A new report in the Journal of the American Medical Association notes that certain B vitamins may save lives and money for those with heart disease, or even for those at risk for such.

Those with high blood levels of a substance called homocysteine experience a greater number of heart attacks and also death from heart disease.  This is according to Dr. Jeffrey A. Tice, lead author of the JAMA published University of California, San Francisco study.  The study notes that B vitamins folic acid and cyanocobalamin (B-12) can reduce homocysteine levels.

So homocysteine, heart disease and folic acid are hot and breaking stories IN THE NEWS … again!

Déjà vu

Several years ago an associate at a major metropolitan newspaper for which I worked asked if I had seen the ABC Television news program ‘20-20’ the previous week.  I informed her that I had not and she then asked what I knew about some B vitamin related to heart disease and a doctor who lost his job over the subject.  I started to lay out the story of Kilmer McCully, homocysteine, pyridoxine (B-6) and folic acid to her.  She laughed and said, “I should have known that you’d already know all about it!”

Well, I don’t know about “all about it”.  However, I had written two years before the ‘20-20’ “breaking news” story about McCully when the folic acid/homocysteine stories first broke.

First of all, I wrote specifically because folic acid should be an afterthought.  There is another B vitamin that is the real key.

Second of all, the “breaking news” story even at that time should have been old news.

Alas, the story I wrote was not published.  It was ignored.  Such has been the case for the long journey of this often told but seldom heard tale.

More déjà vu

More than 20 years ago, Dr. Kilmer McCully published the first paper about homocysteine as a factor in heart disease.  Homocysteine is an amino acid metabolite.  That means it occurs as the result of the breakdown of an amino acid.  Amino acids are constituents of the protein that we consume from our food.

Homocysteine can injure blood vessels in such a way as to allow build-ups of matter that may subsequently lead to blockages.  This may then lead to heart disease.  That may then lead to a heart attack.  Eventually death may result.

Dr. McCully pursued these matters, publishing numerous papers on the subject over a ten-year period.

Pressing the matter finally led to a request for the departure of McCully by his department chairman at Harvard Medical School.

Researchers have in recent years come to a consensus that homocysteine is a risk factor for heart disease on a par with cholesterol.

The use of ample amounts of folic acid to reduce homocysteine levels had already begun to excite many in the research community several years before these current “breaking news” stories.

Closing the barn door

Before the horses get out

The papers Dr. Kilmer McCully published decades ago actually had more to do with prevention of homocysteine buildup, rather than reducing it after the fact!

The fact of the matter is that more than 20 years prior to the first published work of Dr. McCully, a deficiency of the B vitamin pyridoxine (B-6) had been cited by another as a causative factor in heart disease.

McCully discovered homocysteine to be a primary factor in heart disease as a follow up to these studies!  He merely isolated the chemical change that occurs because of the deficiency of B-6.

Among the myriad functions of vitamin B-6 is the breakdown of methionine (a common amino acid categorized as essential) to cysteine and cystine.  These are two other vital amino acids.

McCully discovered that in the absence of sufficient quantities of vitamin B-6 the above process stopped short.  He found that the chemical substance homocysteine then built up instead of continuing on to the other two vital amino acids.

It was 20 years ago that I learned of these matters from the book ‘Vitamin B-6:  The Doctor’s Report’.  This was not a book from some fringe element publisher.  Harper and Row, a major New York publisher, published it.  The “Doctor” of the title was the lead author, John M. Ellis, M.D.

Returning to the present time

Last month I looked up Dr. John M. Ellis and had the honor of speaking with him at his home in Texas.  He practiced medicine for 50 years and currently continues his research as medical director of clinical research at a county regional medical center in virtual anonymity.

Six years ago his five-year clinical study on heart disease and vitamin B-6 was published in a scientific journal.  It was virtually ignored.

In that study, those who died of heart attacks that took vitamin B-6 lived on average eight years longer than those did who did not take vitamin B-6.  There was also a marked reduction in heart attacks among those that took vitamin B-6 compared to those who did not take vitamin B-6.  The total incidence of heart disease events was reduced 74% in the B-6 group compared to those who did not take vitamin B-6.

Oh, and by the way, the co-author of this Ellis study was Dr. Kilmer S. McCully.

The current JAMA study being trumpeted about predicts 8% or 13% reductions in heart disease events and deaths.

The JAMA study only “predicts” 8% or 13% reductions in heart disease events and deaths with folic acid and vitamin B-12.  The Ellis/McCully study demonstrated “actual” 74% reductions in heart disease events and deaths with vitamin B-6.

Would it not seem to be of greater value to increase vitamin B-6 intake, as a preventative, rather than concentrating on folic acid, as a treatment?  It may even be more accurate to refer to vitamin B-6 intake as restorative rather than preventative!

Will it take another 20 years for this information to get out?