Folic acid may prevent heart disease and diseases of the nervous system.
Maria Corrada and Claudia Kawas of UC Irvine published results in Alzheimer's and Dementia in 2005, showing that folic acid has benefits that help prevent Alzheimer's Disease.
Folic acid can improve memory and when taken during early pregnancy also reduces the risk of having a baby with a cleft lip. Women that took supplements did better tan women that just ate foods rich in folic acid, such as grains and certain dark colored vegetables and fruits.
800 ug of folic acid (2 lbs of strawberries) per day can help prevent Alzheimer's disease, according to a study by Jane Durga at Wageningen University in the Netherlands that was reported at the Alzheimer's Association meeting in 6/2005.
Folic acid supplements are available in all drug and health food stores. (The author manufactures Fola Cola as a drink mix containing folic acid that is sold on www.amazon.com).
Since 1998, the FDA has required folic acid fortification of all enriched cereal grain products in the U.S. but the results from the British Medical Journal study means that it is still important to take a supplement, like Fola Cola.
A report in the British Medical Journal (1/2007) showed folic acid supplements resulted in a 33% reduction of cleft lip, a condition that Rev. Jessee Jackson has.
The research was conducted in Norway and the results add to the known folic acid benefits of preventing infant neural tube defects (NTD).
In 1998 the US and Canada started to fortify all grain products with folic acid.
As a result of the fortification program there has been a 15-50% reduction in NTD incidence.
Women of childbearing age should take 400 micrograms per day, starting before conception and continuing during pregnancy.
In Norway, no folic acid fortification program of bread and grains is in place and they have the highest number of facial clefts in Europe.
In the Norway study of infants born between 1996-2000:
377 had cleft lip (with or without cleft palate)
196 with cleft palate only
763 were healthy
Mothers were asked if they took folic acid supplements and, if so, when and how often they took them.
“No previous studies have collected information on daily folic acid intake less than 400 micrograms, and so we are unable to compare our findings of an apparent threshold effect with other studies,” wrote Wilcox.
Diets rich in fruits, vegetables, and other high folate containing foods reduced the risk by 25 per cent.
The lowest risk of cleft lip was attained with folate rich diets plus a folic acid supplement and multivitamin.
The study was featured in the British Medical Journal “Folic acid supplements and risk of facial clefts: national population based case-control study”
The authors were A.J. Wilcox, R.T. Lie, K. Solvoll, J. Taylor, D.R. McConnaughey, F. Abyholm, H. Vindenes, S.E. Vollset, C.A. Drevon
ABARTON COMPANY makes products that contain folic acid. There are a rainbow of 5 colors of tea: red, white, green, black, and oolong. Adding folic acid to tea drinks is on the menu at Abarton Company (visit Amazon's website to buy).
The author of folate.blogspot.com manufactures dietary supplements, at Abarton Company, that are sold on www.Amazon.com.
