Essay/Term paper: Folic acid

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Science Research Papers

The New Sensation. Before you sit down to munch on
your breakfast cereal or bread, you might want to take notice of a vitamin that
seems to be popping up more and more in ingredients. This is being Folic
Acid. The FDA is recommending that it be added to foods and that people
take it in pill form every day. This is mainly because it is a key component in
the never-ending battle our body fights against diseases. What is it capable of?
It is proven to lower chances of birth defects, and heart attacks. The FDA has
been viewing the evidence of the chances of lowering birth defects and has
ordered that enriched gain products increase their amounts of folic acid. This
is because it is found that most women who are pregnant do not eat enough
fruits and vegetables to have the same impact as Folic acid has. The effect it
has is that it decreases the chance of neural birth defects. Neural birth defects
can cause death shortly after birth. It is estimated that nearly 400,000 infants
have this birth complications because of this, yet it has been proven that what
folic acid can do can greatly reduce the risk. Not only can this acid reduce the
birth defect rate; it can also lower the chance of heart attacks in men and
woman. It is believed that there is an amino acid called homocystine in most
people that sometimes may get too high, when this happens it causes scarred
arteries and increases the risk of heart attacks. In this articles it states that less
than 12-40% of Americans get enough folic acid to keep their levels low. This
is another reason why the FDA has ordered an increase in the amount found
in foods. But this may not be enough. When food is processed or cooked it
looses its level of effectiveness. It strongly urged that on your vitamin shelf you
add a bottle of this, and take it on a daily basis. The recommended amount is
400 mcg's a day. This can be bought over the counter, and does not cost very
much. Most pills that are bought in the stores are 800 mcg, which will greatly
benefit the consumer. Yet, there is still a risk of not getting enough in your
system. There are several drugs that can interfere with the effectiveness of this
folic acid. People who have alcohol in their systems risk pushing out of their
liver into their blood. Aspirins and antacids also do not mix well with this drug.
That is why is recommend you take this pill on a regular basis, because getting
it from your food is simply not enough. There is so far not many medical
dangers found around folic acid, except that is can mask vitamin b12
deficiency. So rush to your RITE AID or local store and buy a bottle, at
$3.71 a bottle (100 capsules on average) it is worth it. Women are strongly
recommended to, for the obvious reasons. It is said that most women do not
know exactly when they may become pregnant, and having high levels of folic
acid when pregnancy first begins can lower risks. So as you eat your cereal
glance on the side and take note of the folic acid, and appreciate what it is
doing for you.