Health

Health: Folic Acid & Colon Cancer

PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― In health, folic acid is in many of the foods we eat every day and it prevents birth defects. However, new research is linking folic acid to an increase in colon cancer. Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl details how some experts fear there might be too much of a good thing.

Julie Newell, a 29-year-old mother of two young children, was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer which spread to her liver.

She has no known risk factors or family history.

"All the young women who I've met or spoken to or heard about or have been about who have colon cancer in their 20's, all recently had children," said Julie.

Like most pregnant women, Julie took pre-natal vitamins containing folic acid for almost three straight years.

Folic acid can cut the risk of Spina Bifida and other birth defects by 70-percent.

Since the mid 90's, the U.S and Canada have been adding folic acid to breads, cereals, and grain products.

The FDA says the amount of folic acid consumed in food is safe even if people take an additional supplement.

But a recent study to see if folic acid could prevent colorectal cancer unexpectedly found just the opposite.

A second study found that colon cancer cases in the U.S. and Canada, which had been going down, started going up at exactly the time food fortification started.

"We may have too much of a good thing. By trying to prevent one type of disease, we may have increased another type of disease," said Dr. Boris Pasche, Director of Cancer Genetics at Northwestern University.

"Because we may not know what we are doing exactly, we may be playing with fire," said Dr. Pasche.

Julie does not know what caused her illness but finds the latest research on folic acid very troubling.

"I hope that women don't have to choose that they want to have a healthy baby, or do they want to have colon cancer? But at the same time, I probably wouldn't change what I did for my kids," said Julie.

But other, previous studies have linked folic acid to a lower incidence of some cancers. There is also no real agreement on how much folic acid is too much.

The March of Dimes is expected to ask the FDA to double the levels of folic acid added to foods.

The American Cancer Society doesn't have a position yet on these two studies.

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