Folic acid – now in our bread – increases prostate cancer risk, new study finds

URO TODAY: Vitamin B(12) and (in cohort studies) folate are associated with increased prostate cancer risk, according to a new study. READ MORE>

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NZ government abandons plans to make folate compulsory in bread

STRAIGHT FURROW: Australia will go it alone next month when it begins the mandatory fortification of bread-making flour with synthetic folate, considered a possible prostate cancer risk by some researchers. READ MORE>

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Folic acid delay angers those who support adding it to NZ bread

JULY 19: TVNZ: Campaigners against adding folic acid to bread in NZ have drawn a counter-attack from folate supporters, who say the dangers – including prostate cancer risk – have been exaggerated. READ MORE>

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Prostate cancer suspect folic acid won’t be added to our bread after all

JULY 19: SUNDAY STAR-TIMES: The NZ government’s plan to put folic acid – a suspected prostate cancer risk – in the country’s bread will be abandoned at tomorrow’s meeting of Cabinet, the paper predicts. READ MORE>

“The Key government will announce this week that it is throwing out the former government’s policy.

“Cabinet is expected to formalise the government’s position when it meets tomorrow, effectively putting the controversial issue on the back burner for three years and, crucially, beyond the next election.”

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Otago scientist challenged on conference report that folic acid will be cleared of cancer link

JULY 16: DOMINION POST: A UK scientist and one from Norway have challenged Otago University professor Murray Skeaff’s report from a Prague conference that a study due out soon  will clear folic acid of its potential links to prostate cancer.

They  say he omitted to mention a Norwegian study presented to the meeting – which found an overall increased risk of cancer in two trials (including deaths) – and point out the Prague conference on Homocysteine Metabolism last month voted by majority to oppose mandatory fortification of foods with folic acid.  READ MORE>

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FOLIC ACID and PROSTATE CANCER: NZ government must tread carefully with mass medication, says newspaper

JULY 16: DOMINION POST: Any decision to mass-medicate a population cannot be taken lightly, says the paper in an editorial today. First, there are safety concerns: two peer-reviewed US studies have linked excessive folate to higher rates of prostate cancer in men and inflammatory bowel disease in children. There has also been concern that in elderly people, high levels of folic acid might mask low levels of B12, which can lead to neurological damage. READ MORE>

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Australia lets NZ off the hook over joint rule to introduce folic acid to bread

JULY 15: DOMINION POST:  New Zealand has effectively been given the green light to axe rules forcing bakers to add folic acid to bread from September. The office of Australian parliamentary secretary for health Mark Butler told Wellington’s Dominion Post newspaper it was New Zealand’s call whether to proceed with the trans-Tasman standard, agreed in 2007. READ MORE>

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Leader of folic acid and prostate cancer risk study is top Oxford researcher

JULY 14: PROSTABLOG NZ: The UK scientist leading the research project that is about to report on folic acid risk factors and prostate cancer is Robert Clarke at Oxford University, says Otago University’s Professor Murray Skeaff.

Professor Skeaff is quoted in the Otago Daily Times newspaper as saying the team led by Clarke (pictured) will soon release details of a large study that found folic acid – about to be added to most NZ bread – is not a cancer risk.

The conference where preliminary results were presented was the 7th International  Conference on Homocysteine Metabolism, which Professor Skeaff attended last month.

According to the Oxford Uni website, Dr Robert Clarke joined its Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit in 1991.

He is an honorary consultant in Public Health Medicine, and Reader in Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

His research interests include the importance of traditional risk factors (blood pressure and cholesterol) and novel risk factors (homocysteine and genetic markers) for cardiovascular disease and for cognitive impairment through large-scale meta-analyses involving individual participant data from observational studies and trials.

In addition, he co-ordinates aspects of the PROCARDIS study of the genetics of coronary heart disease, Whitehall study of London Civil Servants and Oxford Healthy Aging Project.

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NZ food minister will seek review of prostate cancer risk in adding folic acid to bread

JULY 14: NZ HERALD: Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson says she will seek a review of the use of folic acid in bread – but not until a month after bakers have started adding it. READ MORE>

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Leading NZ scientist says big new European study shows no prostate cancer risk from folic acid

JULY 14: OTAGO DAILY TIMES:   There is no evidence of an increased cancer risk from plans for bakers in New Zealand and Australia bakers to fortify their bread with folic acid, a leading scientist says. A big “state of the art” scientific study which has not yet been published, “shows that there is no increase in cancer risk with high-dose folic acid,” said Professor Murray Skeaff, a specialist in human nutrition at Otago University. READ MORE>

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