Vitamin C as Helpful as Exercise for Obese Patients

According to recent small study “Vitamin C supplementation shows an effective lifestyle approach” for decreasing the blood vessel constriction that is enhanced in overweight and obese adults.

The research of 35 obese or overweight people compared the results of vitamin C and exercise on the protein well-known as endothelin-1, which has a restricting action on small blood vessels.

The protein’s activity is increased in overweight and obese individuals and due to this high endothelin-1 activity, small vessels are much more vulnerable to constricting, turning into less responsive to blood flow requirement and raising the risk of vascular disease.

The study’s summary is being provided at the American Physiological Society’s 14th International Conference on Endothelin.

The investigators describe that exercise has been proven to decrease endothelin-1 activity, but including it in an everyday routine can be difficult.

Daily dose as beneficial as walking

Caitlin Dow, lead the research to analyze whether vitamin C supplements, which have been claimed to enhance vessel function, can also decrease endothelin-1 activity.

The scientists identified that daily supplementation of vitamin C at a time-release dose of 500 mg everyday decreased endothelin-1-mediated vessel constriction approximately walking did.

The 35 sedentary, overweight/obese people finished 3 months of either the supplementation (20 individuals) or aerobic exercise training (15 individuals).

Measures involved forearm blood flow and reactions to intra-arterial infusion of endothelin-1 prior to and after each intervention.

Vasoconstriction to endothelin-1 enhanced in the same way – about two-fold – in reaction to both interventions.

Switching to the other end of the spectrum of physical fitness, an evaluation in February 2013 identified that vitamin C may help individuals under heavy physical stress, like marathon runners, reduce their possibilities of getting a cold.