In my research study, I first obtained a better understanding of the symptoms, causes and process of atherosclerosis. I found that atherosclerosis is sometimes unavoidable and can lead to extremely severe symptoms including heart attacks, strokes and eventually death. Although necessary in the human body, the process of oxidation is one of the major causes of atheroma growth. Because harmful ROS is formed by the LDL oxidation process, it is essential for people to maintain a healthy level of free radicals in the body so that foam cell production is limited. A possible way of stabilizing free radicals is the induction of the in take of antioxidants, as they are capable of stabilizing themselves after they give off an electron to the dangerous free radicals. The ORAC antioxidant guide that I found is extremely helpful for atherosclerosis patients or even healthy people. With the high capacity natural food list in mind, I tried to find experiments dealing with supplements such as vitamin E and C. I found five experiments done in years ranging from 1996 to 2009. The CHAOS study from Cambridge University (1996), provided proof that the supplement vitamin E was beneficial for atherosclerosis patients. Five years later however, in 2001, a clinical study done in Western Australia, abated the CHAOS conclusion of the significance of vitamin E concentration at the site of LDL oxidation. In the clinical study, a similar experiment was done involving the measurement of vitamin E. The conclusion was that vitamin E's effect on the hindrance of IMT growth was minimal. In the dialysis patient study, vitamin E proved to be significant in uremic patients only when it was combined with the short term benefits of chronic peritoneal dialysis treatment. The ASAP study done in Denmark and Finland furthermore supported the vitamin E hypothesis done in past years. In this particular experiment however, the antioxidant vitamin C was also considered. Patients took not only vitamin E but also vitamin C on a daily basis for three years. The results of this study showed a retardation in IMT increase for male smokers. The fact that the first four experiments done from years 1996-2001 used vitamin E as the main antioxidant supplement suggest the high antioxidant capacity in vitamin E. Since CHAOS was done in 1996, I will assume that it is not as up to date as the other experiments; CHAOS concluded that the single supplement of vitamin E was beneficial. The more recent study in Australia contradicted this conclusion and suggested that vitamin E alone was insignificant in atherosclerosis improvements. The ASAP and the uremic patient study suggests that the combination of other antioxidants such as vitamin C or PD treatment with vitamin E proves to be beneficial for the atherosclerosis patient. In addition, in the most recent study, done in 2008 and published in 2009, induction of garlic which contains antithrombotic, antibiotic, hypolipidemic, hypocholesteremic, hypoglycemic and hypotensive activities improved hypertensive rats' condition only after three weeks. In foods, there are combinations of useful antioxidants that will help the cardiovascular system more so than individual vitamins. The mixing of many antioxidants will possibly provide a similar result compared with high antioxidant capacity fruits or vegetables. Taking a combinations of vitamins will perhaps bring significant changes by increasing antioxidant concentrations and will slow down the thickening arterial walls.
