Randomized trials of dietary antioxidants in cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment

Journal of Cardiovascular Risk
J M Gaziano

Abstract

The hypothesis that antioxidant vitamins might reduce cardiovascular disease risk is based on a large body of basic and human epidemiologic research. Basic research provides a plausible mechanism by which antioxidants might reduce the risk of atherosclerosis. A large number of descriptive, case-control and cohort studies provide data suggesting that consumption of antioxidant vitamins is associated with reduced risks of cardiovascular disease. These data raise the question of a role of antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, and beta-carotene, in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease, but do not provide a definitive answer. Randomized trial data will be essential in establishing whether or not there is a causal effect of antioxidants in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. For many hypotheses randomized trials are neither necessary nor desirable; however, when searching for small to moderate effects, large-scale randomized trials of adequate dose and duration, in which investigators allocate subjects at random to either active treatment or placebo will provide valuable information about whether there is a causal relationship, and provide reliable estimates of effect size. Results from several large-scale rand...Continue Reading

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