After four weeks of vitamin B supplementation, health problems related to fine particles would decrease drastically.
While France was particularly affected by the pollution peaks during the winter of 2016-2017, scientists have discovered a medical protection against these deleterious effects: vitamin B.
Scientists at Columbia University who are leading the research began to develop this hypothesis after an initial study in 2008 showed that people with higher levels of B vitamins in their blood were less affected by it. increase in cardiovascular disorders due to pollution.
For this new study, published in the review Scientific Reports, the researchers therefore worked with 10 healthy volunteers aged 18 to 60, non-smokers. For 6 months, they regularly underwent 2-hour sessions in an artificially polluted environment (the air was loaded with fine particles PM2.5), after having benefited from vitamin B6, B9 (folic acid) supplementation and B12.
Results after 4 weeks
Results ? Vitamin B seems to have a very important impact on our resistance to pollution. Scientists have thus observed a 150% reduction in the impact of air pollution on the heart rate; destruction of white blood cells was also reduced by 139%. All after 4 weeks of treatment. The researchers also observed that the harmful effects of pollution on DNA (degradation of mitochondrial DNA, epigenetic disturbances, etc.) were significantly less in the event of prior supplementation with B vitamins. As a reminder, vitamin B is found naturally in many foods including pork, spinach, veal liver, seafood etc.
Interesting results which will therefore have to be confirmed on a larger cohort and with higher pollution.
Each year, air pollution kills 48,000 people in France. It is believed to be responsible for nearly 3.7 million premature deaths worldwide each year.
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