March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and experts say that people who eat a "rainbow" of foods can reduce their chances of developing colorectal cancer. Since colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in the United States and is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths, researchers say it pays to know how to avoid it.

While many Americans know which foods to eat to help keep their hearts healthy they often don't know how to eat to protect their colons, Lynn Goldstein, M.S., R.D., C.D.N., from the Jay Monahan Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said in a statement

The American Heart Association found that only 10 percent of American women are free from the risk of heart disease or stroke. As a result, new guidelines have been printed in the journal Circulation.

These guidelines include a daily regimen of aspirin, more exercise, and a less fatty diet. The guidelines also say that taking vitamins C and E, beta carotene and folic acid will not prevent heart disease

Folic acid, a group-B vitamin found in green leafy vegetables and liver, improves memory and cognitive function in older adults, according to a study conducted by a group of Dutch and Swiss researchers. The study, conducted on more than 800 volunteers aged 50 to 70, found that participants who took a low dose of folic acid supplements over a three-year period had better memories and information-processing abilities than those who were placed on placebos.

Cognitive functions, especially information processing and memory, are known to decline with age, which can eventually lead to dementia. But based on their results, researchers from the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands and the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, say that folic acid supplementation may help

The natural B vitamin "folate" is missing from many young women's diets, and this has caused alarm among government health officials.

Deficiency of this vitamin has been linked to birth defects of the brain and spine, as concluded by past research. The results of this research brought out the need for breads and cereals fortified with folic acid, an artificial version of "folate," the natural vitamin B, to be included in diets, especially during pregnancy

Government health officials in the United States are concerned over a possible increase in birth defects linked to a drop in folate levels in the blood of younger women, mainly due to the popularity of low-carbohydrate diet or unfortified whole-grain breads.

According to officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Folate is a naturally occurring B vitamin. Folic acid and folate (the anion form) occur naturally in food and can also be taken as supplements