NaturalNews.com
February 3 2005
Large doses of folate might help keep high blood pressure under
control
by Mike Adams (see all articles by this author)
Folic acid has long been known to protect against spina bifida and
other birth defects. And now researchers are finding evidence that,
taken in large quantities, it can prevent high blood pressure too.
Results of a recent study need much more consideration, experts say,
but the results seem to show what has long been suspected: women who
consumed about 1,000 micrograms per day of folate, had lower blood
pressures, on average, than other women.
Folic acid is one of the more essential B vitamins, especially for
women of childbearing age, and a little bit--100 micrograms a day--
goes a long way toward preventing spina bifida and other birth
defects.
Now a major study published in the Journal of the American Medical
Association has confirmed what smaller studies had only hinted at:
that women who consume large amounts of folate (on the order of 1,000
micrograms a day) have a lower risk of developing hypertension--for
younger women, significantly lower.
The re****t, part of the ongoing Nurses' Health Study, tracked the
folate intake of nearly 94,000 women ages 27 to 44 over eight years
and found that those who consumed at least 1,000 micrograms a day had
a 46% lower risk of high blood pressure than women who took less than
200 a day.
It's not yet clear how folic acid does this, although the supplement
is known to reduce levels of homocysteine, a blood component that can
damage blood vessels.
Men haven't yet been studied as thoroughly, but there's no reason to
think they wouldn't get the same benefit from high doses of folate.
Dr. John Forman of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, the
principal investigator, isn't ready to say that everybody should take
1,000 micrograms of folate a day.
He wants to see his findings confirmed in a large, randomized trial in
which half the subjects take the supplement and half take a placebo.
Other scientists caution that early studies suggesting that large
doses of vitamin E protect against heart disease haven't panned out.
But since 65 million Americans suffer from high blood pressure, and
there isn't any known downside to taking folate, it might not be a bad
idea for all adults to take the current recommended dose of 400
micrograms a day.
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