Stents: Are Recent Media Attacks On B Vitamins Justified?
Mother Theresa and David Bowie. When you see those two names in the same sentence, you might wonder if it's a set up for a joke - they walk into a bar, or they're stuck on a life raft - something like that.
But these two diverse personalities have something in common, and it's no joke: they've both undergone surgery to have stents implanted to clear narrowed arteries.
One of the risk factors for artery blockage is an elevated level of the amino acid homocysteine. In recent years, some key studies have shown that folate therapy (a combination of folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12) has been useful in lowering homocysteine levels in patients who have undergone angioplasty and stent implantation. But a new study indicates that folate therapy may actually promote blockage of the arteries.
If you're thinking that this doesn't make any sense - that vitamins might actually CAUSE blockage? - then you're thinking what I'm thinking. And, I might add, I'm not buying a word of it.
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