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Effect of vitamin C and hawthorn beverage formula on blood pressure and oxidative stress in heat-exposed workers: a cluster-randomized controlled trial.

  • 2024-12-01
  • Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition 33(4)
    • Wei Du
    • Shuhan Zhang
    • Jiajia Yang
    • Hongmin Fan

Study Design

Type
Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)
Population
heat-exposed workers
Methods
40-day cluster-randomized controlled trial, intervention: one Vit C tablet (130 mg) and 500 mL hawthorn beverage (278.7 mg flavonoids) daily; control: 500 mL slightly salted water daily; both groups received healthy diet education
Duration
40 days
Funding
Unclear

Background and objectives

There is no evidence on antioxidant-rich diets in preventing hypertension in heat-exposed workers. We aimed to evaluate the effects of formula supplemented with vitamin C (Vit C) and hawthorn beverage on reducing blood pressure (BP) and oxidative stress levels in heat-exposed workers.

Methods and study design

In the 40-day cluster-randomized controlled trial, four heat-exposed shift-teams were enrolled and randomly assigned to the intervention and control groups. The intervention group was given one Vit C tablet (130 mg) and a 500 mL hawthorn beverage containing 278.7 mg flavonoids daily whereas the control group was given 500 mL of slightly salted water daily; both groups were provided education on a healthy diet. BP and creatinine-corrected urinary 8-isoprostane-prostaglandin F2α (8-iso-PGF2α/Cr) concentrations were assessed at baseline, Day 17 (only BP) and Day 41, respectively.

Results

Compared with the control group, the systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), and log10-transformed 8-iso-PGF2α/Cr in the inter-vention group decreased by 7.41 mmHg, 7.93 mmHg and 0.232, respectively, from baseline to day 41 (all p<0.05). When comparing BP levels at baseline, DBP in the intervention group was reduced by 5.46 mmHg when compared to control (p<0.05) among participants with lower baseline BP; SBP and DBP experienced reductions of 9.74 and 9.22 mmHg among participants with higher baseline BP (both p<0.05).

Conclusions

Supplementation of Vit C and flavonoids rich hawthorn beverage to heat-exposed workers prevented elevated BP caused by heat exposure which may be attributed to its oxidative stress inhibition effects.

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