Prenatal Nutrition: More on Folic Acid

The second study on folic acid supplementation before pregnancy examined similar blood and red blood cell folic acid levels at different times during pregnancy and in cord blood (1). The difference was that half of the subjects were randomly provided with 400 mcg folic acid to take during their second and third trimesters. As you would expect, the women who supplemented their diets had higher levels of all variables than controls.

The difference between the two studies I’ve examined was that even with supplementation, the unmetabolized folic acid levels were virtually undetectable in cord blood in this study. Moreover, the red blood cell levels of folic acid were considered to be in the normal range in spite of the supplementation.

Two studies. One suggests that prenatal supplements should consider reducing the amounts, while the other suggests that there’s no effect in the most common amount found in supplements. I’ll make sense of this in Saturday’s post.

What are you prepared to do today?