A daily supplementation combination that included folic acid and vitamin B6 and B12 had no significant effect on the overall risk of cancer, including breast cancer, among women at high risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a study in the November 5 issue of JAMA.

Researchers are now saying that for men to increase their risk of fertility, they should make sure they are getting a high intake level of folic acid.

Not enough American women understand that consuming the B vitamin folic acid every day can help prevent serious birth defects, and only 40 percent are taking daily multivitamin supplements containing this essential nutrient beginning before pregnancy, two recent surveys show.

A new study conducted in Bangladesh finds that folic acid supplements can dramatically lower blood arsenic levels in individuals chronically exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water. Arsenic is a toxic element that is naturally present in some soils and water.

Dr. Philippe De Wals of Université Laval’s Department of Social and Preventive Medicine today publishes a study clearly indicating that the addition of folic acid to flours has led to a 46% drop in the incidence of congenital neural tube deformation (mainly anencephaly and spina bifida) in Canada.

Since the institution of nationwide folic acid fortification of enriched grains in the mid 1990s, the number of infants born in the United States and Canada with neural tube defects has declined by 20 percent to 50 percent. Concurrent with the institution of fortification, however, the rate at which new cases of colorectal cancer were diagnosed in men and women increased, report researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University.

A unique study by researchers at the University of York and Hull York Medical School has confirmed a link between depression and low levels of folate, a vitamin which comes from vegetables.

A senior health official in New South Wales is calling on the food industry to explain its opposition to the introduction of folic acid in all flour. Extensive research, including a report by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, suggests that adding the vitamin to flour helps reduce the number of birth defects such as spina bifida, stroke and heart disease.