Today

Low levels of folate, a vitamin B found in fruits and leafy green vegetables, may cut the risk of bowel cancer, a Swedish study has found.

Umea University researchers studied 660 people who were part of the Northern Sweden Health and Disease Cohort.

Study participants were asked questions about lifestyle, diet and the donation of blood samples at regular intervals.

After 17 years of monitoring, 226 people had been diagnosed with bowel cancer.

The team found people with the highest blood levels of folate were just as likely to develop bowel cancer as those with the lowest blood levels, whereas people in between were almost twice as likely to develop the disease.

A reduced risk for bowel cancer was also found in those people with a common mutation in the MTHFR gene.

According to the researchers, this is known to lower a person’s circulating folate levels.

But no link was found between circulating homocysteine and the risk of bowel cancer.

Homocysteine is an amino acid implicated in the thickening and hardening of arteries, levels of which are kept in check by B vitamins, including folate.

The researchers conclude that while high levels of folate may indeed protect against the development of bowel cancer, so too may low levels, suggesting something of a bell shaped curve in risk levels.

The study findings are published in the journal Gut.