Folic acid supplements raise cancer risk
By David Liu and editing by Rachel Stockton
Intake of folic acid or folate can help prevent many birth defects, but a new Norwegian study has confirmed an association between supplementation of folic acid and elevated risk of cancer. The researchers found those who received folic acid had a 21 percent increased risk of developing mostly folate-associated cancers, such as colorectal, lung, prostate and blood cancer.
Dr. Marta Ebbing and colleagues from the Department of Heart Disease at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen found that subjects who used folic acid for about 3.5 years had a 21 percent increased risk of cancer.
They also found patients with ischemic heart disease who used folic acid were more likely than those who did not use the vitamin to die during a 6.5-year follow-up.
Many countries mandate that folic acid or vitamin B9 be added into foods to decrease incidence of neural-tube defects in newborns. But recently, studies have linked folic acid fortification to increased cancer risk.
In Norway, flour is not fortified with folic acid. For the study, Edbing and colleagues reviewed data from 6,837 patients with heart disease from two trials, which were initially intended to see if vitamin B could lower homocysteine.
It is believed that homocysteine is a risk factor and lowering this chemical may help lower the risk of heart disease. Note that studies showed that reducing homocysteine does not necessarily cut the risk for heart disease.
In the trials starting between 1998 and 2005 and ending in 2007, patients were randomly assigned folic acid plus vitamins B12 and B6, folic acid plus B12, or B6 alone or a placebo.
Of the 341 patients who were assigned folic acid and developed cancer, 135 died. This means that the risk of death for the patients receiving folic acid was 38 percent higher compared to those who did not take folic acid and developed cancer.
Overall, 16.1 percent of the participants who were given folic acid plus vitamin B12 died from any cause compared with 13.8 percent of those who did not receive either, according to the researchers.
Dr. Bettina F. Drake at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis says in an accompanying journal editorial that the dose of folic acid given to patients in the Norwegian studies was much higher than what most people in the US received.
The study was published in the Nov. 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Folic acid is found high in plant-based foods including spinach, lentils, garbanzo beans, and lima beans, among others.
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One must understand what vitamins are. During evolution we have lost the function of certain enzymes since our diet generally supplied what they produce. We need vitamin C since we lost the enzymes which produce it. Many animals such as dogs don't need vitamin C since they retain the necessary enzymes.
A good diet will supply most everything we need. If you must take a pill, then a simple cheap multivitamin is all that most everyone will need. Save your money.
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