Folic Acid

♪ [music playing-- no dialogue] ♪♪. Hi, my name is Sarah Wetzel, and I'm a graduate student at Eastern Illinois University in the dietetics program. My topic today is folic acid for women of childbearing age. Folic acid is a water-soluble vitamin also known as vitamin B9, and it's also known as folate in the food form. Folic acid is important to women of childbearing age because it can help prevent the risk of neural tube defects during pregnancy. Neural tube defects affect the developing fetus' skull, brain, and spinal cord development. Children born with neural tube defects can experience health problems ranging from severe developmental disabilities all the way to still birth. One in one thousand live births in the US are children with a neural tube defect. Neural tube defects occur within the first 28 days after conception. At this point, it's about four weeks into the pregnancy, and most women do not even realize that they are pregnant and the damage has already been done. There are three methods of detecting a neural tube defect. The first method would be a high-resolution ultrasound which can be done at about 18 weeks of pregnancy. The second one would also be a blood serum test, which is usually done at about 16 to 18 weeks of pregnancy. The last method of detecting a neural tube defect would be an amniocentesis, which is generally the most common. And this can be done at approximately 15 weeks of pregnancy, but if you do the math and add it up, by the time you detect a neural tube defect in an infant, or in a fetus, it is already too late. Seventy-five percent of children born with neural tube defects only live to their early adult years. The rest, sadly, do not make it that far. For families with children with neural tube defects, it can be very substantially stressful for them as they incur additional financial costs associated with constant medical care and attention, as well as the emotional burden of caring for a child with that kind of disability. The CDC recommends that in order to prevent a neural tube defect, women of child bearing age should consume a diet high in folate, consume foods high in fortified folic acid, as well as take a multivitamin daily, which contains 400 micrograms, or 100% of their daily recommended dietary allowance of folic acid. When choosing a multivitamin, brand isn't really important. What you're looking for is your percent daily value, and down here you want 100% of your recommended dietary allowance, which is 400 micrograms. That's what you're looking for in a sufficient multivitamin, and there are many different kinds out there. Folic acid is more readily absorbed in a synthetic form, such as in a supplement, than it is in a food form. Supplementation is essential. Fortificated foods are another good way to get enough folic acid. Fortification is a process during refinement where they add additional vitamins and minerals to a food. On January first of 1998, the United States Food and Drug Administration required that all foods labeled fortified contain additional folic acid in order to reduce the amount of children born with neural tube defects. Foods included are any kind of enriched grain, pasta, cereal, bread, or flour. Since this regulation, the amount of children born with NTDs, or neurotube defects, has decreased by 1/3. Lastly, a way to prevent neural tube defects is to eat a diet high in folate. Foods high in folate include leafy green vegetables, poultry, shellfish, pork, citrus fruits and citrus juices, dry beans, and legumes. However, you should remember that diet alone is not enough to get sufficient folic acid. Women of child bearing age should consume a combination of a multivitamin, folate-high foods, and foods fortified with folate in order to prevent neural tube defects whether they are intending to become pregnant or not, because by the time they become pregnant it may already be too late. For more information on folate and its other functions, you can go to www.eatright.org or www.mypyramid.gov. Thank you. ♪ [music playing-- no dialogue] ♪♪.