According to a new Chinese study, there is a possibility that folic acid supplements might help cut risk of stroke and particularly for patients affected by high blood pressure.

According to experts, women during pregnancy commonly take folic acid supplements in order to keep neural birth defects at bay. For the study, the researchers decided to track the results of over 20,000 patients in China. It has been informed that these patients were affected by high blood pressure and they did not have any previous history of a heart attack or stroke.

“If all that is required to prevent the greatest health threat worldwide is a vitamin, then we need to consider checking patients’ blood levels of folic acid and supplementing if needed”, said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, preventive cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital.

According to the researchers, they have randomly asked the participants to take a daily pill of folic acid along with the high blood pressure pill, and some were asked to take only the high blood pressure drug. It was found by the researchers that the first strokes that took place in this group were 3.4% of those who only consumed the high blood pressure drug.

It was also found that the risk of stroke was up to 21% lower in those people who were asked to consume a combination of both the high blood pressure drug and the folic acid supplement.

According to the researchers, it was also found that the patients who consumed this combination had a much lower risk of being affected by ischemic stroke. Ischemic stroke generally takes place because of blockages. As per the researchers, folic acid supplementation was also associated to a decrease in the risk of death related to heart.