Amir Khan and Deepti Malhotra
Smoking is an important risk factor for many diseases. Smoking has been strongly implicated as a risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer and atherosclerosis. Vitamin-C (Ascorbic acid), the most abundant and effective water soluble antioxidant in the biological fluid, is though to be important for protection against diseases and degenerated processes caused by oxidative stress. In this study we investigated the efficacy of antioxidant agent Vitamin-c or Ascorbic acid by analyzing all the parameters in plasma, TC, TG, TL, VLDL-C, LDL-C, HDL-C, HDL2-C, HDL3-C, TBAR, MDA and in-vitro oxidizability of LDL in absence or presence of Ascorbic acid. All the plasma lipid parameters, TC, TG, TL, VLDL-C, LDL-C, TBAR and MDA significantly increased in young smokers. Ascorbic acid significantly reduces the overall oxidative burden and effectively ameliorated the above altered parameters. Hence daily intake of Vitamin-C by smokers may be useful in the prevention and treatment of tobacco induced hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis. In addition, daily intake of dietary Vitamin-c will efficacious and cost effective.
