HOMOCYSTEINE

Report #6813

Almost every society that eats a lot of calories and fat suffers a high rate of heart attacks. Notable exceptions have been reported in French farmers who drink a lot of wine and the Greeks and Italians who eat a lot of olive oil. Some scientists attribute the French protection from heart attacks to resveritol in wine and the Greek and italian protection to the monounsaturated fats in olive oil. However, a recent report from the Harvard School of Public Health shows that their protection from heart attacks is more likely caused by the large amount of leafy green vegetables, beans and fruits that they eat (1).

People admitted to Boston hospitals for their first heart attacks were found to have much higher than normal blood levels of homocysteine, a protein building block that accumulates in the bloodstream when a person's diet is deficient in the vitamins: folic acid, B6 and B12, but, those suffering from heart attacks also have low blood levels of folic acid, rather than of B12 and B6.

Fruits, leafy green vegetables and beans are rich sources of the vitamin, folic acid. One of it's functions is to convert the essential amino acid, methionine, to the non-essential amino acid, cysteine. Lack of folic acid blocks this reaction, causing an intermediate product called homocysteine to accumulate in the bloodstream. Homocysteine punches holes in arteries and forms plaques and clots in them. Not eating enough fruits and vegetables deprives you of folic acid, causing homocystine to accumulate which causes arteriosclerosis and heart attacks. Homocysteine blood tests should be part of all heart attack risk screening. If homocysteine is above 100, take folic acid, pyridoxine and B12 (readily available in combination pills such as Foltex or Fol-B.)

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News

Updated 9/3/05