RX : DAILY DOSE OF VITAMIN C MAY HELP HEART-SURGERY PATIENTS.Byline: Denise Mann Medical Tribune News Service People who take vitamin C vitamin C or ascorbic acid Water-soluble organic compound important in animal metabolism. Most animals produce it in their bodies, but humans, other primates, and guinea pigs need it in the diet to prevent scurvy. after undergoing surgery to open up heart arteries may prevent the arteries from reclogging. Reclogging of heart arteries, or restenosis, after the surgery is a significant problem for many people with heart disease, and vitamin C may be a harmless and inexpensive way to prevent this condition, researchers led by Dr. Haruo Tomoda of the department of cardiology at Tokai University in Kanagawa, Japan, reported in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology The American College of Cardiology (ACC) is a nonprofit medical association established in 1949 to educate, research and influence health care public policy. The president for the 2006–2007 year is Steven E. Nissen. [1] The organization has 39 chapters in the U.S. . In a study of 119 people with heart disease who underwent angioplasty, a procedure to unclog heart arteries, those who took 500 milligrams of vitamin C per day for four months after surgery had an artery restenosis rate of 24 percent, compared with a rate of 43 percent among people who did not receive vitamin C following angioplasty, Tomoda and colleagues reported. During angioplasty, a balloon-tipped catheter is threaded into blocked heart arteries and inflated so that it flattens fatty plaques against the artery wall, thereby allowing blood to flow more freely through the vessel. Vitamin C, an antioxidant antioxidant, substance that prevents or slows the breakdown of another substance by oxygen. Synthetic and natural antioxidants are used to slow the deterioration of gasoline and rubber, and such antioxidants as vitamin C (ascorbic acid), butylated hydroxytoluene , may keep arteries open by preventing low-density lipoprotein low-density lipoprotein n. Abbr. LDL A lipoprotein that contains relatively high amounts of cholesterol and is associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease. (LDL LDL - ["LDL: A Logic-Based Data-Language", S. Tsur et al, Proc VLDB 1986, Kyoto Japan, Aug 1986, pp.33-41]. ), or ``bad'' cholesterol, from building up in the blood, the researchers speculated. In the study, 12 percent of the people who took vitamin C needed repeat surgery or stents, compared with 29 percent of those people not taking vitamin C, the Tomoda team reported. Stents are tiny, cylindrical metal props inserted into their heart arteries to keep the narrowed vessels open. ``The whole issue with angioplasty is artery reclogging and, given the exponential growth of angioplasty and stenting arteries, it would be of great interest to know that something as simple as vitamin C could prevent'' this condition, said Dr. Thomas Graboys, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. It is a prestigious American medical school located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. in Boston and director of the Lown Cardiovascular Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is a hospital in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill. With Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two founding members of Partners HealthCare. in Boston. Vitamin C and other antioxidants Antioxidants Substances that reduce the damage of the highly reactive free radicals that are the byproducts of the cells. Mentioned in: Aging, Nutritional Supplements antioxidants, n. seem to yield significant health benefits without serious side effects, Graboys added. ``They can't hurt and may help, which is why antioxidants may be an important, risk-free approach'' in treating people with heart disease, he said. At least one cardiologist, however, Dr. George Sopko of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Md., isn't quite convinced of the restorative powers of vitamin C. Cardiologists have not been able to find a single drug to solve the problem of restenosis after surgery, Sopko said. |
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