A ‘tomato’ pill may improve the function of blood vessels and potentially reduce the risk of heart attacks or strokesin patients with cardiovascular disease, new research has said.
Scientists gave 72 adults – 36 cardiovascular disease patients and 36 test volunteers – a 7mg oral supplement of lycopene, an antioxidant found in tomatoes.
To improve the validity of the study, some participants were given a placebo treatment while neither participants nor researchers knew which treatment was being given.
Results showed that lycopene improved the function of blood vessels in cardiovascular disease patients, but not in healthy volunteers.
This was because lycopene improved the body’s ability to respond to a natural molecule, acetylcholine, by 53 per cent, which in turn stimulates a hormone that dilates blood vessels.Constriction of the blood vessels is one of the key factors that can lead to heart attack and stroke.
“We’ve shown quite clearly that lycopene improves the function of blood vessels in cardiovascular disease patients,” said Dr Joseph Cheriyan, consultant pharmacologist and lecturer at the University of Cambridge.
But he added: “A daily ‘tomato pill’ is not a substitute for other treatments, but may provide added benefits when taken alongside other medication.
“We cannot answer if this may reduce heart disease – this would need much larger trials to investigate outcomes more carefully.”The supplement had no effect on blood pressure, arterial stiffness or levels of lipids.
The British Heart Foundation’s associate medical director, Professor Jeremy Pearson, at the, emphasised that further work is needed to assess the clinical benefit of these results.
“Impaired endothelial function is a known predictor of increased risk of future heart disease. Further work is needed to understand whether the beneficial effects seen in this small study translate into clinical benefit for at-risk patients,” he said.
The study, published in academic journal Plos One, was funded by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the Wellcome Trust, and the British Heart Foundation.
