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| |  Link Between Heart Attack Risk and Gum Disease May Be Folic Acid SANDPOINT, Idaho, June 10, 1997 -- Recent research news concerning a link between periodontal, or gum disease, and heart attack comes as no surprise to the editor or publisher of the "Alternative Medicine Review," a Journal of Clinical Therapeutics. "Recent articles published in the journal show a greater risk of heart attack by those who are deficient in folic acid, a B-vitamin," states Dr. Timothy Birdsall, editor of the review. "There is significant published data that links folic acid deficiency to gum disease," he goes on to say. "That there is a potential correlation goes beyond the bounds of simple chance. Rather than gum disease 'causing' cardiovascular disease, and subsequent heart attacks, gum disease may be an indicator for folic acid deficiency which has the potential to be an important factor in heart disease," he states. The publisher of the journal, Al Czap, a board member of the American Preventive Medical Association and president of Thorne Research, Inc. believes that more folic acid studies are needed in the immediate future. "Many of our subscribers have for years utilized folic acid for the treatment of periodontitis," Czap says. "Since our review article in the September 1996 issue on cardiovascular risk, they also have been aware of the importance of folic acid and it's active form, 5-methyl tetrahydrofolate, as a key in what is known as hyper-homocystinemia, an important link in cardiovascular health," he states. "It took far too long to recognize the correlation between folic acid deficiency and the birth defect 'spina bifida'," believes Birdsall. "It would be a grave injustice to further the delay in initiating studies pursuing a link of folic acid deficiency with heart disease. We might even get healthier teeth in the process."
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