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HEALTH REPORT - October 23, 2002: Folic Acid Reduces
Fetal Deaths
By Nancy Steinbach
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
A new study in Sweden has confirmed another
important health effect of the B-vitamin known as folic acid.
Researchers at the United States National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development worked with scientists at the
Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. They reported their findings
in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The researchers were looking for a possible
link between folic acid and fetal death in the early months of pregnancy.
The study involved more than one-thousand-three-hundred pregnant women
in Uppsala County, Sweden. The researchers measured the amount of folic
acid in their blood during the sixth and twelfth weeks of pregnancy.
Four-hundred-sixty-eight of the women had miscarriages.
Their babies died between six and twelve weeks of pregnancy. Nine-hundred-twelve
other women had normal pregnancies.
The researchers found that the women with low
levels of folic acid had a fifty percent increased risk of losing their
babies early in pregnancy. Extremely high levels of folic acid were
found to have no effects on the pregnancies.
The researchers say that every woman between
the ages of fifteen and forty-four should be getting four-hundred micrograms
of folic acid every day. Earlier studies have shown that having enough
folic acid in the early months of pregnancy can reduce the risk of having
a baby born with a serious birth defect of the brain or spine. Experts
say women need to have enough folic acid even before they become pregnant.
Doctors say women of child-bearing age are not
the only ones who need folic acid. The vitamin has been shown to protect
against heart disease and stroke in older people as well. And some studies
are suggesting that folic acid may reduce the chances of developing
some kinds of cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
The human body cannot make folic acid. It must
get the vitamin from foods. Foods rich in folic acid include beans,
green leafy vegetables, liver, eggs and fruits such as oranges and grapefruits.
Medical experts say that women who are not sure they are getting enough
folic acid from their food should take a vitamin pill every day.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written
by Nancy Steinbach.
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