Abstract

The elevation of plasma total homocysteine(tHcy) is now established as a risk factro for cardiovascular disease. It is also well known that plasma levels of folate and vitamin $B_{12}$ influences homocysteine metabolism as cofactors. Recently, the effects of health-related lifestyle factors, such as smoking, alcohol drinking coffee consumption, regular exercise, and etc, on plasma tHcy have been determined. The Hordalane Homocysteine Study revealed that smoking and coffee consumption are major deter minants of plasma tHcy as well as folate levels; however, the influence of alcohol intake is still controversial. In Koreans, the effects of lifestyle factors of plasma tHcy have not yet been determined. Thus, we investigated the relationships of various lifestyle determinants with plasma tHcy, folate, and vitamin $B_{12}$ levels and the erythrocyte folate concentrations in Korean adults (99 males and 96 fermales). Plasma tHcy levels were significantly hight in male subjects. On the contrary, plasma levels of folate and vitamin $B_{12}$ and erythrocyte folate concentration of the females were significantly higher than those of the males. Among the five lifestyle factors determined in the study, regular exercise significantly affects plasma tHcy levels only in the females, Contrary to the expectation, there were on significant differences in plasma tHcy levels between alcohol drinkers and non-alcohol drinkers as well as smokers and non-smokers. And also, plasma tHcy leverls were not different between coffee consumers and non-coffee consumer and between green tea consumers and non-green tea consumers. Although alcohol intake did not influence plasma tHcy levels, the duration, frequency, and amount of alcohol drinking showed significant negative relationships with plasma folate levers. These results indicate the regular exercise and alcohol intake might influence plasma levels of tHcy and folate in Koreans, although the results were not reveled in both sexes.

• Keywords: homocysteine; folate; vitamin $B_{12}$; health-related lifestyles;