Posted on 01/08/2024 9:39:37 PM PST by ConservativeMind
Folate is a B vitamin and a necessary nutrient to prevent neural tube defects, such as spina bifida. Folic acid, a synthetic form of folate, has been added products to ensure pregnant women get adequate amounts. However, research suggests there may be such a thing as too much folic acid.
Researchers showed imbalances in folic acid and vitamin B12 can alter brain development in mice.
Green said: "The safe upper limit for folate is 1,000 micrograms per day. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data showed that a substantial percentage of women's diets were above that limit."
The team investigated the effects of high folic acid intake, B12 deficiency, and high amounts of a natural folate—folinic acid—that may act differently than folic acid. The body needs B12 to recycle and adequately use folate.
The investigators supplied a group of mice before and during pregnancy with a controlled diet containing normal levels of folic acid and B12 and four separate groups with:
- high folic acid
- low B12
- high folic acid with low B12
- high folinic acid
"With high levels of folic acid or B12 deficiency, there was a change in neural development. Cortical neurons that usually emerge during a later stage of brain development were produced over a longer period of time and required a longer period to settle in and assume their proper position in the developing brain. In addition, both high folic acid and B12 deficiency appear to cause many neurons to develop fewer interconnections," Zarbalis said.
The exception was folinic acid, the natural folate. Even though it was given at the same high levels as folic acid, there were virtually no consequences to developing mouse brains.
The group given high folic acid with low B12 showed the most pronounced neurodevelopmental abnormalities.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Women appear to be getting too much folic acid to be safe.
Given the apparent increase in children with ADHD, or Autism in recent decades, I wonder if there has been an imbalance in folid acid to B12 in the supplements commonly taken by pregnant women? I have never had the sense women were falling over themselves to eat adequate quantities of green leafies, despite all the health talk over the decades. I had a young baby sitter with spina bifida in the early 1970s. I think supplements for pregnant women probably became more common not long after WW2 which ended in 1945.
New research suggests that excess folic acid may also cause high blood pressure in otherwise healthy people.
The natural vitamin is FOLATE. The man-made stuff is folic acid.
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