Harvard Study: Antioxidants Have No Clear Benefit on Cardiovascular Disease

In a study, performed at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women's Hospital, there is evidence suggesting that supplementation with vitamins C and E and beta-carotene does not reduce cardiovascular events in women at high risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD).

There is much observational evidence that suggest that taking antioxidants may help preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD). Despite, the profusion of scientific studies available there is no clear effect of antioxidants on CVD. The new study takes a look at three commonly prescribed antioxidants for CVD prevention.

The study, published in the prestigious medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine, followed 8,100+ women (age 40 years or older) for ten years from 1995 to 2005. All the patients included in the study had a history of high risk for cardio vascular diseases (CVD), that is, high cholesterol hypertension, and obesity. Women received a daily dose of 500 mg/d ascorbic acid, 600 IU of vitamin E (every other day), and 50 mg of beta-carotene (every other day), or a placebo (with no vitamins at all).

The study, led by Dr. Nancy R. Cook, is called The Women's Antioxidant Cardiovascular Study. It found that there is no effect of either vitamins or beta carotene on CVD morbidity and mortality or on the individual secondary outcomes of myocardial infarction, stroke, and coronary revascularization or CVD death.

Vitamin E seems to have a marginal effect in the primary CVD outcome. In addition the combination of vitamin C and vitamin E seem to have fewer strokes in the overall 9.4-year period of the study.

Cardiovascular disease, or CVD, refers to a set of diseases that involve the heart and/or blood vessels (arteries and veins). In practical terms, also the atherosclerosis (arterial disease) is considered a CVD.

In the US, about 30% of all death are caused by CVD followed only by all forms of cancers which cause 23% of all deaths (1999 data). In addition to all these deaths, CVD also causes many disabilities.