Take folic acid to protect against heart disease.

Despite some controversy in reports of the benefits of folate consumption on cardiovascular disease risk, the evidence is now enough to recommend the vitamin for heart health, British scientists have reported.

“Since folic acid reduces homocysteine concentrations, to an extent dependent on background folate levels, it follows that increasing folic acid consumption will reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke by an amount related to the homocysteine reduction achieved,” wrote lead author David Wald in the British Medical Journal.

According to Wald, a three micromole per litre decrease in serum homocysteine levels, said to be achievable with a daily folic acid intake with 0.8 milligrams, lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke by 15 and 24 per cent. Moreover, some randomized trials have reported similar effects, but the reviewers state: “Folic acid is expected to reduce cardiovascular disease events by only about 10-15 per cent (compared, for example, to about an 80 per cent reduction in neural tube defects from taking five millgrams folic acid daily).” In studies looking at genetic mutations of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene, which affects one in ten people, influences folate metabolism and is associated with increased homocysteine levels, the researchers report that high homocysteine levels were associated as causal for the risk of stroke.