Today, when the concept of scientific fertility is highly popularized, folic acid has become an indispensable presence in pregnancy preparation and the first trimester. Folic acid is on fire, and rumors have followed, and some people even say that eating folic acid is particularly easy to have daughters. What？ Who made it up? Today Xiaonan took you to tear up rumors and tell you whether folic acid should be eaten and how to eat it.
What is Folic Acid?
Folic acid, also known as vitamin B9, is a water-soluble vitamin that is widely found in fresh fruits, green leafy vegetables, soy products, animal liver, lean meats, eggs and other foods.
In 1931, British physiologist Lucy Wells found that poor women in India were prone to pernicious anemia when they were pregnant, and a nutritional factor in yeast could prevent and treat this disease, so this factor was called "Wells factor".
Later, the medical scientist Mitchell extracted this factor from spinach leaves and purified it, naming it folic acid.
Who needs folic acid supplementation? What does it do?
1. Women who are trying to conceive and are pregnant
Pregnant women's demand for folic acid is 4 times higher than that of ordinary people, and doctors will generally recommend women who are trying to conceive and the first trimester of pregnancy, take a small dose of folic acid tablets orally, eat once a day, and take one capsule at a time. Clinical trials have shown that expectant mothers who start taking 0.4 mg of folic acid per day during pregnancy can reduce the rate of fetal neural tube malformations by 60%-75%.
And American researchers have also found that if women start to supplement folic acid in the first trimester, it can not only reduce the chance of baby having a cleft lip and palate, but also reduce the incidence of congenital heart disease.
Folic acid, which is helpful for fetal development, but has no effect on sex. Eating folic acid in preparation for pregnancy is easy to give birth to a daughter is a false proposition.
2. The elderly with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases
Hematology specialists highly recommend folic acid supplementation in the elderly, especially those with hypertension accompanied by hyperhomocysteinemia. Proper folic acid supplementation can help reduce homocysteine concentrations and effectively prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
3. Women who often drink alcohol
Harvard University studies have shown that women who drink alcohol regularly (about one beer a day) increase the incidence of breast cancer by 15 percent, and if folic acid can be supplemented in time, this risk will drop by 45 percent.
It should be noted that the study found that for women who generally do not drink alcohol, taking folic acid does not reduce the effect of breast cancer, and this preventive effect is only effective for women who drink alcohol regularly.
4. Patients with megaloblastic anemia
Deficiency of folic acid and vitamin B12 may lead to megaloblastic anemia, and 5 mg of folic acid supplementation per day is recommended for such patients. Usually, we should also pay attention to a balanced diet.
Folic acid is so good, can you eat more?
No.
Long-term high-dose (>1 mg/day) supplementation with folic acid may pose health risks, such as masking the early manifestations of vitamin B12 deficiency, affecting zinc absorption, aggravating degenerative neurologic lesions, reducing immunity, etc., and may also affect the baby's growth and development.
Therefore, although folic acid is good, it cannot be overdose
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