AMINO ACID LEVEL CAN INDICATE RISK OF VASCULAR DISEASE

"Certain vitamins may help lower risk" CHICAGO--An elevated level of homocysteine, an amino acid found in the blood, can double the risk for vascular disease, according to an article in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Ian M. Graham, F.R.C.P.I., from The Adelaide Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, and colleagues studied 750 people with atherosclerotic vascular disease and 800 control subjects who were younger than age 60 and who were free of overt disease. At 19 centers in nine European countries, all patients were checked for homocysteine levels, both while fasting and then after a standardized test using methionine, an essential amino acid. After reviewing the homocysteine levels, they found that patients with the highest homocysteine levels had a two-fold increase in vascular disease risk compared with the remaining patients. The authors write that this level of risk is equivalent to that of high cholesterol or smoking. These findings concur with previous studies indicating a link between elevated homocysteine levels in the blood and vascular disease risk. Homocysteine levels are determined by both genetic and nutritional factors. The authors also observed that users of vitamin preparations containing folic acid, cobalamin and pyridoxine appeared to experience substantial protection from vascular disease. They caution that: "...This observation applies to a small number of subjects who may have been more health conscious in other ways and cannot be taken as proof of benefit of the known homocysteine-lowering effects of these nutrients ... We believe it is time to consider whether existing recommended daily allowances of the vitamins that modulate homocysteine metabolism are adequate, and to undertake randomized controlled trials of the effects of folic acid and perhaps pyridoxine in the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease."

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