Whether or not women are planning to have a baby this year, they can start the new year with habits that will help give a baby a healthy start in life.
Jan. 4-10 was Folic Acid Awareness Week and a great time to start taking a multivitamin with 400 mcg of the B vitamin folic acid every day. Starting before pregnancy begins is an important way to reduce the risk of birth defects of the brain and spine called neural tube defects by up to 70 percent. NTDs occur in the first weeks of fetal development, often before a woman even knows she is pregnant.
Think you are getting all the vitamins you need from your diet alone? Think again. Most people do not know that it is hard to get certain vitamins from food alone. Many believe they do not need to take multivitamins because they eat healthy foods. Multivitamins help fill in those nutrition gaps in the diet, especially when it comes to getting enough folic acid.
Folic acid is an essential B vitamin; therefore, everyone needs it in order to stay in good health. Folic acid helps build DNA and the body uses it for cell growth and reproduction, fundamental building-block processing and genetic material production. Folic acid is water soluable, therefore it passes through the body very quickly. Taking folic acid every day ensures that a person always has it in her system.
Other than being needed to create and regenerate cells in the body, it also has protective effects. Studies show that folic acid reduces the risk of certain cancers, cardiovascular diseases, including coronary heart disease and stroke, and cognitive diseases or mental conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, age-related dementia or cognitive decline and depression.
For women in their childbearing years, it is particularly important to consume 400 mcg of folic acid daily. It has been shown to reduce the risk of neural tube defects in developing babies by up to 70 percent. Since 50 percent of pregnancies are unplanned, it is important to take folic acid every day even if you are not planning to get pregnant. Neural tube defects are birth defects of the brain and spine. The most common are spina bifida and anencephaly.
Folic acid is the synthetic form of the naturally occurring folate. Folate is found in foods such as leafy green vegetables, beans, liver and some fruit. The synthetic version, folic acid, is found in multivitamins and fortified foods like breakfast cereal, pasta and bread. Scientists do not know exactly why, but folic acid is easier for the body to absorb than folate. Plus folate loses its potency easily and is hard to get in large amounts.
In 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration started fortifying grain and cereal products with folic acid in order to reduce neural-tube defects. While this was a great step in the fight to prevent birth defects, it is not enough to protect all women and their potential children.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Public Health Service recommend that all women of childbearing age take 400 mcg of folic acid every day. The best and most reliable way to get that amount is to take a multivitamin, B vitamin complex pill or folic acid pill.
The Carroll County Health Department recommends taking a multivitamin so a woman can be sure to get consistent amounts of other vitamins and minerals, like A, C, B6, E, Iron and calcium.
For more information about folic acid, see the health department Web site at www.carroll-lhd.org or call the health department at 330-627-4866.