Use of B vitamin appears to be inefficient in preventing death or cardiovascular events, according to the findings of a large clinical trial involving patients with coronary artery disease published in the August 20 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

For the study, physicians at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, followed almost 3,100 heart disease patients in their early 60s on average. About 75 percent of them were taking statins, anti-platelet drugs, and beta-blockers to treat their heart disease.

The patients were also randomly assigned to take folic acid plus vitamins B6 and B12, folic acid plus vitamin B12, vitamin B6 alone or a placebo pill.

During the three-year study, the researchers tested periodically the participants’ levels of homocysteine, an inflammatory chemical linked to higher rates of heart disease.

But the study was dropped because “we could not detect any preventive effect of intervention with folic acid plus vitamin B12 or with vitamin B6 on mortality or major cardiovascular events.” Homocysteine levels fell as predicted in people administered vitamin B, but it didn’t matter much.

"We found a numerically lower incidence of stroke and higher incidence of cancer in the groups receiving folic acid, but these observations were not statistically significant. The findings do not support the use of B vitamins as secondary prevention in patients with coronary artery disease,” the study concluded.

This is not the only study reaching to the same conclusion, according to Andrew Shao, PhD, vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition.

“It appears to be consistent that [for] subjects who have underlying cardiovascular disease and [are] on multiple medications ... adding B vitamins on top of a whole host of other medications doesn't appear to provide any further benefit,” Shao said.