not really prevent heart disease, which supported the results of the previous trials. The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Oxford in England, and it involved more than 12,000 heart attack survivors.

Can Stroke Risk Be Reduced by High Level of Vitamin-C?

A high-level consumption of fruit and vegetable can benefit one’s health, including prevention of heart disease and many other medical disorders because of the high contents of Vitamin-C found in fruit and vegetable

Researchers from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom indicated in the American Journal of Nutrition in January 2008 that people’s level of Vitamin-C might be an indicator of their likelihood of getting a stroke.

In a 10-year study, they examined some 20,000 middle-aged and older residents of Norfolk, United Kingdom and found 448 strokes in the participants during an average period of 9.5 years. They also noted that people having the highest Vitamin-C concentration at the beginning of the study had a 42 percent lower risk of stroke compared with those with the lowest levels of Vitamin-C.

In fact, the protective effect of Vitamin-C against stroke remained, even after the researchers took into accounts for factors that could affect the risk (stroke), such as alcohol intake, blood pressure level, body mass index (BMI), cholesterol level, diabetes, prior heart attack, physical activity, use of supplement, and social use.

According to the researchers, the level of Vitamin-C found in the blood is a good biomarker of fruit and vegetable consumption, which contain many nutrients that may be biologically active and protective for stroke. They also argued that their study supports the existing body of evidence, which proposed stroke could be protected with high consumption of fruit and vegetable.

While other health experts also agree that fruit and vegetable are linked with many health benefits, including reducing stroke risk, it is still not known why or how the benefit occurs, or what kinds of fruit and vegetable are effective. Therefore, the best way is to consume a wide variety of fruit and vegetable.

Meanwhile, there is still no concrete evidence on the optimum intake of fruit and vegetable for reduction of stroke and cardiovascular disease. However, it is believed that an intake of 5 to 9 servings on a daily basis could actually benefit. As such, the public is encouraged to adopt a higher intake of fruit and vegetable.