Nutrition Wire!

An important study published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (originally published online on March 10, 2009 and at JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2009 101(6):432-435) found that men who took a dietary supplement containing Folic had two and a half times greater incidence of prostate cancer than men who received adequate amounts of folate solely from dietary sources.  Folate and folic acid are members of the B vitamin family. Folate is the form found naturally in fruits, vegetables, grains and other foods. Folic acid is the synthetic form found in supplements. Recently, there have been other troubling studies connecting folic acid supplementation and cancer.

In this 10 year study the author’s concluded, “Folic acid supplementation was associated with increased risk of prostate cancer. By contrast, baseline dietary folate was inversely associated with prostate cancer risk.”  Interestingly, this study noted that folate supplementation of less than 1mg had no beneficial or preventive effect and amounts greater than 1 mg had a proportional dose dependant relationship with the development of prostate cancer.  Simply put more folic acid, more cancer.  It’s also important to note that folate consumed from naturally derived dietary sources such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains was found to be protective against the development of certain type of cancer.

If you tale a multi vitamin you should check the content label and review the folic acid levels in your supplements.