Vitamin C supplements linked to lower heart disease risk

Previous studies suggest that a diet high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains may reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease. It is still unclear however, whether it is the antioxidants in these foods that are responsible for the protection, or if it is due to other factors.

A recent study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has found that people who supplement with high doses of vitamin C could be reducing their risk of developing coronary heart disease. The research involved pooled data from 9 prospective antioxidant studies involving over 293,000 subjects. During a ten-year follow-up, researchers investigated the incidence of major coronary heart disease events in subjects who were without the disease when the study began. Dietary intake of antioxidant vitamins was only weakly related to a reduced coronary heart disease risk. However, subjects who took more than 700 mg of vitamin C daily in supplement form, reduced their risk of heart disease events by 25 percent over those who did not take supplements.