Vitamin C beneficial in heart disease

Vitamin C treatment has a possible role in benefiting patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) by countering the adverse effects of a high-fat meal. The serum triglyceride concentration is raised after a high-fat meal and this postprandial state (occurring after a meal) is critical in development of fat deposits in blood vessels. The infiltration and entrapment of Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) which is the "bad" cholesterol, blocks the arteries, leading to endothelial dysfunction through an oxidative stress mechanism. The study was conducted at the Department of Cardiology, Hunan University, Hunan, People's Republic of China. The study included 74 patients with coronary heart disease and 50 people without the disease but who had risk factors. These two groups were split into subgroups: those who received 2g of vitamin C and those who did not after eating a high-fat meal (800 calories, 50g fat). They found that postprandial serum triglyceride concentration increased significantly at two to five hours after the high-fat meal in all groups. The endothelial function was assessed in the artery of the arm by high-resolution ultrasound, in the fasting and at 4 hours after the high fat meal. The fasting flow-mediated dilatation of patients with CHD were impaired compared with those without disease. Although the postprandial flow-mediated dilatation was significantly aggravated in people not taking vitamin C (both with and without heart disease), this parameter in patients and subjects taking vitamin C showed no significant change, although the group with CHD taking vitamin C had a mild tendency towards improvement. Vitamin C treatment has a promising role in the treatment of patients with CHD.

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