Women taking fewer folic acid supplements-US study

By Paul Simao

ATLANTA (Reuters) – Fewer American women are taking daily
vitamins with folic acid during their childbearing years,
raising fears of a jump in spina bifida and other birth
defects, a U.S. study suggested on Thursday.

The incidence of these devastating birth defects has been
shown to fall by up to 70 percent when women take 400
micrograms of folic acid daily as part of a healthy diet before
conception and in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Although folic acid is found in leafy green vegetables,
some beans, orange juice and enriched bread and grains, women
between the ages of 18 and 45 are often advised to take daily
supplements to ensure they get the required amount.

But only 33 percent did so in 2005, according to a March of
Dimes Gallup telephone survey, which was published by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was down from
40 percent in 2004.

The most common reason women gave for not taking the daily
supplement this year was that they forgot, researchers said.

“We need to increase the amount of folic acid in the grain
supply and add it to corn flour,” said Dr. Jennifer Howse,
president of the March of Dimes. “That way, women will get most
of the folic acid they need through a healthy diet – without
having to think about it — and their babies will be safer.”

In 1998 the Food and Drug Administration made it mandatory
for enriched bread, pasta and other cereal grains to be
fortified with folic acid. Since then, the incidence of spina
bifida and anencephaly has dropped about 25 percent to roughly
3,000 cases each year.

Early in the first trimester of pregnancy, before many
women realize they are pregnant, the fetus develops its neural
tube, which eventually becomes the baby’s brain and spinal
cord.

Inadequate intake of folic acid can lead to spina bifida, a
deformation of the spine and the leading cause of childhood
paralysis in the United States. Another result can be
anencephaly, the congenital absence of much of the brain and
spinal cord. This can result in miscarriage, stillbirth or an
infant’s death shortly after birth.

Women who are trying to get pregnant may take folic acid
supplements but about half of all pregnancies in the United
States are unplanned.

U.S. health officials, who hope to achieve a 50-percent
reduction in spina bifida and related defects by 2010, said
they were designing programs, including one focused on women in
college, to raise folic acid consumption.