Folic Acid Awareness Week Coming up in January 2007
December 5, 2007
Source: APHA
The 2007 Folic
Acid Awareness Week Campaign, which engaged partners in 46
states in 2006, is in its third year. The focus for 2007 is on action,
with great new tools to make it easier to share the folic acid awareness
message. The resources include downloadable brochures, educational
outreach activities, and new E-Cards. In addition, free consumer
materials can be ordered through the Web site. Spanish and English
brochures, bookmarks, and new stickers are available. These tools present
an easy way for physicians and health care educators, who use electronic
communication tools, to share the message faster with more of the women who
need it most.
The National Council on Folic Acid (NCFA) asks for a personal commitment from
anyone who interacts with women of child-bearing age, especially health care providers.
Through NCFA, a health care provider can obtain free materials for
distribution, as well as wear and share the new stickers with their
patients. Wearing the stickers themselves and providing them during
patient visits presents a great opportunity to share the message that every
woman of child-bearing age needs to hear. Learning about the
importance of folic acid from their health care provider increases the
probability of women taking action to get 400 micrograms of folic acid every
day.
Folic acid is a B-Vitamin necessary for proper cell growth. The U.S.
Public Health Service recommends that all women of childbearing age consume 400
micrograms of folic acid by taking a multivitamin daily and by eating fortified
grains and a variety of foods as part of a healthy diet. Following
this recommendation helps prevent pregnancies affected by neural tube birth
defects (NTD), serious birth defects of the brain and spine.
Spina Bifida, the most common NTD, is the leading cause of childhood paralysis,
and presents lifelong challenges for affected families. Research has
shown that if adequate amounts of folic acid are consumed before pregnancy, up
to 70 percent of neural tube defects can be prevented. Research also
indicates that Latina women in the United States have up to
three times the risk of delivering babies with neural tube defects as
non-Latina Whites ("Folic Acid and Birth Defects Prevention: Focus Group,
Research with Women at Risk," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July
1998). In addition to preventing a NTD, folic acid also reduces the risk
of other birth defects, such as cleft lip, cleft palate, and heart
defects. It may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and colon,
breast, and cervical cancer. It may even help prevent Alzheimer's
disease. Yet, 65 percent of women are still not getting enough folic
acid.
In 1998, the Food and Drug Administration required the addition of folic
acid to enriched breads, cereals, flours, pastas, rice, and other grain
products in order to increase the amount of synthetic folic acid in the diet of
the general population. Though it is possible to obtain the recommended
dosage of folic acid through unfortified foods, it is difficult. The
human body actually absorbs the synthetic form of folic acid better than the
natural form of folic acid, called "folate." The easiest way to be sure
to get the recommended daily amount of folic acid is to take a multivitamin
every day.
For more information about folic acid and National Folic
Acid Awareness Week, visit the National Council on Folic Acid website.
Learn more about activities during Folic Acid Awareness Week.