Totalsupplement.net Newsletter Vol. 001
What is Folate?
Folate is a water-soluble B vitamin that occurs naturally in food. Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate that is found in supplements and added to fortified foods.
Folate gets its name from the Latin word "folium" for leaf. A key observation of researcher Lucy Wills nearly 70 years ago led to the identification of folate as the nutrient needed to prevent the anemia of pregnancy. Dr. Wills demonstrated that the anemia could be corrected by a yeast extract. Folate was identified as the corrective substance in yeast extract in the late 1930s, and was extracted from spinach leaves in 1941.
Folate helps produce and maintain new cells. This is especially important during periods of rapid cell division and growth such as infancy and pregnancy. Folate is needed to make DNA and RNA, the building blocks of cells. It also helps prevent changes to DNA that may lead to cancer. Both adults and children need folate to make normal red blood cells and prevent anemia. Folate is also essential for the metabolism of homocysteine, and helps maintain normal levels of this amino acid.
Folinic acid, also known as 5-formyl tetrahydrofolate, is an active form of a group of vitamins known as folates. Folinic acid is one of the forms of folate found naturally in foods. Folate deficiency is believed to be the most common vitamin deficiency in the world due to food processing, food selection, and intestinal disorders. In the body folinic acid may be converted into any of the other active forms of folate. Folate coenzymes are responsible for the production of heme, the iron-containing protein in hemoglobin. Both folate and folinic acid are in Designs for Health’s Homocysteine Supreme
Worldwide, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in females, affecting approximately one out of twelve to thirteen women who reach age ninety at some stage of their life in the Western world. It is (after lung cancer) the second most fatal cancer in women. Because the breast is composed of identical tissues in males and females, breast cancer can also occur in males, but here the incidence is very low. Breast cancer is one of the oldest known forms of cancer tumors. Our oldest description of cancer was discovered in Egypt and dates back to approximately 1600 BC. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, or writing, describes 8 cases of tumors or ulcers of the breast that were treated by cauterization, with a tool called "the fire drill." (Sounds about as fun as a fire drill as we know it today).
Source: Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_cancer.
A high folic acid intake counteracts breast cancer risk associated with alcohol consumption according to a study, led by Thomas Sellers, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic cancer epidemiologist. This study appears in the July 2001 issue of the journal Epidemiology.
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