The Health Diva

Coronary Heart Disease (CHD)

The results of most studies indicated that low or deficient intakes of vitamin C were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and that modest dietary intakes of about 100 mg/day were sufficient for maximum reduction of cardiovascular disease risk among non-smoking men and women (1).

A recent study found that the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases was 42% lower in men and 25% lower in women who consumed more than 50 mg/day of dietary vitamin C and who regularly took vitamin C supplements, corresponding to a total vitamin C intake of about 300 mg/day (10).

Results from the Nurses’ Health Study, based on the follow-up of more than 85,000 women over 16 years, also suggest that higher vitamin C intakes may be cardio-protective (11). In this study, vitamin C intakes of more than 359 mg/day from diet plus supplements or supplement use itself were associated with a 27-28% reduction in CHD risk. However, in those women who did not take vitamin C supplements, dietary vitamin C intake was not significantly associated with CHD risk.

More recently, a pooled analysis of 9 studies, including more than 290,000 adults who were free of CHD at baseline and followed for an average of 10 years, found that those who took more than 700 mg/day of supplemental vitamin C had a 25% lower risk of CHD than those who did not take vitamin C supplements (12). Data from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) indicate that plasma and circulating cells in healthy, young subjects became fully saturated with vitamin C at a dose of about 400 mg/day (13). The results of the pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies suggest that maximum reduction of CHD risk may require vitamin C intakes high enough to saturate plasma and circulating cells, and thus the vitamin C body pool (14).