Heart Health: Vitamin C Supplements Prove Beneficial To Cardiovascular Health, Says Experts

A recent study presented at the 14th International Conference on Endothelin: Physiology, Pathophysiology and Therapeutics suggests that a daily intake of Vitamin C supplements may give cardiovascular health benefits the same as regular exercise gives in obese adults.

The News Recorder reports that more than half of the obese people that were advised to exercise regularly for the sake of their health do not actually follow the advice. Because of this, the blood vessels of such obese people have a higher activity of the small vessel constricting protein called "endothelin."

In a press release, the researchers said that a high activity level of endothelin, or ET-1, makes blood vessels more prone to constriction (or being choked), disrupting the body's blood flow. This puts victims at a higher risk for developing cardiovascular disease. Exercise has been shown to be able to reduce ET-1 activity. However, putting a fitness or exercise regimen into a daily routine lifestyle can be quite a challenge. 

The study, conducted at the University of Colorado, Boulder, examined the effects of taking Vitamin C supplements on lowering ET-1 activity, as the vitamin supplement has been reported to improve vessel function.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the study is a small one—only having 35 obese adult participants. Fifteen of them were given the walking exercise treatment, and 20 received the Vitamin C supplementation.

All subjects were sedentary and overweight or obese, and all of them had impaired vascular tone levels. Their poor vascular tone causes various harmful effects in the body, like changes in the blood that favors clotting. As a result, they were at risk for high blood pressure and heart attacks, as well as strokes.

The body-mass index (BMI) for both groups was recorded, averaging 29.3 for the exercise group and 31.3 for the Vitamin C group. Nobody lost weight after the study's three-month period.

The researchers found out that a daily intake of Vitamin C supplements (500mg/day, time-released) reduced vessel constriction caused by ET-1 activity—surprisingly the same result that a walking exercise does, minus the efforts to get up and walk. As such, the researchers wrote that Vitamin C supplementation represents an effective lifestyle strategy to reduce ET-1-induced vessel constriction in obese adults.

Study lead author Caitlin Dow said the findings are important for people who, for reasons of injury or physical limitations, cannot exercise.

However, Colorado post-doctoral fellow Dow also said that "this is not 'the exercise pill.'"

Physician Peter Lipson commented in a Forbes blog that the study should be a bigger, more "clinically significant" study.

"The only way to decrease the risks of being sedentary and obese," he said, "is to eat healthier and get moving."