Norwegian researchers said this week that heart patients in Norway had a higher risk of dying from cancer if they consumed folic acid and vitamin B12 supplements as compared with those who did not take them.

They also discovered that lung cancer rates were up by 25% among those who took the supplements in comparison to those who did not. In addition to this cancer deaths from other causes were also higher in the supplement group.

They said that people consuming folic acid over a span of more than three years may add to the growth of cancers which were too small to be diagnosed otherwise. This had lead to several questions regarding the advantages of fortifying foods with folic acid.

Dr. Marta Ebbing of Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, and colleagues wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “Our results need confirmation in other populations and underline the call for safety monitoring following the widespread consumption of folic acid from dietary supplements and fortified foods.”

The role of folic acid is to help the body in making new cells and its optimum level is essential in women before pregnancy to prevent serious defects at birth.

This is not the first study done to prove that folic acid has a role to play in increasing the risk of cancers. Similar studies have been conducted in the past and it was found that folic acid supplements raise the risk of prostate cancer and colon cancer.