High folic acid associated with lower allergy risk
People with high folic acid levels in blood are less likely to have some allergy symptoms, new data showed U.S..
“The results suggest that folic acid food and factors influencing metabolism, have an important role in the development and maintenance of allergy and asthma,” according to the study authors, Drs Elizabeth C. William Matsui and Matsui, of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.
In the past two decades has increased the number of people with allergies and asthma in the developed world, the authors said in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. And in recent years the levels of folic acid in the blood of American citizens because they grew in 1998 began the fortification of grain products with vitamin B for preventing birth defects, they said.
To investigate the possible role of blood folic acid levels in allergies, the authors studied 8,083 people over two years who participated in the National Survey of Health and Nutrition 2005-2006.
The researchers found that the higher were the levels of folic acid in the blood of the participants, the lower were their levels of immunoglobulin E, the antibody responsible for allergic reactions.
People with higher levels of folic acid were also less likely to wheeze and atopy, or the tendency to develop allergies.
Although it was observed a relationship between levels of folic acid breaks and the low probability of having a diagnosis of asthma, the association was not statistically significant.
Since the study was crossed (examined only a single point in time), the results did not show whether the high levels of folic acid prevent sensitization to allergens and allergies in people already sensitized, or if the levels nutrient have some sort of casual relationship with allergic symptoms.
But the results are consistent with other studies that have linked low levels of folic acid with an increased risk of developing inflammatory diseases such as heart disease and rheumatoid arthritis.