Vitamin B Supplements Not Effective In Coronary Artery Disease

Generally prescribed to lower the death risk in patients suffering a coronary arterydefine disease, Vitamin B supplements might not be as effective as deemed, a new Norwegian research suggests.

To assess the effect of treatment with vitamin B supplements in patients with coronary arterydefine disease, researchers at the Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway conducted randomized, double-blind controlled trials in 2 university hospitals in western Norway between 1999 and 2006.

The team led by researcher, Marta Ebbing, analyzed 3,096 patients, 634 females and 2462 males averaging 61.7 years of age.

Almost 59.3 percent of the study participants had double- or triple-vessel disease, 83.7 percent had stable angina pectoris, and 14.9 percent had acute coronary syndromes, at the start of the study.

Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four groups;
Group 1: received daily oral dose of folic acid plus vitamin B12 , 0.4mg, plus vitamin B6, 40mg.
Group 2: received folic acid plus vitamin B12.
Group 3: received vitamin B6 alone
Group 4: received placebo alone.

Concentration of total homocysteine in blood is associated with an increased risk of coronary artery disease and stroke, researchers mark.

"Mean plasmadefine total homocysteine concentration was reduced by 30 percent after 1 year of treatment in the groups receiving folic acid and vitamin B12," according to the study.

At 38 months of follow up, a total of 422 participants, 219 from group 2 and group 4 reached the primary end point in the study.

“The primary end point was a composite of all-cause death, nonfatal acute myocardial infarctiondefine, acute hospitalization for unstable angina pectoris, and nonfatal thromboembolic stroke,” researchers defined.

Conversely, 200 participants receiving vitamin B6 seemed to reap benefits from the treatment, compared to 222 who did not receive such treatment, researchers found.

"We found a numerically lower incidence of stroke and higher incidence of cancerdefine in the groups receiving folic acid,” the authors write in conclusion of the study published in the August 20 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association.

"Our findings do not support the use of B vitamins as secondary prevention in patients with coronary artery disease," researchers added.