Want to enjoy the cardiovascular benefits of exercise without having to do all of that hard work? Well, you can’t. However, new research from the University of Colorado-Boulder suggests that a daily dose of vitamin C supplements could have similar heart-healthy advantages.
The findings, which were presented recently at the 14th International Conference on Endothelin: Physiology, Pathophysiology and Therapeutics in Savannah, Georgia, found that taking 500 mg of vitamin C per day improved the blood vessel tone (one key measure of cardiovascular health) as much taking brisk walks five to seven times per week over a three month period.
Vitamin C use, the authors explained, could reduce the activity of endothelin-1 (ET-1), a protein that constricts the blood vessels, in patients who are overweight or obese. The findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal and are preliminary, according to the Los Angeles Times, but they suggest that the benefits of the supplements is “substantial.”
Supplement use could benefit those with physical limitations
The trial, which was led by Caitlin Dow, a post-doctoral fellow at the university whose work is focused on nutrition and vascular biology, recruited 15 subjects who underwent the three month walking regimen and 20 others who used the vitamin C supplements. All of the participants were considered sedentary, were overweight or obese, and had impaired vascular tone.
Like most overweight or obese adults who do not exercise enough, their blood vessels were not responsive to experimental conditions with the strength and suppleness typically seen in normal, healthy men and women, the Los Angeles Times said. As a result, the individuals were dealing with a number of health-related problems, including inflammation and clot-promoting blood changes.
The average starting body-mass index (BMI) of the exercise group was 29.3, and the BMI of the vitamin C group was 31.3. Neither group lost any weight during the study, the newspaper noted. After three months of moderate-intensity exercise, the subjects vascular tone returned to healthy levels, but the same was also true for the group receiving 500 mg of daily vitamin C.
“This is not ‘the exercise pill,’” Dow said. While she said that the findings could benefit those unable to work out for prolonged periods of time due to injury or other physical problems, she also noted that regular physical activity has other benefits (lowering “bad” cholesterol, upping metabolic function, improving cognitive function) that supplement use cannot replicate.
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