Low calcium intake is associated with high plasma homocysteine levels in postmenopausal women

Nutritional interventions targeting homocysteine remain controversial, and further nutritional research is warranted. We thus sought to explore the determinants of plasma homocysteine other than B-group vitamins. This cross-sectional study surveyed the nutritional status of 713 Japanese postmenopausal women using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Associations between total energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate, and vitamin A and K intakes and homocysteine were insignificant. Mean homocysteine in the second (536.1 ± 34.7 mg/day) and third (712.9 ± 115.6 mg/day) tertiles of calcium intake were lower than in the first tertile (379.6 ± 76.6 mg/day) by −0.57 nmol/mL (95 % confidence interval, −1.10 to −0.04, p = 0.04) and −1.18 nmol/mL (−1.76 to −0.60, p