Vitamin B-6 and folate are not effective in preventing heart disease

Filed in archive Studies on September 5, 2005

The theory that vitamin B-6 and folate to lower homocysteine levels in order to prevent heart disease has been discounted. More evidence against the benefits of vitamins:

folic acid and vitamin B pills do not ward off heart attacks or strokes and may even be harmful when combined, new research suggests.

Studies showing that the vitamins lower levels of a substance in the blood suspected of playing a role in the development of heart disease have prompted hundreds of thousands of heart patients in the developed world to take them.

However, the first large study of the question, presented Monday at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, found that although the supplements dramatically lowered the levels of
"The message is clear here: Don't take folate or B-6 in the hope that it will stop you having a heart attack or stroke. If there was a real major effect, they would have seen it," said Dr. Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, which was not connected with the study.