Healthy Bytes

New American Heart Association recommendations for women

read time: 412 words, about two minutes

The American Heart Association came out with new guidelines for women last week.

A good bit of it stayed the same – eat better, exercise, maintain a healthy weight.
But there were two areas of controversy.

First has to do with specific vitamins / supplements:
Antioxidant supplements (such as vitamin E, C and beta-carotene) should not be used for primary or secondary prevention of CVD.
Folic acid should not be used to prevent CVD – a change from the 2004 guidelines that did recommend it be considered for use in certain high-risk women.

Second is about the use of aspirin:
Routine low dose aspirin therapy may be considered in women age 65 or older regardless of CVD risk status, if benefits are likely to outweigh other risks. (Previous guidelines did not recommend aspirin in lower risk or healthy women.)
The upper dosage of aspirin for high-risk women increases to 325 mg per day rather than 162 mg.

Let’s talk about antioxidants first.

There have been numerous studies with Vitamins E, C and beta-carotene. And they’ve produced some conflicting results.

You need to be aware that vitamins in “pill” form and vitamins in natural form are not one and the same.
Vitamins are not isolated little molecules. They’re generally a complex. Additionally, when in food form, they come along with enzymes need to digest and assimilate.

While Scientists can synthesized chemical structures, the resulting “pill” isn’t interchangeable with the natural form.

A dandy example is Vitamin C. Ascorbic acid is one part of Vitamin C and what you generally find when you buy “Vitamin C”. But since it is not the full Vitamin C complex, you won’t experience the full Vitamin C benefits.

Free radicals in the body contribute to atherosclerosis. Anti-oxidants neutralize free radicals. Vitamins A, C and E are anti-oxidants.

The problem with most of the studies the AHA is basing their conclusions on is that they’ve used synthetic forms of these vitamins. They might not cost much… but since they are worth little if anything from a nutritional aspect, they’re a waste all the same.

There are supplements of high quality that can be worth taking. Many of them derive the vitamins from food sources.

Great food sources of anti-oxidants…

Vitamin E:
Green leafy vegetables, legumes, nuts

Vitamin C:
Sweet peppers, broccoli, guava, cherry, kiwi, citrus

Beta carotene:
Dark orange, red and dark green vegetables and fruits.

In the next post we’ll discuss folic acid. And then the “aspirin a day” recommendation

This entry was posted on Mon, 26.Feb.2007 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.