A simple vitamin deficiency could trigger 30% to 40% of the heart attacks and strokes suffered by American men each year, a researcher reported.

This startling revelation, emerging from a few dozen new studies, means that vitamin supplements might prevent many of those heart attacks, saving the country untold suffering and billions of dollars in medical costs.

The vitamin is folic acid, heralded in recent years for its critical role in preventing birth defects.

"This is so new there aren't recommendations," said Dr. Judith Hall, a geneticist at the University of British Columbia. She described the new findings at a genetics meeting at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Hall, who specializes in the study of folic acid and birth defects, has called for the addition of folic acid to wheat, rice and corn to prevent birth defects, just as iodine is added to salt and vitamin D is added to milk to prevent other deficiencies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now considering such a move.

Studies have shown that ensuring adequate folic acid levels in women when they get pregnant could cut the rate of birth defects in half. The job could be accomplished at a cost of about 1 cent per person per day, Hall said.

The importance of folic acid is now growing even more as studies begin to suggest that folic acid might likewise produce reductions of up to 40% in heart attacks and strokes.

While the link to heart disease isn't proven, Hall and others are suggesting that boosting folic acid intake should be done now, even before more conclusive studies are done.

Dr. Jacob Selhub, the author of a February 1995 paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine that linked folic acid deficiencies to increased risk of strokes, was more conservative than Hall, estimating that folic acid deficiencies might be responsible for 15% to 20% of heart attacks and strokes.

But both agreed that the link between folic acid and heart disease was very strong.

"These studies have been repeated 30 or 40 times by many other people," Selhub said in a telephone interview. He is the director of the vitamin metabolism laboratory at Tufts University's Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging.

In a recent discussion of the studies, Dr. Meier J. Stampfer of the Harvard School of Public Health, an authority on heart disease risks, said "it will be prudent to ensure adequate dietary intake" of folic acid because "the weight of the evidence is substantial."

The researchers noted, however, that it is still important to control fat and cholesterol in the diet, because they are separate risks for heart disease. Ensuring adequate folic acid levels will not protect against the evils of an unhealthy diet.

Folic acid is found in green leafy vegetables such as brussels sprouts, spinach and lettuce, and in many fruits, including apples and oranges. It is also available in most common multiple vitamin supplements, Hall said.

Selhub's study and others published in recent months have shown that high levels of a natural substance called homocysteine - which has many roles in the body - are associated with an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

The studies suggest that the higher the level of homocysteine, the greater the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Increasing the amount of folic acid in the diet reduces the level of homocysteine.

About 400 micrograms of folic acid per day seems to be enough to lower homocysteine to a safe level, Hall said, protecting against heart attacks, strokes and birth defects.

By The Associated Press

09/04/97