New information on homocysteine….

Today's post: Monday, 8-25-2008

A previous study did not show heart attack protection from taking the B vitamins,
B6, folic acid, & B12 in people who already had heart disease or previous heart attacks.

However, in that group, the lowering of homocysteine was not enough to be protective or even close to it. So, the results were inconclusive at best.

(You need to get to 8.9 or below, ideally in the 6.0 to 7.9 range to be protective. And, in this study, they lowered very high readings of over 13.0 only about a single point to more like above 12.0.)

However, recently a similar study found that taking more vitamin B12 got a similar group that had existing heart disease and homocysteine readings averaging over 12.0 to a bit above 8.0.

These people did have slightly fewer strokes but not enough to be statistically significant for sure and had about the same rate of heart attacks.

Since high homocysteine levels have been implicated in causing heart disease, this suggests that lowering them after the fact when there already is significant heart disease is ineffective as a treatment when done by itself even if it might have been preventive if done before the damage was already done.

It also probably means that the other causes of heart disease must also be addressed to enable lowering homocysteine to be effective. Low levels of HDL and antioxidants combined with high levels of inflammation and very high levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides may be so potent in causing more plaque deposits & heart attacks, that they override any help from lowering homocysteine unless they are also fixed.

However, it still looks as if lowering homocysteine is likely to be helpful in preventing heart disease. And it may even improve results in treating or reversing heart disease after it exists but in that case ONLY IF it’s done in addition to reversing these other causes.

As we’ve posted on, there are many ways to increase HDL from taking niacin to regular exercise to using mostly extra virgin olive oil to taking the right amount of magnesium and zinc and eating blueberries and other berries & eating onions and garlic or taking deodorized garlic supplements.

There are many ways to lower triglycerides including eliminating refined grain foods and high fructose corn syrup and cutting back on foods that contain sugar but not very much fiber or protein or oils. Taking omega 3 supplements and eating fish high in it combined with eliminating refined grains and meat from grain fed animals & oils such as soy and corn oil that are high in omega 6 oils helps. Eating onions and garlic or taking deodorized garlic supplements also helps lower triglycerides.

And, increasing HDL above 50 to closer to 100 and lowering triglycerides to below 100 plus NEVER eating trans fats or hydrogenated oils -- dramatically lowers the amount of the dangerous small particle LDL that causes heart disease.

If you also eat an abundance of nonstarchy vegetables and whole fruit and take antioxidant supplements such as vitamins A & C & E; 200 mg a day of selenium; & others such as CoQ10 & alpha lipoic acid, you also prevent the LDL you do have from becoming oxidized which also tends to render it safe & prevent it from harming your blood vessels.

Lastly, this set of things plus keeping your gums healthy to prevent bacteria build up in them will lower inflammation which also tends to protect your blood vessels from plaque build up.

Asking if lowering homocysteine is helpful in protecting people who already have heart disease when these other issues are unaddressed or badly addressed is the wrong question.

The two right questions are.:

If you address these other things effectively, will also keeping homocysteine at 8.9 or less add more protection against getting heart disease?

And,

If you address these other things effectively, will also keeping homocysteine at 8.9 or less add more protection against heart attacks in people who already have heart disease?

I strongly suspect the answer to both of THOSE questions is yes.