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Vitamin C Redux Can It Help Smokers

Vitamin C has been promoted as a “cure-all” for a number of conditions: Believers say it can prevent colds and cure cancer — ostensibly because of its antioxidant properties. Unfortunately, scientific data have not substantiated many of the touted benefits of vitamin C. But one study published in the Sept. 12 issue of the journal Circulation suggests that vitamin C — at least when given intravenously — may actually help offset some of smoking’s deleterious effects on the heart.

The team of investigators, led by Professor Paolo Camici of the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre in London, determined that the regulation of blood circulation within the hearts of smokers improved after they had been given vitamin C by intravenous injection — that is, directly into the bloodstream.

Participants in the investigation were 19 middle-aged men, ranging from 36 to 50 years old. Eight of them were healthy nonsmokers, and the rest were current smokers who had been smoking at least one pack of cigarettes per day for at least the previous 10 years. None of the smokers had symptoms of heart problems at the time the study was conducted.

Smokers are known to have lower levels of vitamin C in their blood and tissues, according to Camici. The authors hypothesized that pro-oxidants contained in cigarette smoke impair the regulation of blood flow within the heart muscle itself through a toxic action on the small vessels (microcirculation), and that the antioxidant activity of vitamin C might counteract this effect. To test this theory, they monitored the blood flow in the small blood vessels of the subjects’ hearts with a technique called “positron emission tomography” scanning, or PET scan.

PET scans were performed before and after infusion of a compound, adenosine, which causes arteries to dilate and thus increases blood flow. In smokers, adenosine had a significantly less effect than it did in nonsmokers. But after the subjects had been given vitamin C, the smokers’ response to adenosine was normalized — it became similar to that of the nonsmokers.

In their discussion, the authors linked their results to some information about diet and risk of heart disease. They noted that even though people in the Mediterranean area of Europe tend to smoke more than do those from northern Europe, they seem to have less heart disease. The investigators suggest, “the larger amount of vitamin C in the Mediterranean diet could contribute” to this discrepancy.

“Our results were obtained after an acute intravenous administration of vitamin C,” Camici said. “I would like to repeat the study after chronic oral treatment and, only then, I would be in a position to recommend the use of this vitamin in smokers.”

Dr. Gilbert Ross, medical director of the American Council on Science and Health, noted, “This is a very small study, and smokers should not deceive themselves by thinking that vitamin C will ward off adverse health effects of tobacco. The best way to do that is to stop smoking.”

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