Vitamins for birth defects

Imagine a vitamin so powerful it reduces the risk of heart disease, colon cancer and even certain birth defects. Such a vitamin does exist, but most people don't get enough of it.

Even before Dietitian Elizabeth Ward got pregnant with baby Emma, she ate a diet rich in folic acid -- a "B" vitamin that prevents certain birth defects. "The recommendation is that all women in their child-bearing years, which are technically 14 to 50 years, who are capable of becoming pregnant, get 400 micrograms of folic acid every day," she says.

Folic acid works its magic during the first four weeks after conception, a time many women don't know they're pregnant, a time many don't pay attention to diet.

The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention and two dozen other groups have begun a nationwide campaign to promote the power of folic acid.

Whether from multivitamin pills, grain products or foods like asparagus and orange juice, health experts say folic acid can reduce most cases of spina bifida and other serious birth defects.

Elizabeth says, "It's much better to have a fortified cereal than it is to grab a bagel in the morning, and this is something women do all the time. Who knows if that bagel was made with enriched flour that contained folic acid?"

Besides birth defects, folic acid appears to lower the risk of heart disease and colon cancer. Edward Giovannucci, M.D., a nutritional epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Mass., says, "We did a study of 90,000 women and found that women who had been taking a multivitamin with folic acid for 10 or 15 years or longer had a 75 percent lower risk of colon cancer."

Eating right and taking a multivitamin pill for good measure are simple ways to get the folic acid you need every day.

Not all vitamins supplements are optimal for pregnant women. So women who are pregnant or anticipating getting pregnant should consult their physician about taking a supplement.

Source: Ivanhoe News