The benefits of folic acid during pregnancy

Folic acid and folate are two names for the same vitamin B9, an essential nutrient. If folate is the natural form under which the vitamin is found in food, folic acid is a synthetic form created by man. Folate plays an important role in the production of red blood cells and helps your child's neural tube develop later in the brain and spinal cord. It is considered to be essential because it cannot be synthesized by the body, being taken entirely by external input.

Folate is naturally found in dark green and citrus vegetables. The best dietary sources of folic acid are fortified cereals (breakfast cereals, enriched with vitamins and minerals).

When should I start folic acid administration?

Neural tube defects (which we later identify as birth defects) occur within the first 3-4 weeks of pregnancy. Therefore, it is important to have folic acid (folic acid) in the body in those early stages when your baby's brain and spinal cord develop. If you talked to your doctor and warned him that you were trying to get pregnant, he probably told you to start taking prenatal vitamins with folic acid. There are studies showing that women who took folic acid for at least a year before becoming pregnant reduced their risk of miscarriage by 50% or more.

Here is what Dr. Adrian Danciug, Obstetrics and Gynecologist, Medlife Brasov, says  regarding this:

"It is very important to have enough intake (of folic acid) before you become pregnant. This is even more important than in the first months of pregnancy, because folic acid drastically decreases the risk of developing congenital diseases in the fetus, such as spina bifida, which appears in the first weeks of pregnancy, during which the woman does not even know that she is pregnant.

I recommend a product based on Quatrefolic, which is an active folate of the 4th generation, with a very high absorption rate. This is much more effective than the classic folic acid that the body may not absorb 100%, and even in pathologies like MTHFR mutations, classical folic acid is not absorbed at all. "

How much folic acid should I take?

The recommended dose for all women of childbearing age is 400 mcg of folate daily. If you take a multivitamin complex every day, make sure it contains the recommended amount. If, for some reason, you do not want to take multivitamins, it is advisable to take folic acid supplements

Here are the recommended daily doses of folic acid for pregnancy:

• While trying to design: 400 mcg

• In the first quarter: 400 mcg

• In the rest of the pregnancy: 600 mcg

• During breastfeeding: 500 mcg

What are the benefits of folic acid?

Without enough folic acid in your body, your child's neural tube may not close properly and may develop health problems called neural tube defects. These include (but are not limited to):

• Spina bifida: incomplete development of the spinal cord or vertebrae

• Anencephaly: a very serious defect, which implies the incomplete development of the brain and skull;

• "Rabbit lip": abnormal development of lips or tissues in the oral cavity

Babies with anencephaly usually do not live long, and those with spina bifida are born with major disabilities. These are frightening problems, if we can express ourselves in this way. But the good news is that sufficient amounts of folic acid can protect the baby from neural tube defects. According to clinical studies and observations if you have already had a child with a neural tube defect, a sufficient amount of folic acid can reduce the risk of having another child with a neural tube defect by up to 70%. If you have had a child with a neural tube defect, it is recommended to increase the daily amount of folic acid to 4000 mcg (4 mg) daily. Check with your doctor how much you should take.

When you take it before and during pregnancy, folic acid can protect your baby from the following conditions:

• Rabbit lip;

• Premature birth;

• Low birth weight;

• Abortion;

• Weak growth in the belly.

It has also been observed that folic acid reduces the risks of:

• Complications of pregnancy (a report found that women who took folic acid supplements in the second trimester had a lower risk of preeclampsia).

•Cardiovascular diseases;

•Stroke;

• Some types of cancer;

• Alzheimer's disease

Good food sources of folic acid

Foods that can help you get more folic acid from your diet include:

• 400 mcg: fortified cereals - 1 bowl

• 215 mcg: beef liver, cooked, boiled, 90g

• 179 mcg: lentil, kitten, boil, 1/2 cup

• 115 mcg: spinach, frozen, cooked, boiled, 1/2 cup

• 110 mcg: egg noodle, cooked, 1/2 cup

• 90 mcg: boiled beans, 1/2 cup

 

The best folic acid - Quatrefolic from Profecund

Folate is the form of vitamin B9 that occurs naturally in foods. Folic acid is the form of synthesis, created by humans in the laboratory used to prevent and remedy folate deficiency.

It is a water soluble substance and therefore cannot be stored in the body. What the body manages to absorb after administration remains in the human body, the rest will be eliminated.

As a synthetic substance, folic acid is absorbed by the human body depending on its solubility in water. The higher the solubility of the substance, the more it is assimilated by the body.

Quatrefolic® represents a new generation of folates endowed with a long-term stability and a particularly high solubility in water. Hence improved bioavailability, as well as safety in well-established administration.

Because of this, Quatrefolic is the best folic acid variant you can assimilate.