Effects of folic acid intake on serum lipid profiles of apparently healthy young adult male Nigerians

Abstract

The effects of folic acid intake on serum lipid profile of apparently healthy young adult males were investigated. Ten apparently healthy young adult males (19-22years) were requested to observe 10-12h overnight fast prior to the days of appointment. Blood samples were collected 1h after the intake of appropriate volume of physiological saline (control), 5mg and 10mg of folic acid respectively at 4days interval. Compared with the control, 5mg and 10mg folic acid resulted in similar pattern of significant reduction in serum cholesterol and LDL-C (p<0.05) while there was large scale increase in HDL-C (P<0.05). Furthermore, the intake of 5mg folic acid produced significant increase in triacylglycerol while the 10mg folic acid intake resulted in significant decrease in serum triacylglycerol concentration (P<0.05). These results indicate that folic acid supplementation may provide additional benefit to humans since it increases the blood level of good cholesterol (HDL-C) and reduces the blood level of 'bad' cholesterol. These effects are additional to the well known haematological benefits of folic acid supplementation.

Keywords: folic acid, cholesterol, triacylglycerol, serum, Nigeria

African Journal of Biomedical Research Vol. 8(3) 2005: 139-142