Birth Control Pills, B6, & Heart Disease

A new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition adds further evidence linking the use of birth control pills¹ to an increase in heart disease.  Researchers were quite surprised to see a societal deficiency in vitamin B6 in women of childbearing age, especially women who have or were taking birth control pills.  Former birth control pill users had significantly elevated homocysteine It is a homologue of the amino acid cysteine that is synthesized from methionine An essential amino acid which serves as a methyl donor and is involved with the biosynthesis of other nutrients. Improper conversion is associated with production of homocysteine and atherosclerosis. which requires adequate Folic Acid, B12, and B6 to function properly. Elevated levels have been associated with heart disease, thrombosis, strokes, Alzheimer's disease, and other disorders., which leads to the build up of arterial plaque and consequent heart disease.

The FDA will not warn women of this important vitamin deficiency because the FDA finds it intolerable to recommend vitamins in the name of public health.  This is true even though an intake of 5 mgs of pyridoxal 5’ phosphate per day, as found in a high quality multiple vitamin or B complex product, could save millions of women’s lives.

The only reason that folic acid was ever recommended for the general public, after the FDA allowed thousands of cases of neural tube defects for a decade after it had the data, was because Congress threatened to haul the head of the FDA before a panel of mothers so it could explain to them why their babies were injured.

Oddly enough, the FDA has never required that the makers of birth control pills prove that they are safe with appropriate follow up studies.  I reported on this back in November of 2007 when another study showed that for every 10 years of birth control pill use there is a 20 – 30 percent increase in peripheral artery small plaques – also leading to heart disease.