Folic acid supplements lower the blood levels of a protein involved in heart disease, but a new study suggests that this does not translate into a reduced risk of developing cardiovascular disease, cancer or death.
One in three U.S. adults said that it takes a multivitamin with folic acid. This B vitamin prevents anemia and reduces the risk of birth defects such as spina bifida. Recently, it was discovered that folic acid has another benefit: low levels of a protein produced by the body after eating meat, homocysteine, which is associated with cardiovascular and other diseases.
The relationship would suggest that the vitamin could be a powerful tool against heart disease, cerebrovascular accident (CVA) and cancer. “The homocysteine hypothesis of cardiovascular disease attracted much interest because it is a protein that reduces easily supplemented with folic acid and vitamins B,” said lead researcher Dr. Robert Clarke of the University of Oxford in England.
To prove the theory, Clarke’s team collected and analyzed data from eight clinical trials with a total of 37,485 people at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease. At random, half the participants received high doses of folic acid (from 0.8 to 40 mg daily), and the rest placebo pills.
A typical multivitamin for sale in the United States contains 0.4 mg of folic acid. Homocysteine levels were about 25 percent lower in those treated with folic acid supplementation in the control group on five or more years of follow-up.
“Taking folic acid or added to cereal grains in the United States and Canada helps prevent neural tube defects,” said Clarke.
“However, taking folic acid or B vitamins does not reduce heart attacks, strokes or deaths from coronary heart disease or stroke,” said Clarke, who said that “the results are definitive and it is unlikely that further trials to answer it “.
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