i take large doses of folic acid to prevent mouth sores as i am taking methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis. how do i know what is the correct amount? i have not had sores since i started taking supplements so how can i find out how much is too much for me?

The extra nutrient isn't meant for you, though — it's added to protect fetuses from developing rare but tragic birth defects.

Who else felt nauseous when they read that?

It's pretty scary stuff.. if those statistics are accurate they are pretty signifigant. Whether it causes cancer or just facilitates it's growth. Anymore you don't know what to believe and what to eat. One day something is good for you, the next it causes cancer. I visit a cancer discussion board (my mother passed last year from uterine cancer) and it's full of women who did everything right, exercised, watched their weight, ate healthy -lots of fruit and vegetables and in some cases vitamins and supplements, no smoking, little or no drinking..... They got cancer. Ultimately maybe it just comes down to the luck of the draw, genetics, stress. Incidentally, on one of the discussion boards, someone mentioned that flu shots can increase your risk of dev. certain types of cancer. I think it was the lymphoma board and supposedly this from an oncologist. It certainly makes you want to rethink alot of things.

This "news" is about a year old at least. For current information get the "Nutrition Action" newsletter.

As for folic acid, I wish they wouldn't put it in bread. A couple of slices of bread and a multivitamin and you've had too much. Oh well, after learning about this, I cut out the multivitamin.

...and again we learn that if we eat a balanced diet of natural foods rather than 'fortifying' our normal diets of processed crap with synthetic elements it's healthier. How many more finds and studies do we need until it all sinks in?

This article is a great example of WHY we need to get the FDA cleaned up and "on mission". A cleanup would include:

1) Removing the MD-only physician dominance of the agency. Physicians without advanced degrees do not have the training or proven skillset to design, conduct, or interpret clinical trials or the results of any medical studies.

2) Fire every FDA professional who has ties to the for-profit and not disclosed them. A panel should be convened to determine if these people are able to keep their pensions or licenses. The people who have disclosed ties to the for-profit medical industry should be fired if there is even a "Caesar's wife" hint of impropriety or conflict of interest. These people would be allowed to keep pensions and licenses.

3) Require that all collected data be evaluated in clinical trials. The drug and medical equipment industries are currently allowed to "cherry pick" data to make their case for approval. Then years later, grad students mine the complete data and find time after time that those companies suppressed data that would have cast doubt on approval.

4) Immediately cease approval for all drugs and procedures which do not perform better than a placebo. Currently the FDA only determines safety of a drug. But in around 30% of all drugs, the drug did not perform better than a placebo. So what the FDA was approving was a sugar pill with side effects.

5) Stop all drug testing on foreign nationals. Testing a vaccine to prevent ovarian cancer on elderly Chinese men is not a good idea. Clinical trials should only be tested on the actual target demographic and once those people enter a clinical trial they need to be at least minimally tracked for the rest of their lives.

6) Bring all drugs ---- including herbal and "natural" products and supplements under FDA regulation. The idea that the FDA cannot regulate something like supplements so long as there is no statement or strong implication on the container that the drug will treat or cure any condition is logically bankrupt. At best proof emerges that the supplement is effective (as happened with zinc to shorten the duration of colds) and at worst case the supplement is found to be harmful. The single fact that everyone should agree on is that the medical supplement industry has never stood up well under scientific scrutiny because the products seldom contain exactly what is specified on the label. The chances, for example, that the 1000 Unit pills in the bottle of folic acid shown in the article contains 1000 units is very remote. Only about 1 in 250 supplements tested meet the scientific standards for purity and standardization that drugs are held to.

7) And last, but not least, the FDA should fund head-to-head efficacy testing for drugs and supplements. If one drug, say a statin, works quite a bit better than another or is safer than another, the FDA should make this information available. Many times generic drugs are not only less expensive, but have fewer and better understood side effects, and are just as effective as newer more expensive drugs.

I am not against supplements (I take 81-mg aspirin, glucosamine, a multi-vitamin, and a vitamin D supplement myself). I just think that the public needs to be informed on what they are taking including all potential side effects, and which drugs or pacemakers are the most effective. And the current corrupted FDA cannot do that. There are simply too many physicians running the show that have their hands in the pockets of the for-profit medical industry.

For more than a decade, the government has required enriched grains — most notably white flour and white rice — to be fortified with folic acid, the synthetic form of the B vitamin folate.

But wait.... the government knows better about all things yes? This story must not be true.

Once again the Feds have screwed the pooch  and we now are forced to trust them with Universal Healthcare? God help us all!

Vitamin B6 is even more dangerous. I developed B6 (piridoxine) toxicity from a basic multi-vitamin. My symptoms included tingling and pins and needles in my hands and feet and pain in my neck and upper back. Doctors tested for diabetes, hypothyroid, B12 deficiency, and I had an MRI of my neck. Even MS was considered. I finally googled the symptoms and decided to have my blood tested for B6. It was twice the upper limit. I have not had a multi-vitamin or fortified cereals in 4 weeks and am beginning to feel much better. Doctors and the public need to be more aware of this. Avoid energy drinks.

Hmmm, which brainy political persuasion trust the government the most to "take care of them"?

I'll let you in on another little secret the government doesn't want you to know. The municipal water you drink is killing you, or at least not very healthy for you.

I read somewhere that breathing too much air can cause you to go into an anaphylactic shock. Causing an immediate drop in blood pressure and widening of your blood vessels which will cause a person to be unable to breath....kinda scary

I'm just going to stick with eating nothing. Seems to be the only safe thing to do.

What I hate is all these additives they put in food to make it "healthy". Vitamin A & D milk, folic acid enriched rice, vitamin C fortified orange juice, chlorinated water, etc. Ever read the ingredients on a loaf of bread? You need a chemistry degree to figure out what they are and a math professor to count them. Leave the damn additives out. When I buy orange juice, I just want orange juice.

This is more bad science being popularized to make people afraid. Yes, if you give a rat more than twice as much folate as you would give a human over a really extended time, it is toxic. This would be true for just about anything. To blame the increase in colon cancer in Chile solely on folic acid is absurd. There really is no causal evidence here.

is there anything out there that does not link to cancer???

Meh, everything causes cancer. I'm so over it...

We are all going to die from something and the scientific facts of what cause cancer isn't really known today.The scientific community has now discovered that people have become deficient in Vitamin D due to using products with sunscreen.The food manufacturers should stop introducing added vitamins etc. into their products.If pregnant women need more folic acid then they can take a folic acid supplement.There is never in my lifetime going to be a human being who will live forever.

I take a lot of vitamins, espcially the natural active ones like methylb12 and adenosylb12. My body doesn't convert folic acid so it is worse than useless for me. I take Metafolin (methylfolate), and I take just enough to not have deficiency symptoms such as angular cheleitis, the sores at the corners of my mouth. That comes out to 4000mcg per day. Along with the methylb12, adenosylb12 the Metafolin and a few other things has compeltely healed me of years of Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

I don't eat white bread, but I'm sure I get it from other sources. I say, let's take it out of everything and just put it in prenatal vitamins.

And if you dont take it during pregnancy, your kid develops spina bifida in the 4th week. So your screwed either way!

My Swedish great aunts and uncles age ham, sausage, bacon and potatoes swimming in butter...all natural from the farm and they all lived well into the 90s and one great uncle lived to be 100. Cut out the preservatives. Period. Margarine has only one molecule to go to become plastic. (or so I've read) and some of the stuff on the ingredients lists for all processed foods not only can't be pronounced, but should NEVER be consumed by humans. Even the animals raised by these people died of old age (and maybe overweight) but not from cancer. Eat as much natural foods as you can and only give into the craving for Twinkies when you develope tremors!

Edwin, the rats didn't die from the colas fed them...they drowned from the 80 gallons they were forced to drink every day!! Some of the tests run now are so out of proportion to what we eat and drink every day that no one knows who will get what from what. A steady diet of Coke and Little Debbies will surely mess you up somehow, but most of us consume some healthy foods in our daily lives. I also agree with an earlier post...living gives you cancer. Tomorrow we may find that mega doses of fake crab decreases our chances of getting cancer or eating one leafy green over another makes us grow hooves and horns! Taking a multi vitamin is good for those of us who are always in too big a rush to "get all the things on our lists done" to eat right, but if your diet is for the most part, healthy maybe we don't need them. Moderation is the best method with anything. A glass of wine (not the whole store), salad and lean meat....all natural...not gown in a "tank" somewhere is how I like to eat when I can. McDonalds or Arbys once in a while isn't going to lower your life span by 25 years. I do like to take extra vitamine E every day though. It makes my skin not so dry...Arizona sun will make you old before your time and E helps.

I just read the new controversy over mammograms, and now this. I began changing my diet and eating "healthy" over 3 months ago, which included a daily multi-vitamin, omega-3 supplements, a calcium with Vitamin D supplement, plus drinking a vitamin B enhanced water product. I now am going to recheck everything I've been taking; I think the water drink has folic acid in it too. I thought folic acid was essential to have every day ever since I was pregnant with my 1st child 23 years ago. I also heard extra Vitamin D would help your immune system and decrease your chance of catching swine and other influenzas. I am rethinking all of this because it always seems like years later "scientists" discover something wrong with the 1st "discovery". I eat healthy foods, but in order to cut calories to lose weight to achieve better health, I don't think I could eat enough food to supply all the nutrients needed. AAAGGGHHH! You just can't win.

This is amazing...I was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2005..and thanks to a team of great Dr's I recieved surgery, radiaology and chemotherapy, and now show now signs of cancer. Since then, I have had a very difficult time finding a diet that works for me, as everything I eat wants to go right through me. I have always tried to figure out what it is they add to food that irratates my system so badly. This could be a huge clue. I have even been irratated by vitamins, which I thought was crazy, but now, makes a lot of sense. The food manufacturers sometimes do not even list all the ingredients, they just use a generic term like Modofied Food Starch, which sends me to the restroom for the rest of the night. Oh, this article could save my life, as I have been trying to regain weight I lost over the past five years (60 lbs, from 210 to 150). I also had to cut meat out of my diet, and who knows, they probably pump that stuff full of folic acid also. Literally amazing...Thank you MSNBC/NBC News...can't tell you how this could change my life..Thank you!