How Antioxidants Protects -

Angina and Vitamins

Dr. Riemersma's paper was especially interesting for several reasons. First, there is an obvious relationship between angina pectoris and the risk of heart disease; both are caused by the same arterial disorder atherosclerosis . Second, the vitamins it studied are antioxidants that attack free radicals. Perhaps most interestingly of all, the study carried out by scientifically very well-informed people implied a presumption that there might well be a connection between free radicals and heart disease. The results of the study confirmed this presumption. No connection was found between levels of vitamin A and angina. The results for vitamin C were confused by the fact that vitamin C levels are lower in smokers than in non smokers; and since smoking is an established risk factor for heart disease this could not be attributed to low levels of the vitamin. But so far as vitamin E was concerned, there was no doubt about the result. Even after taking into account smoking, blood pressure, obesity and blood cholesterol levels, the facts were clear. Men with low blood levels of vitamin E were significantly more likely to have angina than men with higher levels.

The authors of the paper concluded that some populations with a high incidence of coronary heart disase should supplement their eating habits with more cereals, vitamin E rich oil, vegetables, and fruit.

The authors of the paper concluded that some populations with a high incidence of coronary heart disease should supplement their eating habits with more cereals, vitamin E rich oils, vegetables, and fruit.

The papr brought out some other very interesting points. As explained above, low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) altered by oxidation by free radials are believed to be the main factors in the development of the plaques that narrow arteries in atherosclerosis. The authors of this paper drew attention to American research that showed that when vitamin E is added to cells grown in culture in the laboratory, it blocks the oxidation changes in LDLs. They also pointed out that the protective polyunsaturated fats are very vulnerable to attack by free radicals, which can start a chain reaction causing them, in turn, to become free radicals. This chain reaction can be prevented by vitamin E.

Although I have highlighted this paper, I would emphasize that this is but one of many hundreds of professional articles dealing with free radicals and heart disease that have been published in the medical press in recent years. Almost all of these support the view that free radicals have a highly significant part to play in causing heart disease. The most impressive evidence to date in favour of vitamin E, however, was reported in two papers in the New England Journal of Medicine in May 1993 by Dr. M.R. Stampfer and others at Harvard Medical School. The first of these concerned vitamin E, consumption and the risk of coronary artery disease in women. This trial involved 87,245 female nurses aged 64 to 59 years in none of whom heart disease or cancer had been diagnosed at the beginning of the trail in 1980. the vitamin intakes of all these women with 115 deaths from coronary thrombosis. Some 437 women had non-fatal heart attacks. when those with the lowest vitamin E intake were compared with those with the highest intake, the latter were found to have a risk of heart attack of only 66%. Women who took supplementary vitamin E for two years or more had an even greater reduction in risk, to 59%. Taking E for short periods did not produce any apparent benefit in reducing the risk. So long-term supplements of vitamin E can apparently, reduce the risk of heart attack to almost half

The second paper was concerned with the effects of vitamin E intake on 39,910 male health professionals doctors, dentists, vets, pharmacists, opticians, etc., this study began in 1986 and lasted for four years. All were believed to be free of heart disease or related conditions, such as high blood cholesterol and diabetes, at the beginning of the trail. Again the intake of vitamins was known. There ere 887 cases of coronary disease reported during the trial. The results were especially increasing in relation to vitamin E intake. In the men taking more than 60 mg of vitamin E daily, the risk of heart attack was reduced to 64% as compared with those taking less than 7.5 mg per day. Those who took supplements of 100 mg or more a day had a relatively risk of 63% as compared with those who did not take any vitamin E supplements. This trail showed that the association between differences in dietary intake of vitamin E and heart risk was weak; it was only in those men taking the larger doses possible from supplementary vitamin E capsules that there was a substantial reduction in the risk.

Neither of these trails proved positively that it was the vitamin E that was reducing the risk. Critics have suggested that people who take vitamin E supplements are, by their nature, more health conscious and may be leading healthier lives. This point was not lost on the authors of the trials, and they adjusted the figures to take into account the effects of such things as exercise, calorie intake, dietary fibre, obesity, smoking, alcohol intake, high blood pressure and routine aspirin taking. When all these factors were considered, the figures still showed that there was a strong protective effect against heart attacks from vitamin E intake.