According to a short Italian study, a daily supplementation of folic acidcould reduce inflammatory markers and therefore protect from heart disease in overweight and obese people.

These findings were reported in the International Journal of Obesity (Vol. 30, pp. 1197-1202).

Chronic inflammation, brought about by an over-expression or lack of control of the normal protective mechanism, can lead to a range of inflammatory related disease, particularly cardiovascular disease. And since people who are overweight or obese are said to be in a state of increased inflammation, compared to non-overweight and non-obese people, reducing inflammation could benefit the ever growing number of people with 'weight issues'.

The University Of Pisa School Of Medicine research was a low dose-short term supplementation study of folic acid in 60 healthy but overweight (BMI between 25 and 29 kg per sq.m) subjects in a randomized placebo controlled trial.

"The folic acid supplementation regimen we adopted was relatively short-term (3 months) and relatively low-dose (2.5 mg per day); yet, it was able to induce a significant reduction in homocysteine levels," said the researchers.

These results are interestingly promising but it has to be examined if folic acid supplementation will be beneficial in the long-term. In addition, there is a need to test whether such benefits would be seen in obese people (BMI greater or equal to 30 kg per sq. m).

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