FW: B vitamins may reduce osteoporosis fractures

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B vitamins may reduce osteoporosis fractures

Folic acid helps lower homocysteine levels, studies find

The Associated Press

May 12, 2004

Folate and other B vitamins seem even more of a wonder drug than anyone

suspected: Already known to prevent severe birth defects and heart attacks,

they

may also ward off broken bones from osteoporosis, two major studies suggest.

The findings underscore doctors' longstanding recommendation that people

take

multivitamins. They could also further support the government's decision to

require bread and cereal makers to fortify their products with folate, also

known as folic acid.

B vitamins are known to reduce levels of homocysteine, an amino acid already

linked, at high levels, to an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and

Alzheimer's disease. Now research shows high levels of homocysteine at least

double the risk of osteoporosis-related fractures.

A report from Holland found that the risk of such fractures was twice as

high

in men and women with homocysteine levels in the top 25 percent, compared

with those with lower levels. Similarly, a U.S. study found the risk nearly

quadrupled in the top 25 percent of men and nearly doubled in the top 25

percent of

women, compared with the 25 percent with the lowest levels.

" The basic way to keep your homocysteine down in a healthy range is to have

plenty of B vitamins, " said Dr. P. Kiel, senior author of the U.S.

study and director of medical research at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for

Aged

Research and Training Institute in Boston.

The studies were reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Reducing the risk of broken bones

Kiel said a standard multivitamin, taken once a day, would bring a person's

homocysteine levels below the danger point. Foods naturally rich in B

vitamins

and calcium - including dairy products, broccoli and other green, leafy

vegetables, carrots, avocados, cantaloupes, apricots, almonds and peanuts -

can also

reduce the risk of broken bones.

Since 1998, when the U.S. government began requiring that folate be added to

bread, cereal and other flour products, the resulting drop in Americans'

homocysteine levels has been credited with preventing about 48,000 deaths

from

heart attacks and strokes each year. Also, severe brain and spinal birth

defects

have dropped 27 percent - the strategy's original purpose.

Researchers say it is unclear why the same benefit with fractures has not

yet

been documented. There is also ...

Continued at: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4962767/

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