folic acid supplementation

[Guest guest]

Would appreciate anybody's/everybody's thoughts on this.

There was a report in the November 18,2009 issue of JAMA

2009;302(2119-2126)about increased incidence of lung cancer, cancer mortality

and all-cause mortality in subjects who received more than 0.8 mg/d of folic

acid.

Several caveats can be made about this study (e.g. lots of subjects were smokers

but equal number in treatment and control groups). It's the premise (because of

folate's role in nucleotide synthesis and folic acid fortification in the

U.S.---but not Norway, the study country)that worries me because our patients

routinely take 200% of the recommended daily value for folic acid. Just a casual

look at our patients'(band and bypass) serum folate levels show they are often

" greater than 20.0 ng/ml. "

I don't know what to do with this information yet except be concerned for our

patients. It's reminiscent of the Vitamin A and Vitamin E studies of 5 or so

years ago. I'm grateful for anyone's feedback/comments.

Thanks,

Quinn

Salem, Or