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Effect of Vitamins B Supplementation on Homocysteine Level.
Elevated homocysteine raises stroke risk.
The B vitamins in multivitamins may help prevent strokes in young women by lowering blood levels of homocysteine, a marker for risk of cardiovascular disease.
The benefits are powerful-equivalent to not smoking, say researchers from the University of California. They compared blood homocysteine levels of 167 young to middle-aged women who had suffered a stroke to blood levels of 328 healthy women. Those with elevated homocysteine were more likely to have had a stroke than those with lower levels.
Women who took a multi with B vitamins, however, had lower homocysteine levels and lower stroke risk.
The researchers suggest that elevated homocysteine raises stroke risk by increasing blood clotting.