Do You Know The Difference Between Folic Acid and Folate? New Research Shows Why You Might Want To!
03/11/2010
Habib and I were at lunch with Dr. Fuhrman recently. Blake Kassel, who runs Bodylastics, was also there and he asked Dr. Fuhrman a question that he had been asked about folic acid and pregnancy. The answer stunned us, and gave us the idea to come back the next day with a video camera and get some of this information out there, because it is not in any of his books right now.
For those of you who are not in a place where you can watch this video, here are the key points that Dr. Fuhrman made about folic acid:
- Nobody should be taking folic acid, they should instead focus on folate. Green vegetables in particular have a lot of folate in them.
- Food does not have folic acid in it, it has folate
- Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate, a member of the family of B vitamins that is involved in regulating DNA synthesis and gene expression. Because of these crucial functions, folate plays an important role in fetal development - folate is essential during pregnancy, especially early on in pregnancy, for the prevention of neural tube defects. Folate is abundant in green vegetables like spinach, collards, bok choy, artichokes, and broccoli. Even black beans are high in folate.
- Women who followed the typical recommendations to take folic acid during pregnancy and were followed by researchers for thirty years were twice as likely to die from breast cancer. Another study following women for ten years concluded that those who took multivitamins containing folic acid increased their breast cancer risk by 20-30%. Folic acid in supplement form may contribute to producing a cancer-promoting environment in the body – in addition to breast cancer, synthetic folic acid has been linked to dramatic increases in prostate and colorectal cancers, as well as overall cancer incidence. The studies that Dr. Fuhrman references are listed at the bottom of this blog post.
- Folate has the opposite effect. High folate intake is associated with dramatic decrease in cancer.
- Even if a supplement has the word "Folate" it is probabaly folic acid. You can watch the video to learn more:
As promised, here are a list of the studies that Dr. Fuhrman references to back up his assertion. Note that most of these are relatively recent, and it takes time for people like Dr. Fuhrman to connect the dots and then communicate the analysis. He has begun to do this only in the last year. His own supplements used to contain folic acid.
References:
1. Stolzenberg-Solomon RZ et al. Folate intake, alcohol use, and postmenopausal breast cancer risk in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Apr;83(4):895-904.
2. Kim YI. Does a high folate intake increase the risk of breast cancer? Nut Rev; 2006; 64(10PT1) 468-75.
3. Figueiredo JC et al. Folic acid and risk of prostate cancer: results from a randomized clinical trial. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2009 Mar 18;101(6):432-5. Epub 2009 Mar 10.
4. Fife, J et al. Folic Acid Supplementation and Colorectal Cancer Risk; A Meta-analysis. Colorectal Dis. 2009 Oct 27. [Epub ahead of print]
5. Whitrow MJ. Effect of Supplemental Folic Acid in Pregnancy on Childhood Asthma: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2009 Oct 30. [Epub ahead of print]
6. Haberg SE, London SJ, Stigum H, Nafstad P, Nystad W. Folic acid supplements in pregnancy and early childhood respiratory health. Arch Dis Child. 2009 Mar;94(3):180-4. Epub 2008 Dec 3.
7. Ebbing M et al. Cancer Incidence and Mortality After Treatment With Folic Acid and Vitamin B12. JAMA. 2009;302(19):2119-2126.
8. Charles D et al. Taking folate in pregnancy and risk of maternal breast cancer. BMJ 2004;329:1375–6
9. Harvard School of Public Health; The Nutrition Source: Keep the Multi, Skip the Heavily Fortified Foods; www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/folicacid/ Date accessed: 8/29/08.
10. Hirsch S et al. Colon cancer in Chile before and after the start of the flour fortification program with folic acid. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2009 Apr;21(4):436-9.
11. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/591111
12. Kwan ML et al. Maternal diet and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Public Health Rep. 2009 Jul-Aug;124(4):503-14.
Tower RL et al. The epidemiology of childhood leukemia with a focus on birth weight and diet. Crit Rev Clin Lab Sci. 2007;44(3):203-42.
Petridou E et al. Maternal diet and acute lymphoblastic leukemia in young children.Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2005 Aug;14(8):1935-9.
Jensen CD et al. Maternal dietary risk factors in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (United States).Cancer Causes Control. 2004 Aug;15(6):559-70.
13. Huncharek M et al. A meta-analysis of maternal cured meat consumption during pregnancy and the risk of childhood brain tumors. Neuroepidemiology. 2004 Jan-Apr;23(1-2):78-84.
Pogoda JM et al. An international case-control study of maternal diet during pregnancy and childhood brain tumor risk: a histology-specific analysis by food group. Ann Epidemiol. 2009 Mar;19(3):148-60.
14. Sellers TA et al. Dietary folate intake, alcohol, and risk of breast cancer in a prospective study of postmenopausal women. Epidemiology. 2001 Jul;12(4):420-8.
15. Kim YI. Folic acid fortification and supplementation--good for some but not so good for others. Nutr Rev. 2007 Nov;65(11):504-11.
16. http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/nutrient-search
17. Bjelakovic G, Nikolava D, Gluud LL, et al. Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patient with various diseases. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2008;16(2):CD00776.
18. Mayne ST. Beta-carotene, carotenoids, and disease prevention in humans. FASEB. 1996;10(7):690-701.
19. Goodman GE. Prevention of lung cancer. Current Opinion in Oncology 1998;10(2):122-126.
20. Kolata G. Studies Find Beta Carotene, Taken by Millions, Can't Forestall Cancer or Heart Disease. New York Times, Jan 19, 1996.
Yike!!!
Very interesting to listen to this video.
Back to the drawing board regarding Folate listing on my vitamins...don't think I will be alone.
Thanks for the info.
Posted by: Peter | 07/30/2010 at 04:27 AM
Here is more:
"As we write, mandatory folic acid fortification in the Republic of Ireland has not yet been implemented and the most recent report published by the FSAI (March 2009) [3] has stated that mandatory fortification is now on hold until more evidence regarding its safety becomes available. In the UK mandatory folic acid fortification is also on-hold until an Independent Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) [4] initiated by the Chief Medical Officer of England in October 2007 reviews the evidence in relation to safety.
These new safety concerns have arisen as a result of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RTC) which was conducted in the US. Two publications have now emerged from this RTC [5] and [6]. In the first paper [5] the authors showed that persons with a history of colorectal adenomas, consuming folic acid supplements as part of a randomized control trial, had an increased risk of more severe recurrence than a placebo group. The dose administered in the trial was 1 mg (the upper safe limit). The second paper [6] suggests that oral folic acid increases the risk of prostate cancer. These findings pose pressing public health concerns."
This is published by the US NIH.
Posted by: unmetabolised folic acid | 03/12/2010 at 08:58 AM
This is from the third reference cited in this post:
"Ireland is an example of a country that has extensive voluntary fortification with folic acid. After a public consultation process, in 2006, the Food Safety Authority in Ireland FSAI [1] recommended mandatory fortification. However due to safety considerations this decision is now on hold. Before mandatory fortification goes ahead, existing levels of unmetabolised folic acid and their anticipated increase after fortification needs investigation because of the potential of folic acid to mask pernicious anaemia and possibly accelerate the growth of existing cancers. The aim of this study was to examine the levels of circulatory unmetabolised folic acid in Irish adults (both fasted and un-fasted) and new-born infants (fasted) before the proposed implementation of mandatory folic acid fortification. A secondary aim was to predict the increase in circulatory unmetabolised folic acid levels after fortification."
Posted by: unmetabolised folic acid | 03/12/2010 at 06:28 AM