‘Bad science’ deprives heart patients of life-saving vitamin therapy

Many people are dying from stroke and heart attack when vitamin therapy – discredited by several major studies – could be saving their lives, say two leading scientists.
Doctors have been rejecting B vitamin therapy after several major studies found that it actually increased the risk of stroke and heart attack.  But, say scientists David Spence and Meir Stampfer, the studies were seriously flawed.
Only heart patients with renal (kidney) failure saw their risk increase – people without kidney problems benefited enormously from vitamin B, and especially B12, the scientists say.  The vitamins lower levels of homocysteine, an amino acid believed to be a major cause of heart disease.
The researchers also failed to give high enough doses of B12, they add.
Instead, vitamin therapy is a major life-saver, and the theory of homocysteine is very much alive.
(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2011; 306: 2610).