Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Folic Acid Awareness Week is January 4-10, 2010

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Folic Acid Awareness Week is January 4-10, 2010


Sponsored by the National Council on Folic Acid (NCFA), the week is intended to educate all women about folic acid, which can help prevent birth defects of the brain and spine.  NCFA has updated its Web site with resources for the week, including fact sheets in English and Spanish, sample articles and a press release.  Materials encourage women of childbearing age to take a multivitamin with 400mcg of folic acid every day, even if they aren’t planning to get pregnant.  Since approximately 50 percent of pregnancies are unplanned, starting to take folic acid before pregnancy begins is an important way to reduce the risk of neural tube defects (NTDs) by up to 70 percent.  NTDs are birth defects of the brain or spine which occur in the first weeks of fetal development.  For more information about Folic Acid Awareness Week, go to http://www.folicacidinfo.org/pages/folicacid_info.php
Source : National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition www.hmhb.org

2 comments:

  1. I've been hearing more and more about how increased levels of folic acid being linked to cancer. What are your suggestions as to consuming folic acid from food sources. Which foods are rich in folic acid and how much of what do we have to eat each day to stick to the right levels so as to benefit from folic acid

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  2. Hi Wendy:

    Check out this info from Childbirth Connection, a very trustworthy source of information.

    http://childbirthconnection.org/article.asp?ck=10296&ClickedLink=486&area=27

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