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Folic Acid Supplements Won't Lower Heart-Attack Risk
Two studies suggest folate and B vitamins are not as heart-healthy as thought
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
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SUNDAY, March 12 (HealthDay News) -- Two new studies question the conventional wisdom that folic acid and B vitamin supplementation lowers cardiovascular risk.
The logic behind supplementation has been that it reduces blood levels of a protein called homocysteine, long linked to heart attack and stroke. But the new research suggests that lowering homocysteine this way has no effect on preventing heart attacks -- and may even trigger a slight rise in heart attack risk.
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Both reports will appear in the March 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, but were released early to coincide with their presentation Sunday at the meeting of the American College of Cardiology, in Atlanta.
"Combination vitamin therapies, which do lower homocysteine, have no effect on cardiovascular events, even though the homocysteine level is lowered," said Dr. Joseph Loscalzo, head of the department of medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, and author of an accompanying journal editorial.
There was one glimmer of hope for people taking these supplements, however: One of the two studies did note a "marginally significant" decrease in stroke risk after supplementation.
In the first study, called the Norwegian Vitamin (NORVIT) trial, Norwegian researchers randomly assigned 3,749 men and women who had heart attacks to receive folic acid, vitamins B6 and B12, or a placebo.
Over the three years of the trial, the researchers found that while homocysteine levels dropped an average of 27 percent among people taking folic acid and vitamin B12, this decline in the blood protein had no significant effect on whether people had another heart attack or died from another heart attack.
In fact, people taking all three supplements actually experienced a slightly increased risk of having another heart attack, the researchers found.
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Copyright © 2006 ScoutNews LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 3/13/2006
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SOURCES: Joseph Loscalzo, M.D., Ph.D., head of the department of medicine, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston; Alice H. Lichtenstein, D.Sc., director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Lab and Stanley Gershoff Professor of Nutrition, USDA Human Nutrition Research Center, Tufts University, Boston; Kaare Harald Bønaa, M.D., Ph.D, professor of medicine and consultant cardiologist, primary investigator, the NORVIT trial, the Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway;
March 12, 2006, prepared statement, Council for Responsible Nutrition, Washington, D.C.; March 16, 2006, New England Journal of Medicine
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