Each year, approximately 565,000 Americans suffer a first heart attack, and another 300,000 people in this country suffer their second or third heart attacks. Many of them die.

New research suggests that high doses of folate, a B vitamin that is also known as folic acid, may potentially keep these 865,000 people alive and healthy.

For years physicians have been telling expecting mothers to take folic acid to prevent their babies from developing a devastating birth defect known as spinal bifida. Moreover, other studies in recent weeks have shown that folic acid may also help prevent dementia and premature births.

Folate’s role in heart health was further explored in a recent study conducted by researchers at John’s Hopkins University and other organizations that was published last week in the medical journal Circulation. Using an animal model, subjects that had received higher doses of folate had stronger hearts during a heart attack. Additionally, the scientists discovered that injecting subjects with folate in the minutes following a heart attack was very helpful during recovery.

While no one knows exactly why folate seems to have a protective effect, the researchers speculate that it has to do with the nutrient’s role in boosting the mitochondria that are essential for maintaining healthy blood vessels:  Folate may act as a store of energy in the heart that gives much needed fuel to the organ when it is being starved of oxygen at the time of a heart attack.

This research further supports the understanding that folic acid supplementation is essential and opens the door to potentially life saving cardiovascular treatments.

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Barbara S. Levine, R.D., Ph.D., has been a researcher, consultant, and teacher of nutrition at some of the most prestigious medical institutions in the country. Dr. Levine is a DHA & B Vitamin Center scientific advisory board member and director of the first NIH-funded Nutrition Information Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Weill-Cornell Medical College, The Rockefeller University, Hospital for Special Surgery, and Strang Cancer Prevention Center.

You are what you eat, and so are your kids, according to new research from the Child & Family Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada.  And it might be time to add some surf to your turf.

In this instance, a team of researchers determined the meat-centered diets that most of us eat are deficient in crucial fats that are found mainly in fish and omega-3 nutritional supplements.

According to the report, which was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, these unsaturated fats, known as omega-3 fatty acids, are vital to the health of a baby’s eyes and brain as it develops.

• In the womb, the baby gets these essential fatty acids from mom via the umbilical cord.
• After birth, baby receives fatty acids from mother’s milk or infant formula containing omega-3.

In particular, the study followed 135 pregnant women who were randomly put in one of two groups:

1. One group of pregnant women was given omega-3 supplements equal to two servings of fatty fish per week.
2. The other group of pregnant women was given a placebo.

Both groups of women were given blood tests at 16 weeks and again 36 weeks for DHA (docasohexaenoic acid) levels, which is a type of omega-3 fat that has been associated with infant mental and visual development.

After both groups’ babies had been born, the researchers tested the infants’ vision and brain development and determined the infants whose mothers had taken omega-3 supplements did better on the tests. The researchers believe that simply changing from a meat-based diet to one that includes more fish and/or omega-3 supplements may help mothers raise healthier children.

Two servings of fish provide approximately 500 milligrams of omega-3 fats, which is sufficient for one day. Taking a DHA supplement is a great way to make up for any days you don’t eat fish.

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Barbara S. Levine, R.D., Ph.D., has been a researcher, consultant, and teacher of nutrition at some of the most prestigious medical institutions in the country. Dr. Levine is a DHA & B Vitamin Center scientific advisory board member and director of the first NIH-funded Nutrition Information Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Weill-Cornell Medical College, The Rockefeller University, Hospital for Special Surgery, and Strang Cancer Prevention Center.

You’re mother was right — it’s never too late to take your vitamins.

It’s well known that not having enough of the B vitamin folate could put an older person at risk for the troubling problems of dementia. But a new study suggests that even people who aren’t officially “deficient” are more likely to develop the disease, which causes anxiety, melancholy, poor memory and loss of bodily functions.

The study, published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, centered on more than 500 South Korean men and women ages 65 years and older. Half of the participants involved in the study lived out in the country, while the other half lived in a city.

Two-and-a-half years after the study began more than eight percent of the people had developed dementia, including nearly seven percent who had Alzheimer’s disease. The researches identified a common characteristic:

The lower a participant’s folate levels, the more likely they were to have dementia.

This could be because the nutrient is essential for keeping new cells fit and working well. In general, Koreans participating in the study had higher folate levels than people in Western countries such as the United States and England; one can infer this is because the local Korean diet includes many leafy greens.  It is important to note the word “folate” is derived from “folium” or “leaf.”).

The study suggests there two simple ways to reduce your risk of dementia:

1. Eat more folate-rich foods such as fortified breakfast cereals and bread, liver, (3.5) ounces of chicken liver supply nearly twice the minimum daily requirement of folate), eggs, beans, sunflower seeds, asparagus and leafy green vegetables and citrus and melons.
2. Take a folic acid supplement so that you’re sure to have enough folic acid in your diet.

Folic acid is a synthetic form of folate that is available in many folic acid supplements. Animi-3 is a prescription nutritional supplement that contains 1 mg of folic acid, the amount needed to lower homocysteine, which is thought to be a risk factor for dementia and cardiovascular disease. 

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Barbara S. Levine, R.D., Ph.D., has been a researcher, consultant, and teacher of nutrition at some of the most prestigious medical institutions in the country. Dr. Levine is a DHA & B Vitamin Center scientific advisory board member and director of the first NIH-funded Nutrition Information Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Weill-Cornell Medical College, The Rockefeller University, Hospital for Special Surgery, and Strang Cancer Prevention Center.