For patients with coronary artery disease, supplementing with B vitamins and folic acid does not reduce the risk associated with it, a new study has found.

The new study, reported in the Aug. 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, analyzed almost 3,100 volunteers. Three-quarters of them took various doses of vitamin B and folic acid (which is chemically a B vitamin), while the others got a placebo, an inactive substance

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

Flour and bread should be fortified with folic acid to lessen the risk of birth defects such as spina bifida, the Expert Advisory Group on Nutrition said Monday. The group recommends that fortification be mandatory, but some say the initiative would take away individual choice and could mask signs of vitamin deficiency in elderly people.

Now the Food Standards Agency (FSA) will begin a 3-month consultation to see how the public feels about the issue