During my team's rounds in the paediatric ward of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) Nigeria, I discovered that a lot of the babies had different birth defects and some died from them. Also in the surgical out-patient clinic last week, there was a little girl with cleft palate. That inspired me to write on a very important but usually ignored factor: folic acid or folate, especially for females of childbearing age.
INTRODUCTION
Folic acid (folate) is a water-soluble vitamin of the B class. Naturally it is found in foods like green leafy vegetables, cereals, dried nuts, peas, lentils, oranges, broccoli and others. A synthetic form is also available as dietary supplements which can be obtained in virtually all good pharmacies worldwide.
Folic acid is most commonly known for its use in preventing birth defects, but it also has other benefits which will be reviewed in the content below.
FOLIC ACID AND PREGNANCY
Epidemiological research has shown that over 300,000 babies worldwide are born with Neural Tube Defects (NTDs) annually. It has also been shown that increasing folic acid intake in women of childbearing age can prevent over 75% of such cases.
Consumption of the recommended dose of folic acid before and during pregnancy goes a long way to prevent birth defects, especially Neural Tube Defects(NTDs) such as anencephaly and spina bifida. In anencephaly, part of the brain and skull do not form, thus anencephalic babies usually do not survive. Spina bifida is a birth defect in which there's impaired development of the baby's spine, and could result in disabilities.
To prevent these and other common birth defects (such as cleft lip and palate), all women should take 400micrograms (400mg) of folic acid daily.
It is very risky to wait until pregnancy before starting folate therapy because the birth defects could occur even before the woman discovers that she's pregnant. Women are also encouraged to eat other folate-enriched cereal grain products and to take vitamin and multivitamin supplements too. A notion has been moved to incorporate folate in flour to further stress on the importance of folic acid.
OTHER HEALTH BENEFITS
Besides it's importance in pregnancy, folic acid has a lot of other benefits which include:
-Correction of anaemia due to vitamin B12 deficiency
-Production of nitrogenous bases necessary for DNA synthesis
-Reduction in blood pressure
-Prevention of colon and cervical cancer
-Reduction of blood homocysteine levels in people with kidney disease, which is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke
-Prevention of gum problems due to phenytoin
-Improvement of symptoms of vitiligo
Different doses of the drug are prescribed for the different conditions.
FOLIC ACID DEFICIENCY
Inadequate folate intake could cause the following effects:
-Birth of low birth weight pre-term babies with neural tube defects.
-Megaloblastic anaemia
-Weakness
-Loss of appetite
-Sore tongue
-Headaches
-Palpitations
-Behavioral disorders
SIDE EFFECTS
Folic acid is relatively safe, but high dose intake (above 1000mcg daily) could lead to some effects such as
abdominal cramps, diarrhea, rash, sleep disorders, irritability, confusion, nausea, skin reactions, seizures, gas, excitability, and other side effects.
IN SUMMARY...
The beautiful thing about folic is that it is INEXPENSIVE! Imagine being able to prevent a whole lot of problems at very little cost.
I'm neither married nor intending to be pregnant any time soon, but I'm already on strict folic acid therapy.
Let's all ensure to do same and encourage others too, especially females of childbearing age. Our health is in our hands!
References:
WebMD
Wikipedia
CDC
Google images