SAN FRANCISCO, June 20 (UPI) -- Taking folic acid supplements once a day seems to reduce the risk of heart disease in post-menopausal women, new findings suggest.
"I'm an ob-gyn, so I'm used to recommending folic acid," lead researcher Giancarlo Paradisi of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome told United Press International. Folic acid is commonly prescribed to pregnant women because it is known to prevent birth defects. "But I think we have to start recommending it for (a woman's) whole life."
Paradisi presented his results at the 84th annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.
Researchers previously have linked high levels of low-density lipoprotein, or LDL -- also known as bad cholesterol -- and low concentrations of the high-density lipoprotein, or HDL -- the good cholesterol -- to increased risk of heart disease. In addition, poor blood vessel function, measured by a lack of elasticity in response to stress, also has been connected to cardiovascular problems over time.
In Paradisi's research, 15 women took daily folic acid supplements for one month. As a result, the women had blood HDL levels 8 percent above and LDL levels 9 percent below their baseline concentrations. In addition, their veins were about 30 percent more elastic at rest, and were significantly more able to stretch in response to stress, which normally worsens blood flow, Paradisi told UPI.
Other aging-related findings presented at the meeting included:
--Low doses of testosterone can help patients ward off the effects of chronic heart failure, a disease characterized by an enlarged heart and severe weakness. Ten patients who received testosterone injections every two weeks for three months could walk about 100 yards, or a football field, longer than heart patients who had not received testosterone.
--An oral testosterone-like drug can improve strength, boost muscle function, and reduce dangerous fat around the midsection in elderly men after six weeks. Though the strength benefits seem to wear off after the hormone is discontinued, said researcher E. Todd Schroeder of the University of Southern California, "it can be a jump start to get elderly men to start feeling better and exercising." Presumably regular exercise would maintain the benefits, he said.
--Elderly men with greater muscle strength fared better after four years than those with lower muscle strength. Likewise, the more diseases a man had, and the worse his self-reported quality of life (regardless of actual health), the worse his health years later.
"The goal is to find ways to have individuals age gracefully and be healthier and have a better quality of life as they age," said Glenn Braunstein of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. "There are ways of predicting who is at increased risk of (illness) and (death) as a person ages, and ways to intervene to presumably protect against some of those problems."
