Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Jul 05, 2026 1 hour, 15 minutes ago
Medical News: More than six years after COVID-19 changed the world, scientists are still searching for ways to reduce severe illness and ease the long-lasting health problems that follow infection. A new review suggests that an inexpensive and widely available vitamin—folic acid, also known as vitamin B9—could play a much bigger role than previously believed in protecting the body's blood vessels from damage caused by the virus.
New research suggests folic acid may help protect blood vessels and reduce serious COVID-19 complications
The review was conducted by researcher Maria Macarena Massip Copiz from the Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and explores how folic acid may help reduce one of the most dangerous features of COVID-19: damage to the lining of blood vessels, known as endothelial dysfunction.
Why Blood Vessel Health Matters
Although COVID-19 is best known as a respiratory disease, researchers now recognize that it also attacks the body's vascular system. The virus can trigger widespread inflammation, making blood vessels less able to regulate blood flow. This can increase the risk of blood clots, heart problems, stroke, lung injury, and damage to several organs. Persistent blood vessel dysfunction is also believed to contribute to long COVID symptoms such as fatigue, poor exercise tolerance, and brain fog.
How Folic Acid Could Help
The review explains that folic acid supports several important biological processes. It helps lower harmful homocysteine levels, reduces oxidative stress, supports nitric oxide production, and improves the normal function of blood vessel cells. Nitric oxide is especially important because it allows blood vessels to relax, improves circulation, and reduces inflammation and clot formation.
Researchers also found that folic acid may help maintain the body's natural antioxidant defenses, preventing blood vessel cells from becoming damaged during severe inflammation. In addition, folic acid appears to improve the activity of enzymes responsible for keeping blood vessels healthy even beyond its effect on homocysteine.
Promising Evidence Beyond Nutrition
Interestingly, this
Medical News report highlights that folic acid may offer benefits beyond simply correcting vitamin deficiency. Laboratory and computational studies reviewed by the author suggest that folic acid or its active forms may interfere with several stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The vitamin has shown the potential to bind to important viral proteins and even certain human proteins used by the virus to enter cells, potentially reducing viral invasion and replication.
The review also discusses how healthy gut bacteria naturally produce folate. Since COVID-19 may disrupt the gut microbiome, this could reduce natural folate production and contribute to vitamin deficiencies that worsen inflammation and endothelial damage. Maintaining adequate folate levels through diet or supplementation may therefore support both immune
function and vascular health.
Important Biomarkers and Clinical Findings
Several studies reviewed found that patients with severe COVID-19 often had lower folate levels and higher homocysteine levels than those with milder disease. Elevated homocysteine was repeatedly associated with a greater risk of blood clotting, intensive care admission, severe pneumonia, and even death. Some research also linked inherited variations in genes involved in folate metabolism with increased susceptibility to severe COVID-19 and thrombotic complications.
Clinical trials cited in the review also reported encouraging results. In one study, hospitalized patients receiving nutritional support that included folic acid experienced lower mortality, fewer patients required mechanical ventilation, and survival among intubated patients improved. However, the author stresses that larger clinical trials are still needed before routine high-dose supplementation can be recommended.
Conclusion
The review presents growing evidence that folic acid could become an important complementary strategy for reducing COVID-19 complications by protecting blood vessels, lowering inflammation, improving nitric oxide production, and reducing harmful homocysteine levels. However, the author also cautions that folic acid should not be viewed as a standalone treatment or replacement for established medical care. Future well-designed clinical trials are needed to determine the safest doses, identify which patients benefit most, and confirm whether these promising biological mechanisms translate into consistent improvements in real-world patient outcomes.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed journal: Life.
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/16/7/1116
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Read Also:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/coronavirus
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/long-covid
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