Adding Tomato Extract to Diet Helps Heart

Supplementation with lycopene, an extract found in tomatoes, can improve blood vessel function in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD).

While it has been widely reported that a Mediterranean diet has a wide array of health benefits, including reducing the risk of diabetes, hypertension, and peripheral artery disease, the mechanisms by which these improvements occur remain a mystery.
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Past research has indicated that lycopene, a powerful antioxidant found in tomatoes that is 10 times more potent than vitamin E, may be the cause. 

To explore the effects of lycopene on cardiovascular health, researchers randomized 36 statin-treated CVD patients and 36 healthy controls to either daily supplementation with 7mg of lycopene or placebo for 2 months.

At both the beginning and end of the 2-month period, researchers measured participants’ blood flow, arterial stiffness, blood pressure, and lipid levels.

Overall, supplementation improved the endothelial function of patients with CVD by 53%; endothelial dysfunction, determined by blood vessels’ response to acetylcholine, is associated with the development of atherosclerosis, heart attack, and stroke.

Supplementation had no effect on blood pressure, arterial stiffness, or lipid levels. 

Researchers warned that despite the results, it is still important to CVD patients to eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables.

“Supplementing one component of this diet may not necessarily replace the benefits of a complex mixture of interacting nutrients as part of a healthy diet. However, our study does provide mechanistic evidence for the benefits of one such component of a Mediterranean diet in CVD patients,” they concluded.

–Michael Potts

Gajendragadkar PR, Hubsch A, Serg M, Wilkinson IB et al. Effects of oral lycopene supplementation on vascular function in patients with cardiovascular disease and healthy volunteers: a randomised controlled trial. Plos One. 2014 Jun 9 [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099070