Does lowering homocysteine levels prevent heart attacks and strokes?
Currently, there is no direct proof that taking folic acid and B vitamins to lower homocysteine levels prevents heart attacks and strokes. However, in a large population study involving women, those who had the highest consumption of folic acid (usually in the form of multivitamins) had fewer heart attacks than those who consumed the least amount of folic acid. In this study, the association between dietary intake of folate and vitamin B6 and risk of heart disease was more noticeable than between dietary intake of vitamin B12 and heart disease, which was minimal. Many other observational studies have been performed to assess the effect of folate and the other B vitamins on heart disease. Most of these studies have concluded that oral intake of folate has been associated to lower risk of heart disease, possibly because due to lowering of homocysteine levels. The relation between oral intake of vitamin B12 and B6 and heart disease was not as obvious in many of these studies. (5,6,7) In o
