Dietary Folic Acids : Why do we need them more?
- By:Lena Butler
Macho-man – that’s what most of the kids next door aspire to be, especially when cable operators keep on pounding their little minds with Arnold movies! This reflects the natural animal tendency to grow strong and live healthy, & we are no exception as far as basic instincts are concerned! For a healthy body & a sound mind, proper cellular nutrition is a major determining factor & folic acid is one such component that plays a significant part in cell division & growth.
In a biological system, a meshwork of molecules is involved in various metabolic activities at cellular levels, churning out a potpourri of free radicals & oxidants. Now these free radicals & oxidants may cause mayhem within the cell as they can oxidize and damage many inherent molecules including DNA! Now, various reports have suggested that folic acid, which is commonly known as folate or better, as vitamin B9, acts as a “good-cop” protecting the cells with its “anti-oxidant gun”! It is also responsible for the synthesis of two of the four basic monomers the DNA is built up of i.e. adenine and thymine. So, besides its antioxidant activity, it also helps in proper DNA replication & transcription which is central to a biological cell, as a processor is to a computer!
The deficiency of folic acid may kick in a cascade of several disorders like, atherosclerosis, heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, cervical and colon cancer, osteoporosis, depression, dementia, cleft lip and palate, hearing loss, and of course, neural tube defects (NTD).
It has been observed that, if consumed daily, in required amount by women during early pregnancy, folic acids reduces the risk of any serious Neural tube defect (a birth defect involving incomplete development of the brain and spinal cord) to their babies by up to 70%! So, folic acid is an essential component for pregnant women & their babies as it helps the infant put up a fight against several neural disorders of brain and spinal cord like spina bifida, anencephaly and encephalocele.
Gradual positive changes can be observed if high amounts of folic acid are taken before or during the first few weeks of pregnancy. Folic acid is specifically important one month before conception and at least three months afterwards. If omitted at an early stage or if consumed later on, it fails to show its usefulness.
Though, folic acid even in very high levels is non-toxic, but still CDC i.e. Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that a woman, during pregnancy, should not take more than 1000µg of synthetic folic acid a day, in normal conditions. Though, it varies from 0.4 mg/day to 10 mg/day or more depending on the severity of the folic acid deficiency & the problem associated.
Folic acid needs vitamins B12 and B6 as catalysts to carry out its functions effectively. So, it won’t be of any use without appropriate presence of these vitamins. The RDA recommendation for vitamin B12 generally ranges from 0.5 to 1.0 mg/day and for vitamin-B6 from 10 to 250 mg/day.
Recent studies have reveled that folic acid also helps in the formation of normal red blood cells (RBC). This diverse array of functions certainly requires us to have sufficient quantities of folic acid in our diet!About the author:
This Article is written by Tarun Gupta, the author of TestCountry Health Test Guides, a longer version of this article is located at Dietary Folic Acids, and resources from other home health and wellness testing sources are used such as TestCountry Health