The protein-coronary heart disease connection was first proposed by Russian physician I. A. Ignatovski in 1908, after he produced atherosclerosis in rabbits by feeding them animal proteins. Then in 1962, Dr. Nina Carson found an excess of the amino acid, homocystine, oxidized homocysteine, in a chemical survey of retarded children in Ireland.
Blood vessel damage with thrombosis and emboli, migration of clots through the blood stream, is a major complication of homocysteine and heart attack and stroke occur in almost half the cases, especially after anesthesia or surgery.
A flurry of research in the 1970s showed that injections of homocysteine did cause atherosclerosis.
Since vitamin B6 is a major agent for removal of homocysteine, McCully also proposed that B6 deficient diets would permit a build up of homocysteine. This was confirmed by research at the University of Wisconsin: 3 weeks on a low vitamin B6 diet caused human subjects to produce excess homocysteine.
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