Reducing your homocysteine level

I’m still getting e-mails in response to the e-Alert I sent you last Thursday (“The Power of a Single Word” 8/8/02) about a study that shows how you can reduce your homocysteine level by increasing your intake of dietary folate. Today’s e-mail comes from an HSI member named George who took me to task over one of my comments. George writes:

“Re: ‘But your doctor can’t prescribe a drug to lower your homocysteine – because there isn’t one.’ I beg to differ FOLTX from Pan American Laboratories is an RX specifically designed to reduce homocysteine levels it is a combination of Folic Acid, B12 and B6, just as your e-mail suggests. BUT, I’m most disappointed you DID NOT KNOW THIS makes me wonder?”

I checked the web site for Pan American Laboratories (Pamlab), and, sure enough, George is right: there is a product named Foltx, available only with a prescription, and formulated to address the problem of high homocysteine levels. And, just as George said, the active ingredients are folic acid, and vitamins B12 and B6.

But while I’m glad to see that Pamlab takes homocysteine as seriously as we do at HSI, I don’t understand the point of turning a combination of over-the-counter supplements into a prescription “drug.” You can go to your local drugstore and purchase a B complex supplement containing all of the active ingredients listed above for less than half the cost of 90 tablets of Foltx. Foltx contains 2.5 milligrams of folic acid – a higher dosage than the FDA allows in supplements – but when you buy a supplement off the shelf you’re free to determine your own dose.

So technically, yes, Foltex is a prescription formula that reduces homocysteine. But there is still no prescription DRUG that reduces homocysteine. Maybe this is the once instance where the pharmaceutical companies found they can’t do better than nature.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute