Why Folate Might Reduce Colon Cancer

New Evidence On Folic Acid In Diet And Colon Cancer: "ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2008) — Researchers in the United Kingdom and Texas are reporting a new, more detailed explanation for the link between low folate intake and an increased risk for colon cancer...scientists grew human colon cells in folate-depleted and folate-enriched tissue culture. They found that folate depletion caused increased DNA damage and a cascade of other biological changes linked to an increased cancer risk."

Sloppy work by the authors. Folate is the natural form, folic acid is the synthetic form. Folic acid has it's benefits but it has also been tied to various cancers. The evidence is fairly clear, so get this B vitamin from natural sources if you can.

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/folate.asp

Food	Micrograms (μg)	% DV^
*Breakfast cereals fortified with 100% of the DV, ¾ cup	400	100
Beef liver, cooked, braised, 3 ounces	185	45
Cowpeas (blackeyes), immature, cooked, boiled, ½ cup	105	25
Spinach, frozen, cooked, boiled, ½ cup	100	25
Great Northern beans, boiled, ½ cup	90	20
Asparagus, boiled, 4 spears	85	20
Vegetarian baked beans, canned, 1 cup	60	15
Spinach, raw, 1 cup	60	15
Green peas, frozen, boiled, ½ cup	50	15
Broccoli, chopped, frozen, cooked, ½ cup	50	15
Broccoli, raw, 2 spears (each 5 inches long)	45	10
Avocado, raw, all varieties, sliced, ½ cup sliced	45	10
Peanuts, all types, dry roasted, 1 ounce	40	10
Lettuce, Romaine, shredded, ½ cup	40	10
Wheat germ, crude, 2 Tablespoons	40	10
Tomato Juice, canned, 6 ounces	35	10
Orange juice, chilled, includes concentrate, ¾ cup	35	10
Turnip greens, frozen, cooked, boiled, ½ cup	30	8
Orange, all commercial varieties, fresh, 1 small	30	8
Egg, whole, raw, fresh, 1 large	25	6
Cantaloupe, raw, ¼ medium	25	6
Papaya, raw, ½ cup cubes	25	6
Banana, raw, 1 medium	20	6

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Low folate linked to dementia

Low folate levels associated with dementia BBC News
2008.02.05
"Dementia is three times more common in people whose blood is low in folates, a form of vitamin B particularly found in green vegetables...There is growing evidence linking levels of folates - or folic acid - and Alzheimer's disease, though deficiency could be a symptom of dementia..."

But remember folic acid has now been associated with cancer so get the natural form, folate, through green leafies.

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Folic Acid Supplementation Associated With Reduced Risk Of Preeclampsia During Pregnancy

Large Study Links Folic Acid Supplementation With Reduced Risk Of Preeclampsia During Pregnancy - ScienceDaily
2008.01.24
"...preeclampsia occurred in 2.2 per cent of women who took multivitamins containing folic acid compared to 5.1 per cent of women who did not...Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada recommends a dose of 1 mg per day. In the current study, 92 per cent of women were taking folic acid, mostly at the higher dose..."

Low Vitamin D During Pregnancy Linked To Pre-eclampsia

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Folate may reduce depression symptoms for men, says study

Folate may reduce depression symptoms for men, says study - NutraIngredients.com
2007.12.07
"Increased intake of folate may reduce the incidence of depression amongst by 50 per cent, suggests a new study of over 500 Japanese subjects.The benefits were not extended to women...The research adds to a growing body of research linking folate and folic acid intake to improved mood, and follows a review by scientists at the University of York and Hull York Medical School of 11 studies and involving 15,315 participants that reported low folate levels were linked to increased depression ...male subjects with the highest average intake (235 micrograms per 100 kcal) were 50 per cent less likely to have depressive symptoms than men with the lowest average intake (119 micrograms per 100 kcal)...No statistically significant links were reported between depressive symptoms and intakes of riboflavin, pyridoxine, cobalamin, and all or individual omega-3 fatty acids, for either sex..."

Although keep in mind that folic acid has been linked to an increase in cancer. Key quote - "Exposure to high intakes of folic acid in early life and young adulthood may provide life-long protection from the tendency for cancer formation in different organs, such as the large intestines, whereas such exposures later in life, when cell damage has occurred, can spur on the advance of the tumor."

So what's the answer? Eat the natural form - folate, in your diet, and skip the supplement Folic acid. "Folic acid is a synthetic form of folate, a B vitamin found in a wide variety of foods including liver and green leafy vegetables. Folates are metabolised in the gut, whereas in a paper to be published in the British Journal of Nutrition in October IFR scientists suggest that folic acid is metabolised in the liver. The liver is an easily saturated system, and fortification could lead to significant unmetabolised folic acid entering the blood stream, with the potential to cause a number of health problems."

NIH info sheet on Folate

"Selected Food Sources of Folate and Folic Acid [5]

Food	Micrograms (μg)	% DV^
*Breakfast cereals fortified with 100% of the DV, ¾ cup	400	100
Beef liver, cooked, braised, 3 ounces	185	45
Cowpeas (blackeyes), immature, cooked, boiled, ½ cup	105	25
*Breakfast cereals, fortified with 25% of the DV, ¾ cup	100	25
Spinach, frozen, cooked, boiled, ½ cup	100	25
Great Northern beans, boiled, ½ cup	90	20
Asparagus, boiled, 4 spears	85	20
*Rice, white, long-grain, parboiled, enriched, cooked, ½ cup	65	15
Vegetarian baked beans, canned, 1 cup	60	15
Spinach, raw, 1 cup	60	15
Green peas, frozen, boiled, ½ cup	50	15
Broccoli, chopped, frozen, cooked, ½ cup	50	15
*Egg noodles, cooked, enriched, ½ cup	50	15
Broccoli, raw, 2 spears (each 5 inches long)	45	10
Avocado, raw, all varieties, sliced, ½ cup sliced	45	10
Peanuts, all types, dry roasted, 1 ounce	40	10
Lettuce, Romaine, shredded, ½ cup	40	10
Wheat germ, crude, 2 Tablespoons	40	10
Tomato Juice, canned, 6 ounces	35	10
Orange juice, chilled, includes concentrate, ¾ cup	35	10
Turnip greens, frozen, cooked, boiled, ½ cup	30	8
Orange, all commercial varieties, fresh, 1 small	30	8
*Bread, white, 1 slice	25	6
*Bread, whole wheat, 1 slice	25	6
Egg, whole, raw, fresh, 1 large	25	6
Cantaloupe, raw, ¼ medium	25	6
Papaya, raw, ½ cup cubes	25	6
Banana, raw, 1 medium	20	6

"

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Folic Acid Warning - cancer tie?

Folic acid fortification warning - BBC News
2007.10.30
"...The latest study follows a letter to the Food Standards Agency from Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer of England, requesting further expert consideration of two recent studies linking folic acid to bowel cancer ...Folic acid is a synthetic form of folate, a B vitamin found in a wide variety of foods including liver and green leafy vegetables...But while folates are broken down in the gut, the latest research shows that folic acid is metabolised in the liver... "With doses of half the amount being proposed for fortification in the UK, the liver becomes saturated and unmetabolised folic acid floats around the blood stream..."This can cause problems for people being treated for leukaemia and arthritis, women being treated for ectopic pregnancies, men with a family history of bowel cancer, people with blocked arteries being treated with a stent and elderly people with poor vitamin B status...

It has already been shown that folic acid fortification can cause harm to some people.

For example, studies have confirmed that unmetabolised folic acid accelerates cognitive decline in the elderly with low levels of vitamin B12.

Similarly, dietary folates have a protective effect against cancer, but folic acid supplementation may increase the incidence of bowel cancer.

It may also increase the incidence of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

However, since the 1980s a consensus formed that folic acid is metabolised in the small intestine in a similar way to naturally-occuring folates.

Dr Astley said: "We challenge the underlying scientific premise behind this consensus.

"This has important implications for the use of folic acid in fortification, because even at low doses it could lead to over consumption of folic acid with its inherent risks.""

Well, this isn't the usual Folic hip hip hooray crowd is it. Time to find out whether folic acid is metabolized in the small intestine or not. More research now please.

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Folic Acid Lowers Blood Arsenic Levels

ScienceDaily: Folic Acid Lowers Blood Arsenic Levels, Study Shows
2007.10.09
"...treatment with 400 micrograms a day of folic acid, the U.S. recommended dietary allowance, reduced total blood arsenic levels in the study population by 14 percent..."Folic acid supplementation enhanced the detoxification of arsenic to a form that is more readily excreted in urine," said Mary Gamble...Folic acid increased the methylation or detoxification of arsenic in the body, allowing the body to change some of its more toxic metabolite, or methylarsonic (MMA) acid, to a form that could more easily be excreted from the body, thus lowering the levels of arsenic found in the blood..."

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Folate may lower breast cancer risk

Increased folate may slash breast cancer risk NutraIngredients.com 8/9/07 "The researchers calculated that women in the highest average intake group (456 micrograms of folate per day) had a 44 per cent lower risk of invasive breast cancer than women in the lowest average intake group (160 micrograms of folate per day)...the researchers report that the protective effect of folate only applied to the overweight women...the reduced form of folate, 5- Methyltetrahydrofolate (MTHF) plays a role in a series of reactions for DNA methylation"Changes in DNA methylation patterns are an early event in carcinogenesis and may influence gene silencing," they said. "Folate is also involved in DNA synthesis and repair; folate deficiency has been related to elevated uracil incorporation to DNA and subsequent chromosome breaks, which may contribute to an increased risk of cancer."..."Yet, there is now increasing evidence from randomized trials that high doses of folic acid can foster the growth of common precancerous lesions. The benefit of reducing a relatively small number of neural tube defects may be outweighed by the possible negative effects on tumor promotion in a substantial fraction of the population. ..."

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Epigenetics of BPA blocked by folic acid or genistein

Negative Effects Of Plastic's Additive Blocked By Nutrient Supplements ScienceDaily 7/31/07 "Experiments in animals have provided additional and tantalizing evidence that what a pregnant mother eats can make her offspring more susceptible to disease later in life...exposure within the womb to bisphenol A (BPA), an ubiquitous chemical used in the production of plastics, caused noticeable changes in the offspring without altering any of the offspring's genes. Additionally, the researchers discovered that administration of folic acid or genistein, an active ingredient in soy, during pregnancy protected the offspring from the negative effects of BPA..."Since BPA can be detected at some level in almost all humans, the current findings could hold the promise of reducing disease susceptibility by using nutritional approaches," Jirtle said. "The ability of some agents to counteract the epigenetic effects of a toxin, in this case BPA, with maternal supplements has the potential to protect present and future generations.""

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Prenatal vitamins cut childhood cancers

Moms' prenatal vitamins cut childhood cancers Reuters/Yahoo!News 7/7/07 "Women who take multivitamins before and during pregnancy apparently reduce the chances that their offspring will develop certain types of childhood tumors...taking a multivitamin before and in early pregnancy reduced the risk of childhood leukemia by 36 percent...also associated with a 47 percent reduced risk of neuroblastoma, a malignant tumor arising in nerve tissue, and a 27 percent decreased risk of childhood brain tumors...Koren's team suspects that folic-acid containing multivitamins in particular are behind the decrease in these childhood cancers, but "the available data do not allow determination of which of the constituent(s) may cause these protective effects."Nonetheless, they conclude: "Given that women who are considering pregnancy are generally advised to supplement with folic acid, the results from this study suggest that supplementation with a folic acid-containing multivitamin may be a preferred method.""

Along with this don't forget the choline for even greater health of child - and a smarter child.

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Folate improves cognitive performance in elders

Folic Acid Improves Cognitive Performance in Older Adults Medscape via QualityCounts.com 1/19/07 "A randomized, placebo-controlled trial has shown daily folic acid significantly improves cognitive performance in older adults — specifically as it relates to memory and information processing..."The effect of folic acid might be restricted to basic aspects of speed and information processing, rather than high order information processing. Word fluency was not affected by folic acid supplementation, perhaps not surprisingly because encyclopedic memory is a component of crystallized intelligence that stays relatively intact as one grows older,"..."

More information on Folic Acid via NIH

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Folic Acid May Slow Hearing Loss

Older Adults Taking Folic Acid Supplements Show Less Loss of Low-Frequency Hearing WebMD 1/2/07 "After three years, those who got folic acid pills had less low-frequency hearing loss than did placebo recipients. The difference was slight: 0.7 decibels. The smallest change in sound intensity most people can notice is 1.0 decibels. There was no slowing of high-frequency hearing loss. That may be because high-frequency hearing loss begins earlier in life than age 50..."If this [hearing] benefit applies to the entire population (a big 'if') and continues to accrue each year (another big 'if'), one might expect a 5-decibel reduction in age-related [hearing loss] over a 20-year period,""

Lead researcher Jane Durga, PhD

This study doesn't appear to go further than this study in answering whether the problem of hearing loss might be greatly attributable to free radical damage from high homocysteine levels. Attacking the free radical damage from the antioxidant angle, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), seems to show increasing promise.

The Dutch do not supplement their flower with folate the way we do in the U.S., so one would suspect that our higher folate diets would be slowing our hearing loss, but the study doesn't address this. As always, we need more research.

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Folic acid won't cut heart, stroke risk

Folic acid will not cut heart and stroke risk. Reuters via Yahoo!News 12/12/06 ""We found that there was no benefit to using folic acid supplements in terms of cardiovascular disease risk or stroke risk," ...Researchers led by Dr. Lydia Bazzano of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans analyzed the results of 12 trials conducted since 2002 involving nearly 17,000 people..."Really, what you should be doing are things like quitting smoking, increasing your exercise if you can, lowering your blood pressure, lowering your cholesterol."

Besides exercise and a change in diet, aspirin can help lower the heart, stroke risk.

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