Folic acid seems to be a must for all pregnant women and pregnant women, but is it really necessary for everyone to supplement folic acid? What are the precautions for taking folic acid? Let's talk about the things you don't know about folic acid.
First, what is folic acid and what is the role of folic acid
Folic acid is vitamin B9, which is a water-soluble vitamin that is widely present in various animal and plant foods, such as green leafy vegetables and dry yeast. Because folic acid is easily decomposed at high temperatures, and Chinese prefer to eat cooked foods, most of the folic acid contained in food is decomposed, which leads to most Chinese have folic acid intake, insufficient situation.
Folic acid can be used in conjunction with vitamin B12 to promote cell production and maturation during pregnancy, while folic acid is also an essential substance for fetal neurodevelopment. During pregnancy, pregnant women need folic acid four times more than normal, so doctors will recommend folic acid supplementation for women who are trying to conceive or pregnant women.
Second, how to supplement folic acid
Since the absorption rates of natural and synthetic folic acid are different, it is recommended that pregnant women consume 1 mg of natural folic acid in food or 0.6 mg of synthetic folate per day. There are also some pregnant women who are not deficient in folic acid and do not need additional folic acid supplementation. Since we consume some folic acid in our daily diet, it is recommended that pregnant women or women who are trying to conceive take folic acid medicines of 0.3 mg to 0.6 mg per day.
However, it is still recommended that you try to get folic acid from food, and eat more animal liver, kiwifruit, egg yolks, milk, carrots and other foods rich in folic acid. When eating these foods, try not to heat them at high temperatures to prevent folic acid from decomposing at high temperatures.
Third, the side effects of excessive intake of folic acid
Normal people should not consume more than 1mg of folic acid per day, if too much folic acid intake may cause the following problems:
1. Excessive intake of folic acid will mask the early symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency, and if the mother lacks vitamin B12, it will lead to damage to the fetal nervous system. To prevent vitamin B12 deficiency from being detected, pregnant women can intermittently take B-complex vitamin tablets.
2. Taking folic acid will make anticonvulsant drugs ineffective, resulting in convulsive seizures. Therefore, if a pregnant woman is taking anticonvulsant drugs, she needs to ask her doctor if she can take folic acid.
3. Taking excessive folic acid will reduce the appetite of pregnant women, cause abdominal pain and bloating, and aggravate the symptoms of nausea and vomiting in the early stages of pregnancy.
Fourth, how to choose folic acid
Folic acid has two kinds of drugs and health care products, these two kinds of folic acid have a very obvious mark on the product packaging, it is recommended that pregnant women choose drug folic acid when purchasing, because the production, supervision requirements, approvals, experiments, etc. of various drugs are very strict, and health care products almost do not need these. Although the price of drugs is more than ten or even dozens of times lower than that of health care products, its effect is much better than that of health care products, and you should not be confused by the various propaganda slogans of health care products.
I hope that every expectant mother can be healthy and have a healthy baby.
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