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CancerFolic AcidStroke

Folic acid and the stroke connection

JR

This reanalysis of the results (meta-analysis) from 8 studies concluded, “folic acid supplementation can effectively reduce the risk of a first stroke.”

But what about colon cancer?

Folic acid supplementation significantly reduced the risk of stroke by 18%, and even greater benefit was seen when?

  • Treatment was more than 36 months,
  • Homocysteine blood levels decreased more than 20%,
  • There was no history of stroke,
  • And in areas where food was not already fortified or partly fortified with folic acid.

Interesting.

But a study of the risk for colon cancer concluded, “Folic acid at 1 mg/day does not reduce colorectal adenoma risk. [And] further research is needed to investigate the possibility that folic acid supplementation might increase the risk of colorectal neoplasia.”

Furthermore, the American Heart Association doesn’t recommend widespread use of folic acid to lower homocysteine blood levels.

What to do?

I guess more research is needed.

6/7/07 20:01 JR

Hi, I’m JR

John Russo, Jr., PharmD, is president of The MedCom Resource, Inc. Previously, he was senior vice president of medical communications at www.Vicus.com, a complementary and alternative medicine website.

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