A new study says that a combination of folic acid supplements and medicines for hypertension may be effective in reducing the risk of a first stroke among people with high blood pressure
Studies in the past have explored bodies of knowledge on the effects of folic acid supplementation in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. They discovered that it is indeed effective in reducing stroke risks.
However, the team of researchers from the Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, China, found out that these past studies did not specify stroke as their variable in the study. Their study specifically dealt with stroke among hypertensive adults.
As part of the Joint Symposium of the Chinese Society of Cardiology and the American College of Cardiology (ACC) here at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) 2015 Scientific Sessions, Dr Yong Huo, lead author, presented the findings of the study as part of the) presented study results that were simultaneously published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stroke is the leading cause of death in the United States killing 130,000 Americans each year. Hypertension or high blood pressure is one of the major causes of stroke.
To land on their findings, the team set out to assess the association between folic acid supplementation and stroke risk among 20,702 adults from China who are aged 45 to 75 years old. All participants had hypertension but they had no history of stroke or heart attack in the past, as reported by Medical News Today.
For five years, the participants were given either 10 mg of enalapril which is a drug for hypertension and 0.8 mg of folic acid daily; or a daily dose of just 10 mg enalapril alone. In the report, treatment with folic acid and enalapril reduced stroke risk by 21%.
"We speculate that even in countries with folic acid fortification and widespread use of folic acid supplements, such as in the United States and Canada, there may still be room to further reduce stroke incidence using more targeted folic acid therapy - in particular, among those with the TT genotype and low or moderate folate levels," the study authors say.
