Why It’s Dangerous to Skimp on Folic Acid
Does your multi-vitamin provide 800 mcg of folic acid? Check to be sure.
If not, you are under-protected against heart disease, strokes, cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s and other health problems tied to high levels of homocysteine, a blood protein.
Everybody knows folic acid suppresses homocysteine. But the best dose for maximum reduction of homocysteine has been uncertain.
The answer is now in. It’s 800 mcg a day, say British researchers at the University of Oxford. They concluded that 200 and 400 mcg lower homocysteine, but not as effectively as 800 mcg. And, most important, 800 mcg folic acid was just as effective in suppressing homocysteine as a hefty daily dose of 2000 mcg.
Both 800 and 2000 mcg folic acid a day equally slashed homocysteine levels as much as 26%. A very high dose of 5,000 or 5 milligrams was able to lower homocysteine slightly more–as much as 28%.
In the new report, researchers analyzed the results of 25 randomized controlled studies on B vitamins and homocysteine.(meta-analysis). Additionally, they found that taking B12–at least 400 mcg a day– produced a further reduction of 7% in homocysteine.
Typical drug-store multi vitamins, such as Centrum, contain 400 mcg folic acid, leaving millions of Americans excessively vulnerable to high homocysteine and its damaging effects on the heart and brain. Other recent studies also specify 800 mcg folic acid as optimal–for example, to slow down brain aging as much as 5 years.
