We have commented on numerous occasions the importance of taking folic acid during pregnancy. It is a type of vitamin B essential for the prevention of birth defects.
It is present in certain foods, although doctors usually recommend taking a daily dose of folic acid during pregnancy and even a month before becoming pregnant to ensure that the vitamin is present in the body during the early stages of pregnancy when it is formed. the neural tube of the fetus.
But in addition to helping reduce congenital neural tube defects such as spina bifida and anencephaly, a Canadian study has been able to prove that folic acid is also beneficial to prevent congenital heart defects.
More than ten years ago the obligation to add folic acid to pasta, flour and other grain products entered into force in Canada. According to a follow-up by researchers at McGill University in Montreal over the years, heart defects were reduced by 6% every year after mandatory fortification.
In the United States, the same measure was also implemented in 1996, which enriches breads, cereals, flours, cornmeal, pasta, rice and other grain products with folic acid, reducing births by 26%. Children with congenital malformations.
It is relevant research for countries that are thinking of implementing the same measure of mandatory enrichment of grain products with folic acid.
Meanwhile, it is essential that women who are looking for a pregnancy become aware of the importance of taking folic acid as a form of prevention because new research suggests that it not only reduces neural tube defects, but also cardiac.
