Folic Acid and early artery disease ~ HGH Academy

A study has found that a six-month regimen of folic acid, vitamin B12 and vitamin B6 is effective in preventing the recurrence of blocked arteries in patients who have undergone coronary angioplasty.

The study was conducted by Dr. Guido Schnyder and his team from the University of California at San Diego. The findings, reported Journal of the American Medical Association, are actually an extension of a clinical trial that examined effects of the vitamin combination on treating heart disease.

This clinical trial, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in November 2001, was based on 205 patients, who had undergone coronary angioplasty, over a course of six months. These patients were given either the vitamin combination of folic acid, vitamin B12 and vitamin B6 or a placebo for six months.

In the extended study, Dr. Schnyder added 348 patients and increased the follow-up period to a year. He fund that those patients who took the vitamin combination showed a 48% reduction in the development of restenosis, or renarrowing of the vessel, compared to patients who received the placebo.

The treatment apparently works by lowering levels of homocysteine, an amino acid long implicated in heart attacks.

Dr. Schnyder also recorded the number of patients who needed to go for repeat angioplasties or heart bypass operations. The findings showed a 38% reduction in the need for repeat angioplasties or heart bypass operations among those taking the vitamin regimen.

Dr. Robert Bonow, chief of cardiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and president of the American Heart Association, said that although the study backs up vitamin Bs importance in maintaining vascular health, more research still needs to be done.