Vitamins & Colon Cancer.Folate folate /fo·late/ (fo´lat) 1. the anionic form of folic acid. 2. more generally, any of a group of substances containing a form of pteroic acid conjugated with l-glutamic acid and having a variety of substitutions. has done it again. The same B-vitamin that seems to protect against birth defects and heart disease may also cut the risk of colon cancer, say researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard School of Public Health is (colloquially, HSPH) is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill, next to Harvard Medical School and Cambridge, Massachusetts, . And an ordinary multivitamin mul·ti·vi·ta·min adj. Containing many vitamins. n. A preparation containing many vitamins. multivitamin with 400 micrograms of folate may have enough to do the trick. Meir Stampfer and colleagues followed more than 88,000 healthy women in the Nurses' Health Study Nurses' Health Study Cardiology A large cohort study that evaluated the effect of exogenous HRT on the risk of cardiovascular disease. See Estrogen replacement therapy, Osteoporosis. . Every two years starting in 1980, the nurses filled out questionnaires about the food and multivitamins they consumed. By 1994, 442 of the women had been diagnosed with colon cancer. Those who had been taking a multivitamin containing folate for at least 15 years had only one-quarter the risk of colon cancer of those who didn't take multivitamins. (The risk was also lower, but not statistically significant, for women who took folate-containing vitamins for four to 14 years.) Folate from foods also appeared to lower colon cancer risk, but not significantly. "This study isn't proof that folate prevents colon cancer," says Stampfer. "But if folate really offers protection, it would represent a real benefit." Annals of Internal Medicine Annals of Internal Medicine (Ann Intern Med) is an academic medical journal published by the American College of Physicians (ACP). It publishes research articles and reviews in the area of internal medicine. Its current editor is Harold C. Sox. 129: 517, 1998. |
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