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Brain & Nervous System
Stroke: Taking Folic Acid Alongside Vitamin B12 Could Significantly Reduce Your Risk Of Suffering A Fracture Following A Stroke
Latest research findings from Japan have revealed that taking folic acid and vitamin B12 supplements following a stroke can help sufferers lower their risk of experiencing a fracture.
Stroke patients have up to four times the risk of incurring a fracture than healthy individuals. Researchers believe this may be due to high levels of homocysteine an amino acid which, when elevated, is strongly linked to increasing the risk of stroke, cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis following a stroke. As weve reported previously in HSI, studies have found that folic acid and vitamin B12 can help lower homocysteine levels.
Dr Yoshihiro Sato, of Mitate Hospital in Tagawa, Japan, and colleagues recruited 628 men and women who had hemiplegia (severe paralysis affecting one side of the body due to damage of the central nervous system) resulting from a stroke that occurred within the previous year.
Three hundred and fourteen patients were given 5 milligrams of folic acid and 1,500 micrograms of vitamin B12 each day, and an equal number received a placebo each day over the course of two years. Participants were asked to record any falls that occurred. Five hundred and fifty-nine patients completed the study.
At the end of the study, 27 hip fractures had occurred in the placebo group, compared to 6 that had occurred in the group who received folic acid and vitamin B12.
In addition, when total fractures were compared, 32 placebo patients and eight patients who had received the vitamins experienced fractures of any type. The researchers also found that homocysteine levels had increased by 31 per cent in the group who received the placebo, but actually declined by 38 per cent in the vitamin-treated group (Journal of the American Medical Association, March 2005).
Commenting on the findings Prof. Joyce B.J. van Meurs, and Prof. Andr G. Uitterlinden, from the Erasmus Medical Centre, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said: After the initial observation of association between circulating homocysteine levels and fracture risk less than one year ago, these results now support a causal link.
The recommended dosage is 400mcg of folic acid and 500mcg of vitamin B12 a day.
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