Folic acid "safe but lacks CV health benefits"

Folic acid is safe but lacks any cardiovascular benefits, according to data presented at this year's annual meeting of the American Heart Association, held in New Orleans.

The SEARCH trial, a 12,064-person, randomized evaluation, found that 2mg of folic acid (vitamin B9), a supplement most often used to prevent neural tube defects, and 1mg of vitamin B12 per day failed to show any reduction in the primary outcome - major vascular events - compared to placebo.

In the study, the vitamins also did not increase non-vascular death rates or cancer rates during an average follow-up of 6.7 years among patients who had previously had a heart attack, said co-principal investigator Jane Armitage. She added that "SEARCH throws cold water on a once-promising hypothesis, based on a well-known association between higher blood levels of the amino acid homocystine and higher cardiovascular disease risk, that using B vitamins to reduce blood levels of homocystine would prevent CVD."