(http://www.bolenreport.com/)

This study and report is predicated on the assumption that natural
lipoproteins are "harmful." Forgetting the problems of statistical
association (toaster ovens are also a risk factor statistically correlated
with heart disease) this report defies logic.
Antioxidants raise a particular lipoprotein, thus the authors conclude, on
that basis alone, that antioxidants may cause heart disease? This is news? A
gross generalization based on a single finding?

If there are harmful lipoproteins, why did they evolve? Why do vitamins such
as vitamins E and Coenzyme Q10 require the "bad" LDL cholesterol in order to
be transported throughout the body? How is it that vitamin D is made out of
cholesterol from sunlight? The notion that antioxidants should be avoided
may be good for the sales of pharmaceuticals, but such "news" leaves
physicians, already poorly trained in nutrition, in the dark. - Editor

Anth

"Diarmid Logan" wrote in message
m...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3673365.stm

Vitamins 'increase cholesterol'

Vitamins could actually increase levels of "bad cholesterol",
researchers have suggested.

It had been thought that vitamins could protect the heart.

But New York University researchers found vitamins including E, C and
beta carotene stop the liver breaking down an early form of bad
cholesterol.

Writing in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the researchers say
their findings mean they cannot recommend that people use the
vitamins.

The vitamins are antioxidants, thought to be beneficial because they
attack free radicals, produced when the body fights infection, which
inflict damage on the body's tissues.

But studies carried out by the researchers at the university's school
of medicine found that antioxidants actually hampered the body's fight
against damaging cholesterol.

Normally, liver cells break down a key protein in harmful lipoproteins
such as VLDL (very low density lipoprotein) which means they cannot be
converted into a form of LDL that can enter the bloodstream.

However, in laboratory tests, the New York researchers found vitamin
E, C and beta carotene prevented this process taking place in liver
cells.

Further tests in mice and rat livers showed vitamin E prevented this
"breakdown" process taking place, meaning the liver destroyed fewer
lipoproteins.

Dr Edward Fisher, director of the Lipid Treatment & Research Center at
the NYU Medical Center, said: "Our study is the first to document this
association between antioxidant vitamins and VLDL cholesterol.

"It does appear that antioxidant vitamins may be potentially harmful
for the heart based on their ability to increase the secretion of VLDL
in the liver cells and in the mice that we studied."

But he added: "More studies are needed to back up our findings. Until
more data becomes available, we can't make any recommendations about
whether people should not use these vitamins."

However he said there was evidence from other animal studies that
antioxidants could have beneficial effects on other parts of the body,
such as protecting the arteries from atherosclerosis and the pancreas
and other organs from damage caused by diabetes.

Writing in the journal, Dr Ronald Krauss of Children's Hospital
Oakland Research Institute in California, added that, although there
was "considerable" evidence for the benefits of antioxidants, "the
potential for unintended outcomes of oxidant therapy should serve as a
warning against proceeding with such treatment in the absence of
clinical-trial evidence of benefit and safety".

Belinda Linden, head of Medical Information at the British Heart
Foundation (BHF), told BBC News Online: "Most research tends to
suggest that supplementation with antioxidant vitamins, although not
beneficial, does not lead to undue harm.

"Before any clear conclusions can be drawn from this study we would
await the results of larger randomized controlled clinical trials."