Since folic acid has been added to grains on a nationwide level in the 1990s, the number of infants born with neural tube defects has declined by 20 to 50 percent. However, at the same time, the rate at which new colorectal cancer cases were diagnosed has increased, according to Joel Mason MD and colleagues at Tufts University. Since folic acid fortification began, there has been an additional four to six cases of colorectal cancer for every 100,000 people.Mason notes that the analysis suggests that the increase is not due to increased screening or chance.
"The body's response to folic acid appears to be complex," says Mason. "While fortification of the food supply is clearly beneficial for women of child-bearing age and their offspring, it is possible that it may, coincidentally, be linked to the increase in colorectal cancer rates. Our report is intended to create a foundation upon which to further explore that possibility."
Mason urges caution and debate as more and more countries are considering instituting folic acid fortification.
1. Alas, researchers continue to perform nutrient studies without controlling for Vitamin D serum levels. This is particularly tragic in the case of studying folic acid and colon cancer, since we have seen that folic acid regulates Vitamin D in the colon in animals (Vitamin D, of course, discourages cancer by inducing differentiation and, in some cancers at least, apoptosis). Now that we have a preliminary human study that suggests that failing to maintain reasonable Vitamin D serum levels is significantly worse for your cancer risk than smoking, it's increasingly tragic that researchers, while religously controlling for smoking, generally completely ignore the Vitamin D status of their subjects.
Posted at 5:16PM on Sep 29th 2007 by Ron Burk