This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Antioxidant vitamins and atherosclerosis prevention

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Low blood levels of beta-carotene (vitamin A), gamma-tocopherol (vitamin E) and vitamin C have been to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

  • vitamin A (beta-carotene) - a modest protective effect for cardiovascular disease was found in most cohort studies (1). However there has been no benefit demonstrated in large trials and cardiovascular mortality may be increased (2)

  • vitamin E - a large randomised controlled trial of vitamin E in nearly 30,000 Finnish smokers found no benefit for the use of vitamin E (3). Also the HOPE trial found no benefit for patients treated with vitamin E (4)

  • vitamin C - no large scale trials have studied vitamin C supplementation alone

At present, there is insufficient evidence for the use of antioxidants in the primary or secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (5)

  • a systematic review and meta-analysis found that antioxidant supplements for primary and secondary prevention did not decrease mortality

Reference:

  1. Lonn EM, Yusuf S. Is there a role for antioxidant vitamins in the prevention of cardiovascular disease? An update on epidemiological and clinical trials data. Can J Cardiol 1997;13: 957-65.
  2. Egger M et al. Spurious precision? Meta - analysis of observational studies. BMJ 1998; 316: 140-4.
  3. The Alpha-Tocopheral Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group. The effects of vitamin E and beta-carotene on the incidence of lung cancer and other causes in male smokers. NEJM 1994;330: 1029-35.
  4. NEJM 2000;342: 145-53.
  5. Bjelakovic G et al. Mortality in randomized trials of antioxidant supplements for primary and secondary prevention: systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA. 2007 Feb 28;297(8):842-57

Create an account to add page annotations

Add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation, such as a web address or phone number. This information will always be displayed when you visit this page

The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

Connect

Copyright 2024 Oxbridge Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of OmniaMed Communications Limited. All rights reserved. Any distribution or duplication of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. Oxbridge Solutions receives funding from advertising but maintains editorial independence.