Folic acid tested on heart patients

John Watson is taking part in the trial

Doctors believe folic acid may help prevent repeat heart attacks in patients with weak cardiovascular systems.

The vitamin, also known as folate, is commonly recommended to pregnant women to reduce the risk that they will give birth to babies with neural tube defects such as spina bifida.

Somebody was just telling me that one of his friends had a heart attack at 38. If we could stop that happening it would be a good thing

John Watson

Now doctors have recruited 12,000 volunteers from around the country to test its impact on the heart in a four year study.

All the volunteers have had one heart attack.

It is thought that folic acid can lower the amount of a chemical in the blood called homocysteine.

This chemical has been found to be related to heart disease.

If doctors can lower the amount in the blood then they could be lowering the patient's risk of having further heart problems.

High risk

Dr Howard Robson hopes folic acid could have significant benefits

Dr Howard Robson, a cardiologist at Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, is one of the doctors who is carrying out the research.

He said: "We are looking at people who are at high risk of getting further complications.

"We are giving them folate, which we think will lower homocysteine, to see if it actually has the benefit of improving the complications of heart disease."

Folic acid is found naturally in green vegetables, liver and fish.

However, Dr Robson said that dietary assessments had shown that 50% of the population were well below what is thought to be a reasonable daily requirement.

Among those taking part in the study is John Watson, who suffered a heart attack shortly after a game of squash.

He said the decision to take part in the trial was an easy one.

"Somebody was just telling me that one of his friends had a heart attack at 38. If we could stop that happening it would be a good thing."

The charity Action Research, is running an on-going campaign about the importance of folic acid for mothers and mums-to-be.

John Grounds, the charity's director of campaigns and communications, said: "There is growing circumstantial evidence that a protective effect for cardiovascular diesase is also highly likely.

'The government is currently exploring whether to add folic acid to flour-based products which would particularly benefit women with unexepected pregnancies.

"Providing this new research into heart disease proves successful and doesn't delay the move towards adding folic acid to flour, it could provide a significant boost to universal fortification - as another huge sector of society would potentially benefit."