A new antioxidant can keep blood vessels “young” at least 15 years old in older adults, a new study suggests.
The team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder reported in the new issue of the journal Hypertension that they selected 20 healthy men and women between the ages of 60 and 79. Getting half of them to take a 20 mg MitoQ supplement a day is a mitochondrial targeted antioxidant that can repair oxidative damage to mitochondria in cells. The other half took a placebo as a control.
Six weeks later, the researchers measured the degree of arterial dilation and blood flow in the subjects and evaluated the function of their vascular endothelial cells. After that, the subjects went through a “cleaning” phase of not taking any supplements for another two weeks, and the researchers then switched the two groups and re-tested them.
The results showed that subjects taking MitoQ supplements increased their arterial dilation rate by 42 percent, making their blood vessels “younger” by at least 15 to 20 years of age. If the condition continues to improve, the risk of heart disease could be reduced by about 13 percent, the researchers said.
“this suggests that similar therapies may help reduce the risk of age-related cardiovascular disease,” said Matthew Roseman, lead author of the study. “