Summary
A Chinese research institute aimed to investigate whether a daily vitamin B supply can improve the risk of cardiovascular diseases in healthy elderly. To this end, 390 healthy participants, aged 60 to 74 years, were administered with either vitamin C or vitamin C plus several B vitamins for 12 months daily. A risk predictor score was used to assess the cardiovascular risk of each participant. According to the study results, HDL cholesterol – also known as the “good” cholesterol because it helps remove other forms of cholesterol from the bloodstream – increased by 9.2% after 12 months of supplementation with B vitamins. However, HDL cholesterol levels decreased again after supplementation was stopped. It was also shown that daily supplementation with B-vitamins for 12 months reduced the risk predictor score, indicating a lower risk of cardiovascular diseases. These beneficial effects declined after participants ceased supplementation, suggesting that persistent supplementation is required to maintain the associated benefits. Further details can be found in the study.
References
Wang et al.