Firefighters performing heavy activity, that is typical for firefighters
for three hours were found to have acute increases in arterial stiffness and impaired cardiac functioning in young, apparently healthy male firefighters.This phenomenon has also been observed in people performing other heavy physical activities.
About one hour before the pre-firefighting data collection, the participants consumed a standardized meal and a 2-gram Vitamin C capsule or a placebo so researchers could investigate whether the supplement improved arterial function, mitigating the risk of cardiovascular events, as prior studies suggested. The Vitamin C supplements did not appear to affect any of the outcomes, however.
see Fire Engineering.
I would like to point out that 2 g of vitamin C over a 5 hour period is a tiny amount,
especially considering the firefighters were under lot of stress and firefighters are big people.
In contrast Linus Pauling took 18 g of vitamin C a day, and he was a medium sized guy and not doing a lot of physical activity.
So to me this study does not prove much about the effect of vitamin C on the cardiovascular system.
