Pop Those Vitamin Pills

[Guest guest]

October 30, 2002

NUTRITION NEWS FOCUS

" Nutrition news is important. We help you understand it! "

 

Today's Topic: Pop Those Vitamin Pills

 

Homocysteine is an amino acid in the blood that is considered by some

a risk factor for heart disease as potent as cholesterol. It is known

that the B vitamins folate, B6 and B12 reduce levels of homocysteine.

 

A new study looked at supplements of these vitamins in 272 patients in

Switzerland who had angioplasty, a treatment that cleans out an

artery. A similar number of controls were compared at 6 and 12

months. People treated with angioplasty have a fairly high rate of

restenosis - that is their arteries tend to re-clog. Those getting

the vitamins had significantly less reocclusion and needed

significantly fewer repeat angioplasties. There was a trend toward

fewer heart attacks and deaths. The study appeared in the August 28,

2002 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

< http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v288n8/abs/joc12068.html >

 

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The effect of the vitamins

was more pronounced in men than in women and was less effective if

the patients had diabetes or smoked cigarettes. Certainly, longer

studies on this are needed, but this is another tile in the mosaic of

how heart disease develops and might be prevented.

 

 

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