Volume 91, Issue 1, January (2004), pp. 81-90 © The Author 2004
doi:10.1079/BJN20031024

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Long-term vitamin C supplementation has no markedly favourable effect on serum lipids in middle-aged Japanese subjects

Mi Kyung Kim^1,2, Satoshi Sasaki^1,3, Shizuka Sasazuki¹, Shunji Okubo⁴, Masato Hayashi⁴, Shoichiro Tsugane^1
1Epidemiology and Biostatistics Division, National Cancer Centre Research Institute East, Chiba, Japan
²Department of Preventive Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea
³National Institute of Health and Nutrition, Tokyo, Japan
⁴Hiraka General Hospital, Yokote, Japan

 (Received 24 February 2003–Revised 8 September 2003–Accepted 15 September 2003)

Antioxidant vitamins have been reported to be associated with an improvement in blood lipid profiles, but results are not consistent. The present study was designed to determine whether long-term vitamin C supplementation could alter serum lipid concentrations in subjects who completed a 5-year population-based double-blind intervention trial. A total of 439 Japanese subjects with atrophic gastritis initially participated in the trial using vitamin C and β-carotene to prevent gastric cancer. Before and upon early termination of β-carotene supplementation, 134 subjects dropped out of the trial; finally, 161 subjects assigned to the high-dose group (500 mg vitamin C/d) and 144 subjects assigned to the low-dose group (50 mg vitamin C/d) were studied. No favourable effect of vitamin C supplementation on serum concentrations of total cholesterol, HDL- and LDL-cholesterol, and triacylglycerol was observed, although high-dose vitamin C supplementation increased serum vitamin C concentrations substantially. Among women, the mean change in serum triacylglycerol decreased (−0·12 mmol/l, 95 % CI −0·32, 0·09) in the high-dose group, but increased (+0·12 mmol/l, 95 % CI 0·03, 0·22) in the low-dose group. In addition, the mean change in serum triacylglycerol among women with hypertriacylglycerolaemia was statistically significant (−1·21, 95 % CI −2·38, −0·05) after high-dose vitamin C supplementation. The 5-year vitamin C supplementation had no markedly favourable effects on the serum lipid and lipoprotein profile. However, our present results do not preclude the possibility that vitamin C supplementation may decrease triacylglycerol concentrations among women with hypertriacylglycerolaemia.

Keywords:
Vitamin C supplementation, Cholesterol, Triacylglycerol, Hypertriacylglycerolaemia, Intervention trial

Abbreviations:
TG, triacylglycerol