Joining forces
One of the most fascinating aspects of natural medicine is how vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients work together in the body. It’s a complex web of interactions that we’ll probably never fully understand. But that’s no reason to stop trying. And recently a group of researchers in Belgium discovered yet another unique grouping of nutrients that boosts the effects of one we all need more of — folic acid.
While this vitamin is best known for its role in preventing birth defects, it’s also essential for preventing cancer, depression, and heart diseases (along with vitamins B6 and B12). And the Belgian researchers discovered that there may be a very simple way to get even more of these protective benefits from your folate supplement: Take it with vitamin C.
Just half an hour after they gave this combo to nine healthy men they found that blood folate levels rose significantly, and those levels stayed elevated for six hours — two hours longer than when the men were given folate by itself.
It seems like a no-brainer to me. You need vitamin C. You need folic acid. Vitamin C helps folic acid work better for longer. So if you’re not already taking these two nutrients together, now’s the time to have them join forces in your supplement regimen.
Source:
“Vitamin C may boost folate supplement response,” NutraIngedients (www.nutraingrediens.com), 7/11/07
