HOW MUCH FOLATE?
ANCHOR LEAD: FOLATE MIGHT HELP PREVENT HEART ATTACK DAMAGE, BUT HOW MUCH IS NEEDED? ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS
Folate, a B vitamin, can help prevent damage to the heart due to a heart attack. But a lot of folate is needed, says David Kass, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins and study author.
KASS: Our calculations were the minimum would probably be 200 something times the usual dose as much as 2000 times the usual dose. Can we even make a pill? I mean, that would be like a sandwich, or eating an entire field of spinach. :13
Kass does see a very practical application for folate when a reasonable formulation is available.
KASS: The EMT people could then be giving this intraveneously when they’re picking people up, the same time they’re starting their IVdrugs and it could have a really profound effect. The data are striking and the implications of it if it could be translated are huge. :12
Kass says that right now, it’s premature to consider folate supplementation to people having a heart attack but he predicts that that day is coming. I’m Elizabeth Tracey reporting.
