Despite the mandatory addition of folic acid to enriched grain products in the United States, many women still do not consume adequate amounts of this important vitamin, according to an editorial written by Laura E. Mitchell, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health.
Mitchell was invited to write the editorial for JAMA Pediatrics, which published it today during Folic Acid Awareness Week and January's Birth Defects Prevention Month. The editorial ran in conjunction with a new report from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which was also published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
When taken prior to and during early pregnancy, folic acid is known to reduce the risk of having a child affected with a neural tube defect. Neural tube defects include anencephaly, a condition in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull, and spina bifida, which occurs when the spinal cord and the bones surrounding the spine do not form properly. In the United States, approximately 1,200 pregnancies are affected by anencephaly and 1,500 babies are born with spina bifida each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
To read the rest of the story, please go to: University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
