She reckoned that for people with elevated CRP levels, the amount of CRP reduction achieved by taking vitamin C supplements in the study was comparable to that in many other studies of cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins.
While several larger statin trials lowered CRP levels by about 0.2 milligrams per litre, she said, the present study showed that vitamin C lowered these levels by 0.25 milligrams per litre.
“This finding of an effect of vitamin C is important because it shows in a carefully conducted randomized, controlled trial that for people with moderately elevated levels of inflammation, vitamin C may be able to reduce CRP as much as statins have done in other studies,” said Block.
The researchers, however, are uncertain as to why vitamin E did not show an effect even though it is also an antioxidant.
Block thinks that the difference perhaps relates to the fact that vitamin E is fat soluble and thus found in cell membranes, while vitamin C is water soluble and found in intercellular fluid.
Though the study lasted for two months only, the researchers insist that there is no evidence to date of adverse effects for longer-term use of vitamin C at high levels.
They agree that further studies are required to see whether vitamin C’s beneficial impact on CRP levels continue past two months.
“This is clearly a line of research worth pursuing. It has recently been suggested by some researchers that people with elevated CRP should be put on statins as a preventive measure. For people who have elevated CRP but not elevated LDL cholesterol, our data suggest that vitamin C should be investigated as an alternative to statins, or as something to be used to delay the time when statin use becomes necessary,” said Block. (ANI)
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