Folic Acid Good For the Heart

Click to go to our Home Page


FOLIC ACID GOOD FOR THE HEART

Folic acid and vitamin B12 may be good for the heart and reduce the risk of deaths from heart disease, researchers say. "The evidence for the beneficial effects of vitamins B12 and folic acid is much stronger than for garlic, vitamin E and other dietary supplements promoted for heart disease prevention," said Dr. Jeffrey Tice, principal investigator of the study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association and University of California, San Francisco, assistant adjunct professor of medicine. Researchers studied data on the U.S population's homocysteine levels. These indicate heart disease risk and associated death. Past studies have shown people with modestly elevated homocysteine levels have higher rates of stroke, heart attack and death from heart disease. Assuming the U.S. population consumes its daily dose of grains enriched with folic acid over a 10-year period, the authors estimate that heart disease rates and deaths will decrease by 8 percent in women and 13 percent in men.