Two Antioxidant Vitamins Don't Protect Against Heart Disease

Still think they know what an effective supplement is?

"Vitamins E and C -- antioxidant supplements taken by many American adults -- don't protect against cardiovascular disease when taken individually, according to a long-term study of more than 14,000 male physicians presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2008. Results of the Physician's Health Study II (PHS II) were presented as a late-breaking clinical trial. The study was simultaneously published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

'We found no compelling evidence that either individual vitamin E or vitamin C reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease,' said J. Michael Gaziano, M.D., M.P.H., principal investigator of the study and a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and VA Boston Healthcare System in Boston, Mass.

Gaziano said results of the study add to the growing consensus about vitamin E's lack of cardiovascular protection based on several earlier trials that failed to find any effect."

Oops.

"The findings are an example of the importance of randomized clinical trials to test promising hypotheses generated by laboratory or observational research, Sesso said. Antioxidant vitamins appeared promising in previous laboratory research and in observational human studies, in which people who reported eating a diet rich in vitamins E and C seemed to have fewer cardiovascular problems.

Fruits and vegetables may provide some protective effect beyond the vitamins they contain, or it could be that people who report eating a lot of fruits and vegetables have other characteristics that lead to better health, Sesso said."

Furthering the fact that there are no "healthy" foods.

There is only eating healthily.

"'Broadly speaking, there has been great interest in antioxidants in the prevention of cardiovascular disease,' said Sesso. 'Despite promising findings from laboratory research and observational studies, our results from PHS II point to the need for large-scale, long-term clinical trials testing the antioxidant hypothesis.'"

And further furthering the fact that lab results cannot be relied upon to translate into real-world benefits.

Despite the hype from the crooked "health foods" industry.