High Dose Folate And B Vitamin Supplements Increase Uterine Cancer Risk

[HuckleB]

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167713.php

"Women who take large amounts of folate, vitamin B2, B6 or B12 supplements may be increasing their risk of uterine cancer, according to research presented at the 16th International Meeting of the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) in Belgrade, Serbia, 11-14 October 2009.

Results from a 20 year follow up of dietary intake in over 23,000 postmenopausal women taking part in the Iowa Women's Health Study, have shown that women who consumed large amounts of the supplements were twice as likely to get type II uterine cancer than women who had normal intakes, although there was no effect on type I uterine cancer.


..."

[Deja Q]

1. Sounds sexist. Did any men participate?

:evilgrin:

The worse news is, if women don't get enough B-series vitamins, amongst other things, their central nervous systems and hearts will suffer.

http://chetday.com/vitaminbdeficiencies.html

Which sounds worse: Too much? Or too little?

[havocmom]

2. 'tis a sad tale, this Goldilocks and the B Vitamins

When I don't get a lot of folic acid, insomnia and depression rule me.

What the hell, I'm not using my uterus anymore anyway. I'd rather sleep and smile.

[bemildred]

3. Dosage is everything, with anything you eat/take. nt

[HuckleB]

11. We can always take something too far, it seems.

It's human nature, I suppose.

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. This is odd for a water-soluble vitamin.

[DainBramaged]

5. It is simply getting absurd, I think I'll go back to eating Oreos and Twinkies

Twice as likely. Twice as likely as who, women who lived in bubbles and never took a vitamin, ate junk food, fast food, meat, breast milk, soda pop, what is next??? They told us for DECADES do this do that, take this take that, and now EVERYTHIBNG they told them is now wrong???


OMG throw out your B vitamins, the world is coming to an end.

[Jane Austin]

7. I threw out my uterus - years ago.

B vitamins give me energy and keep the skeeters and chiggers from biting me. :)

[DainBramaged]

8. Really ,was it overworked or you just wanted a new one?

:rofl:

[snagglepuss]

10. The body is extremely complicated and nutritional science is complicated.

I was shocked awhile ago when I came across new information about folic acid. For years I've read that B vitamins are water based so it doesn't matter how much you consume. Well it seems that theory can be tossed.

Adults who are not women of child bearing age should watch their folic acid intake because studies have shown that colon cancers rates increase with increased comsumption of folic acid. People need to be aware that they are getting unknow amounts of folic acid due to the enrichment of many foodstuffs. The info about uterine cancer in OP is news to me, however I stopped taking the a complex b supplement when when I read about the colon cancer folic acid link. The only supplemt I take now is D.


The following TA Times article is very informative.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-folate11-2009may11,0,4656570.story

[mzmolly]

6. K and

R.

Sheesh!

[snagglepuss]

9. Not surprising. Folic acid is linked to colon cancer and other cancers.

"Mason estimates that excess folic acid consumption may cause an extra 15,000 cases of colorectal cancer each year in the U.S. and Canada. By comparison, fortification with the vitamin prevents an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 brain and spinal cord defects in both countries."

Folic acid, to clear up any confusion, is the synthetic form of folate. Folic acid is what you get in supplements.

Studies show increasing rates of colon cancer coinciding with increasing consumption of folic acid. As a result certain countries that were going to mandate fortification of flour with folic acid have decided not. Other countries like the Chile are now reviewing that policy.

It seems people are getting way too much of it.

"with the vitamin showing up in ready-to-eat cereals, bread, snack bars, multivitamins and more, some health experts fear that it's easy to far exceed the recommended daily intake of 400 micrograms."

snip

"As far back as the 1940s, folic acid supplements were found to accelerate leukemia in children who were given the vitamin in the hope that it might help. (Such studies helped lead to a class of antifolate drugs that are among today's most common cancer treatments.)

More recently, researchers noticed that rates of colorectal cancer went up in North America around the same time that fortification began. One study, published by Mason and colleagues in 2007 in the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, acknowledged that the link could be a coincidence. But according to another study published this year, the same thing happened in Chile after fortification began there in 2000."

The one group of people who do need adequate folic acid are women in child bearing years. "No one disputes the need for women to have adequate amounts of folic acid in their bodies at the time of conception. The first few weeks of pregnancy, in particular, are a critical period for a baby's brain and spine development. And because more than half of pregnancies are unplanned, doctors recommend that all women of childbearing age take a daily supplement of up to 800 micrograms of folic acid."




http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-folate11-2009may11,0,4656570.story

[hedgehog]

12. The article would be more imformative if it stated the

baseline risk.

[aquart]

13. Define "large."

[HuckleB]

14. The article covers that.

[aquart]

15. Not well.

[HuckleB]

16. It's quite specific for a brief article.

[Quantess]

17. Wooow! Don't overdose on supplements. (no text)

[HuckleB]

18. That's right.

You could have predicted every detail of this, off the top of your head.

BORING!