August 14, 2003
NUTRITION NEWS FOCUS
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Today's Topic: Homocysteine Primer

Kilmer McCully is a physician and scientist who reluctantly became a
fascinating case study in the annals of that elusive phenomenon called
"everybody knows" in science.  In the 1960s he was on the faculty at
Harvard Medical School.  Because of his insistence that homocysteine
was one risk factor for heart disease, he was forced out of the school
because everybody knew cholesterol in the blood was the big risk
factor (even though everybody knew at that time there were other major
risk factors).  He has been on the staff of the Rhode Island Veterans
Administration (VA) Hospital since.  It took until about 5 years ago
for the field to realize he had been right all along.  All of a
sudden, homocysteine is a major risk factor; some studies show it is
as predictive as serum cholesterol for heart attacks.

One of the current attitudes about homocysteine held by some
researchers is that dietary control of this can be achieved by eating
lots of fruits and vegetables to get folate and B6 to lower the
homocysteine level in the blood.  Many scientists also recommend
cutting down on meat to reduce the risk of heart disease (because of
saturated fat and cholesterol), but beef is the biggest source of B12
in our diet and B12 seems to be just as good at lowering homocysteine
as the other vitamins.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Homocysteine is an amino acid
made in the body and is normally in low levels in the blood.  An
elevated level of homocysteine is one of several factors that play a
major role in damaging the lining of blood vessels.  The three B
vitamins - folate, B6, and B12 - act to lower homocysteine levels.
While this chemical is not routinely measured by blood tests, a way of
minimizing its level is to eat foods rich in these B vitamins.