Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/25405

OpenURL Link
Title
Folic acid: vitamin and panacea or genetic time bomb?
Author/Creator
Lucock, Mark;  Yates, Z.
Description
We live in a health-conscious age - many of us supplement our diet with essential micronutrients through the discretionary use of multivitamin pills or judicious selection of foods that have a health benefit beyond that conferred by the nutrient content alone - the so-called 'functional foods'. Indeed, the citizens of some nations have little choice, with a mandatory fortification policy in place for certain vitamins. But do we ever stop to consider the consequences of an increased exposure to micronutrients? We examine this issue in relation to the B-group vitamin folic acid, and ask whether supplementation with this vitamin could introduce a strong genetic selection pressure - one that has the side effect of increasing the prevalence of some of the most significant, human life-threatening diseases. Are we affecting our genetics - is this a case of human evolution in progress by altering our diet?
Relation
Nature Reviews Genetics Vol. 6, no. 3, p. 235-240
Date
2005
Publisher
Nature Pub. Group
Keyword(s)
methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene;  plasma total homocysteine;  early-pregnancy loss;  neural-tube defects;  risk factor;  c677t;  polymorphism;  dna methylation;  breast-cancer;  folate metabolism;  vascular-disease
Resource Type
journal article
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/25405
Identifier
ISSN:1471-0056
Language
eng
Reviewed
Reviewed
28 Visitors 32 Hits 0 Downloads
Save/E-mail Citation
Citation Format
E-mail Address
Subject
"Nature Reviews Genetics"
 
OR