Friends who are trying to conceive must have heard of one thing – folic acid! Some people don't even understand what it does, they just take it anyway.
In short, folic acid deficiency can lead to neural tube defects, mainly manifested as anencephaly, spina bifida, and encephalocele. It can easily cause stillbirth, miscarriage, infant death, and lifelong disability, etc. Therefore, it is indeed important to supplement folic acid.
But how should folic acid be supplemented?
Diabetes Care: Folic acid supplementation before pregnancy reduces the risk of gestational diabetes.
Gestational diabetes is a problem that troubles many pregnant women. Recent studies have found that preconception folic acid intake appears to be related to the risk of gestational diabetes.
A recent study published in DiabetesCare, a leading journal in the field of diabetes, examined the relationship between habitual preconception folic acid intake and the risk of gestational diabetes. Analysis of 20,199 pregnancy reports from 14,553 women over ten years revealed that women with adequate folic acid intake (≥400 μg/day) had a lower risk of gestational diabetes than women with insufficient intake. Furthermore, the risk of gestational diabetes decreased with appropriate increases in folic acid supplementation.
This study still needs further confirmation, but appropriate folic acid supplementation before pregnancy is likely to be a low-cost, high-return option.
Next page: Questions from countless mothers: How to supplement folic acid? See here.
