Vitamin B12 and Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke

Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death in most industrialized western countries today. Among the better known risk factors for cardiovascular disease are elevated high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes. However, a lesser known risk factor is elevated levels of homocysteine, a naturally occurring sulfur-containing amino acid. Having an elevated homocysteine level is not only a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but has also been associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease and stroke.

In a healthy person, excess homocysteine is naturally metabolized by the body, keeping the basic level steady. B12, along with folic acid and Vitamin B6, plays a key role in this metabolizing process. As a consequence, having a Vitamin B12 deficiency can directly result in the decreased metabolizing of homocysteine and elevated levels building up in the body. Further, several clinical trials and studies have shown that increasing the amount of Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid ingested by patients with elevated homocysteine levels directly impacted the condition and reduced the levels. Although Vitamin B12 has been undeniably shown to decrease homocysteine levels and this is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease; in several large clinical trials the decrease in homocysteine level did not appear to have any impact on the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Although the large clinical trials have shown that decreased levels of homocysteine caused by taking additional amounts of B12 did not reduce the overall risk of cardiovascular disease, it did decrease the risk of stroke. Stroke is the second largest cause of death in the world and the decreased homocysteine levels resulting from taking Vitamin B12 did reduce this risk in the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) 2 clinical trial which involved 5,522 patients over the age of 54 for a period covering five years. In this trial, the patients took one milligram of Vitamin B12, along with two and half milligrams of Vitamin B6 and fifty milligrams of folic acid.

Although taking Vitamin B12 does not appear to play an important role in the overall risk of cardiovascular disease - contrary to some claims made by salemen - it does appear to have a tangible value in reducing the risk of stroke. Further, since excess Vitamin B12 is excreted harmlessly, there appears to be no harm in taking large doses of Vitamin B12 in order to ensure that your body is getting all that it needs to keep homocysteine levels under control and reduce the risk of having a stroke.