Vitamin C nutriture and risk of atherosclerotic heart disease.

There is substantial evidence for a role of dietary antioxidants in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, but evidence for a protective effect of vitamin C is inconclusive. Two recent reports add to the supporting evidence and provide some new observations. The first study, a 5-year prospective population study of Finnish men, suggests that vitamin C-deficient men may be at increased risk of myocardial infarction. The second study suggests that vitamin C may play a role in preventing manifestations of existing coronary artery disease, rather than in limiting disease progression. Although these results suffer from the limitations of observational studies, they provide impetus for further investigation.