Guest guest Posted March 6, 2004 Report Share Posted March 6, 2004 Adding the vitamin folate to flour, a practice begun in 1996 to prevent birth defects, also appears to have a striking protective effect against cardiovascular disease, preventing an estimated 48,000 deaths a year from strokes and heart attacks, a government study found. Many experts hoped from the start that adding folate to food would be good for people's circulatory systems. The vitamin lowers homocysteine, and high levels of this amino acid have long been linked to heart attacks and strokes. But the new data, released at an American Heart Association conference yesterday, are the first evidence from a large, population-based study to suggest this is actually happening. Researchers estimate that folate in food led to 31,000 fewer deaths from stroke and 17,000 from heart disease each year from 1998 to 2001. The Food and Drug Administration ordered that grain foods be fortified with folate, one of the B vitamins, to help prevent serious birth defects called neural tube defects. Studies have shown this reduced these problems by about 20 percent. Quanhe Yang, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reported the findings, based on a review of death records. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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