Reducing your risk of heart attack could be as easy as eating plenty of green vegetables or, if these don't suit, a daily vitamin tablet.
Medicine may already have at its disposal a cheap and effective way to reduce heart attack and other dangerous illnesses, such as hardening of the arteries, kidney failure and abnormal pregnancies, according to research presented yesterday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington. Green vegetables have large amounts of a vitamin called folic acid and this has been found to be very important in reducing the risk of certain diseases, according to Prof Donald W. Jacobsen, of Cleveland State University.
He said folic acid helped reduce levels of a chemical in the blood called homocysteine, a known risk factor for heart disease.
A daily intake of 400mg of folic acid, the amount usually provided in a standard vitamin tablet, could prevent more than 30,000 vascular deaths in men and up to 19,000 similar deaths in women in the US each year, according to one recent study.
He said having high homocysteine levels carried at least as much risk as high cholesterol levels. "In fact, some call homocysteine the `new cholesterol'. Whether homocysteine is causal or merely a marker of atherosclerosis [hardening of the arteries] is still unresolved."
Several large trials are under way in the US to assess the health effects of lowering homocysteine levels in the blood and these results should be available within three years.
He said high levels were found in up to 40 per cent of patients with coronary artery disease and those at risk of stroke, compared with 5 per cent of the general public.
Prof M. Rene Malinow, of the Oregon Health Services University, said it could be argued there should be universal testing for homocysteine. e (accent over last e) Malinow of the Oregon Health Services University. He said many foods, such as bread and cereals in the US, were supplemented with folic acid and so the entire US population might already be involved in a "large-scale uncontrolled clinical trial".
Increasing folic acid intake is known to reduce the incidence of spina bifida in babies. Scientists at Trinity College, Dublin, have published extensive research showing how increased folic acid intake by women preparing to become pregnant can significantly reduce spina bifida.
