Ischemic Stroke

Could High Levels of Vitamin C Reduce Heart Disease Risk?

The cardiovascular benefits of a healthy diet including a high intake of fruit and vegetables may be attributed to high levels of vitamin C, according to a recent study.

In order to examine the effect of high concentrations of plasma vitamin C related to high intake of fruit and vegetables on the risk of ischemic heart disease, researchers conducted an evaluation of 97,203 individuals from the Copenhagen General Population Study and Copenhagen City Heart Study.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

RELATED CONTENT
Vitamin C May Reduce Stroke Risk
Sailing the Low C's: History Repeating Itself
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Participants were split into 4 groups, based on their consumption of vegetables: almost never, less than once a day, once a day, and at least twice a day.

Overall, the subgroup that ate vegetables at least twice a day had a 13% lower risk for ischemic heart disease and a 20% lower risk for all-cause mortality than those who ate the least amount of fruit and vegetables.

Additional analysis of genetic levels of vitamin C among individuals from the cohort showed that those with the genetically highest levels of plasma vitamin C were also at a reduced risk for cardiovascular disease all-cause mortality.  

Researchers noted that because fruit and vegetables also contain high levels of other vitamins, minerals, andtioxidants and micronutrients, the benefits observed could be attributed to a combination of these substances.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Kobylecki CJ, Afzal S, Smith GD, Nordestrgaard BG. Genetically high plasma vitamin C, intake of fruit and vegetables, and risk of ischemic heart disease and all-cause mortality: a Mendelian randomization study. Am J Clin Nutri. [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.3945/​ajcn.114.104497.