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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		Can vitamin C protect the heart from pain medication?
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:02
	Publish Date:		2016-08-09 19:00:00
	Description:		We’ve all heard that vitamin C is good for the immune system, but can it also protect our hearts from damaging drugs? Associate Professor Aldrin Gomes of the University of California, Davis says the antioxidant might in fact buffer the heart from NSAIDs, or common pain relievers like Ibuprofen. Their chronic use is known to cause side effects such as heart problems, even cardiac cell death. So to learn more, Gomes turned to the lab. "Vitamin C is readily available, and it’s easy to test and easy to understand the mechanism. We pre-treated the cells with vitamin C before we gave NSAIDs, and this prevented cell death." Gomes explains NSAIDs can reduce the ability of cardiac cells to make energy and cause a toxic buildup of cells. But on top of this protective effect, vitamin C also has mild pain relieving properties. "So together, it would actually be pretty useful for pain relief. We don’t know if this will work in humans, but our longer term goal is to see if taking vitamin C together with the NSAID will prevent the side effects."
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