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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : December 19, 2019 6:38 PM IST
Pregnant people are often advised to increase their folic acid and iron intake. And dietary supplements can help you to quickly achieve that. In addition, supplements help treat these possible deficiencies.
Folic acid is a part of B vitamins and is also sometimes called Vitamin B9. Food sources of this vitamin are leafy green vegetables like spinach, broccoli, beans, peas, carrots, sugar beets and avocados. It is also present in whole grains, corn, chestnuts, almonds, egg yolk and liver. Folic acid stimulates the production of new cells. It fortifies the red blood cells and prevents anaemia. It can also bring down your risk of strokes and heart disease.
Pregnant women are often given folic acid supplements. This is done because it prevents birth defects, especially neural tube defects. However, a few studies say that excess of this vitamin may increase your risk of certain cancers like intestinal, prostate and breast. If you are not pregnant, you must not take high doses of this supplement. So, it is always better to consult your doctor before having this supplement.
It is essential for pregnant women. If you are pregnant, your doctor will definitely recommend this vitamin for you. Let us look at a few benefits of folic acid during pregnancy.
During pregnancy the cells multiply faster so the mother needs more folic acid. A pregnancy can drain the mother's folic acid reserves proportional to the foetal growth. This can lead to maternal anaemia and can cause problems in childbirth.
Lack of this vitamin during pregnancy can cause spina bifida, anencephaly, neural tube and some heart defects. As the brain develops it creates an opening in the spinal cord that forms into the neural tube. During the third week of pregnancy, the neural tube should close. If this doesn't occur, it causes neural tube defects.
Antioxidants are necessary for the continuous and error-free reproduction of DNA. They can neutralize the free radicals, which are the enemies of DNA. Free radicals help bring about the onset of aging. However, recent research shows that folic acid is at least as important in ensuring the proper DNA replication. Therefore, it is not surprising that the lack of folic acid is associated with a wide range of diseases, from Alzheimer's disease to atherosclerosis, heart attack, osteoporosis, cervical cancer and colon cancer, depression, dementia, and hearing loss.
If the body does not receive enough folic acid the number of white blood cells decreases. A folic acid deficiency can also cause a lack of iron and vitamin B12 too. Symptomatic inflammation of the tongue may occur, or different stomach and bowel irregularities.
It may help prevent cervical cancer (cervix uterine cancer). The cervical dysplasia (abnormal cells on the surface appearance of the cervix) can evolve into cervical cancer if untreated. Fortunately, it is easily detected by Pap test and can be effectively treated with folic acid or other treatments.
Researchers studied young patients and adults with depression from moderate to severe. It was found that a third of them had low levels of folic acid. Whether this effect was causal or an after-effect of the depression requires further research.
However, it is important to know that folic acid also has some serious side-effects. Let us take a look at some of them.
In the case of women who take these supplements, especially if using oral contraceptives, the risk of low serum zinc concentrations is high. Additional zinc supplements are recommended in order to prevent the low levels.
These are all linked to excess folic acid.
A 2011 study published in the journal Cancer Research found that high doses of folic acid, when given to rats doubled the rates of breast cancer than in the control group. Other studies have linked excess B9 to intestinal or prostate cancer.
Text soured from zliving.com
