vitamin b9 folic acid benefits, folic acid are other names for vitamin B9, which is one of the 8 B vitamins. All of the B vitamins help the body turn fuel (glucose) from food (carbohydrates) into energy (ATP).
These B vitamins, which are often called “B-complex vitamins,” also help the body use protein and fat.
Vitamins in the B-complex group are important for a healthy liver, and for healthy skin, hair, and eyes.
They also help the nervous system work well. Folic acid is a man-made form of B9 found in supplements and added into foods . Folate on the other hand, is found naturally in foods.
All of the B vitamins dissolve in water, so the body doesn’t store them.
vitamin b9 folic acid is important and beneficial for mental and emotional health
and is important for the brain to work right. It helps make DNA and RNA, which are the body’s genetic material.
It is especially important when cells and tissues are growing quickly, like when a child is young, a teenager, or a woman is pregnant.
Folic acid also works closely with vitamin B12 to make red blood cells and help iron do its job in the body.
Vitamin B9 works with vitamins B6 and B12 and other nutrients to keep the amino acid homocysteine at a healthy level in the blood.
High levels of homocysteine are linked to heart disease, but researchers don’t know if homocysteine causes heart disease.
B9 Folic acid levels that are too low is common, in lot of people.
B9 Folic acid deficiency can be caused by:
drinking too much,
having inflammatory bowel disease (IBD),
or having celiac disease.
Folic acid levels may also go down if you take certain medicines.
vitamin b9 folic acid deficiency can cause:
Poor growth
Soreness in the tongue
Gingivitis
Loss of hunger
Not enough air to breathe
Diarrhea
Irritability
Forgetfulness
Mental sluggishness
Vitamin B9 folic acid helps prevent birth defects
like cleft palate, spina bifida, and brain damage. Pregnant women need more of it.
Neural tube defects are birth defects that happen when the neural tube, which grows into the brain and spinal cord, doesn’t form right.
Folic acid has been added to many grain foods in the U.S., like bread and cereal, which has led to a big drop in neural tube defects.
Children with birth defects.
Women who don’t get enough folic acid are more likely to have children with birth defects. Folic acid should be taken in at 600 mcg per day by women who are pregnant. Women who want to get pregnant should make sure to get the recommended 400 mcg per day, many neural tube defects can happen soon after conception, before a woman even knows she is pregnant. Folic acid is important for pregnant women, and prenatal vitamins have the right amount.
May cut the risk of having a child with a neural tube defect by 72 to 100%.
Studies show that taking folic acid supplements before getting pregnant and during the first trimester may cut the risk of having a child with a neural tube defect by 72 to 100%. Other studies show that taking folic acid supplements doesn’t seem to help prevent spina bifida when grains are already fortified with folic acid.
Folic acid may also help stop miscarriages.
Studies on how children grow and develop show that taking folic acid supplements before you get pregnant is linked to a lower risk of autism. Other studies show that women who took folic acid supplements early in their pregnancies were less likely to have children with severe language delays at age 3 years. And some research shows that a mother with low folate levels during pregnancy is more likely to have a child with emotional problems.
vitamin b9 folic acid may protect the heart, and in more than one way.
First, there is some evidence that getting enough folic acid in your diet can lower your risk of heart disease.
Also, many studies show that people with high levels of the amino acid homocysteine are about 1.7 times more likely to get coronary artery disease and 2.5 times more likely to have a stroke than those with normal levels.
Homocysteine levels can be lowered with the help of B vitamins, especially B9, B6, and B12. But there is no proof that high levels of homocysteine lead to heart disease.
Most people who worry about heart disease should make sure they get enough B vitamins by eating healthy foods. In some cases, your doctor may suggest that you take B vitamins to lower your homocysteine levels.
Ask your doctor if you should take a B vitamin supplement if you are worried about heart disease.
Hearing loss from getting older
One study suggests that taking folic acid supplements can slow the progress of age-related hearing loss in older people whose diets are low in folate and homocysteine. We don’t know if healthy seniors would get anything out of it.
Macular degeneration caused by aging (AMD)
One large study found that women who took 2,500 mcg of folic acid, 500 mg of vitamin B6, and 1,000 mcg of cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12) every day cut their risk of getting AMD, an eye disease that can cause vision loss.
Depression
There are mixed signs about whether or not folic acid can help treat depression. Some studies show that 15–38% of people with depression have low folate levels in their bodies, and those with the lowest folate levels tend to be the most depressed.
One study found that people who took antidepressants but did not feel better were low in folic acid. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, taking 500 mcg of folic acid every day made the antidepressant Prozac work better for women, but it may not have done the same for men.
Another study found that giving folic acid and vitamin B12 to older people didn’t help them feel better any more than giving them a sugar pill.
Cancer
Folic acid in the diet seems to keep some types of cancer from developing, such as:
Colon cancer
Caner du sein
Cervical cancer
Pancreatic cancer
Colon cancer
But this evidence comes from population studies that show that these cancers are less common in people who eat enough folate. Researchers don’t know how folate might help keep cancer from happening. Some people think that folic acid keeps DNA healthy and keeps it from changing in ways that can cause cancer. There is no proof that taking folic acid supplements can help keep cancer from happening. The best thing to do is to make sure you eat a balanced diet with enough folate. This will help protect you from a number of diseases.
Women who drink a lot of alcohol
may be more likely to get breast cancer if they don’t eat enough folate. If you drink more than 1.5 to 2 glasses of alcohol every day, you are more likely to get breast cancer. One large study that tracked the health of more than 50,000 women over time suggests that getting enough folate may lower the risk of breast cancer that comes with drinking alcohol.
Folate-rich foods and drinks are:
Spinach
Dark leafy greens
Asparagus
Turnips
Beets
Mustard greens
Brussels sprouts
Lima beans
Soybeans
Beef liver
Yeast for brewing
Root vegetables
Whole grains
The wheat germ
Wheat Bulgur
Beans on the cob
The white bean
Lima beans
Mung beans
Salmon
Orange juice
Avocado
Milk
Folic acid is also added to all grain and cereal products in the United States.
Available Forms in supplement’s
Vitamin B9 is in multivitamins and B complex vitamins, like the chewable and liquid drops for kids. It can also be bought individually .
Folic acid should be taken with a multivitamin or as part of one, because it needs other B vitamins to work. It comes in a number of different forms, such as tablets, soft gels, and lozenges.
How to Approach It
Folic acid should be easy to get from food for most people (except pregnant women).
Before taking folic acid supplements or giving them to children, talk to a doctor or nurse who knows about them.
Folic acid adequate intake:
Pediatric
- 0–6-month-old babies: 65 mcg (adequate intake)
- 7–12-month-old babies: 80 mcg (adequate intake)
- Children ages 1 to 3: 150 micrograms (RDA)
- 4–8-year-old children: 200 mcg (RDA)
- Children aged 9–13: 300 mcg (RDA)
- 14–18-year-olds: 400 mcg (RDA)
Adult
- 19-year-old men and women: 400 mcg (RDA)
- Pregnant women: 600 mcg (RDA)
- 500 mcg for women who are nursing (RDA)
In studies on heart disease, the amounts used range from 400 to 1,200 mcg.
But too much folate can hide a lack of vitamin B12, so it should only be taken under the supervision of a doctor. If you want to take a folic acid supplement, talk to your doctor about how much you should take.
Precautions
Dietary supplements should only be taken under the supervision of a health care provider who knows what they are doing. This is because they might have side effects or interact with other medicines.
Folic acid rarely causes side effects when you take the right amount every day.
Extremely high doses can:
result in Stomach problems
Sleep problems
What the skin does
Confusion
Loss of hunger
Nausea
Seizures
Before taking more than 800 mcg of folic acid, talk to your doctor.
Folic acid can hide the signs of a vitamin B12 deficiency,
which can damage the nervous system in a way that can’t be fixed. If you take one B vitamin for a long time, it can throw off the levels of other important B vitamins.
Because of this, you might want to take a vitamin complex that has all the B vitamins in it.
Folic acid shouldn’t be taken by people who have seizures or cancer without first talking to their doctors.
Possible Relationships
If you are taking any of the following medicines, you shouldn’t take folic acid supplements until you’ve talked to your doctor.
Antibiotics and tetracycline:
You shouldn’t take folic acid B9 at the same time as tetracycline because it makes it harder for your body to absorb antibiotic.
Folic acid should be taken at a different time than tetracycline, either by itself or with other B vitamins.
All vitamin B-complex supplements work this way and should be taken at different times than tetracycline.
Phenytoin (Dilantin):
Phenytoin is a medicine used to treat seizures. It may reduce the amount of folate in the body. Folic acid, on the other hand, may change how phenytoin works, making seizures more likely.
Before you take folic acid supplements, talk to your doctor.
Pyrimethamine (Daraprim): Pyrimethamine is a drug used to prevent and treat malaria and toxoplasmosis. Folic acid could make this medicine not work as well.
Folic acid can make the levels of 5-fluorouracil and capecitabine (Xeloda) in the body go up to dangerous levels.
Medications that lower folic acid levels:
Antacids.
H2 blockers, such as cimetidine or Tagamet, famotidine or Pepcid, and ranitidine, are used to lower stomach acid or Zantac.
- Proton pump inhibitors, like
- someprazole (Nexium),
- lansoprazole (Prevacid),
- omeprazole (Prilosec),
- and rabeprazole,
are used to lower the amount of acid in the stomach (Aciphex).
Bile acid sequestrants, such as colestipol (Colestid), cholestyramine (Questran), and colsevelam (Colsevelam), are used to lower cholesterol.
Anti-seizure medications:
Including phenobarbital, primidone (Mysoline), and carbamazepine (Tegretol).
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs): These include ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) and naproxen (Aleve).
- Sulfasalazine or Azulfidine is to treat IBD a inflammatory bowel disease and also rheumatoid arthritis.
- Triamterene (Dyrenium): A diuretic (water pill).
A drug used to treat infections.
- Pyrimethamine, sold under the brand name Daraprim, is used to prevent and treat malaria and toxoplasmosis.
- Trimethoprim is an antibiotic which is used to treat infections in the urinary tract.
These and other anti-inflammatory drugs can make the body need more folic acid.
- Methotrexate is a medicine sometimes used to treat cancer, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and psoriasis.
Folic acid levels in the body often go down when Methotrexate medicine is taken. If you take methotrexate for RA or psoriasis, your doctor may give you a higher dose of folic acid, which helps reduce the side effects of methotrexate.
People with cancer who are taking methotrexate shouldn’t take folic acid supplements unless their doctor tells them to. Folic acid might stop methotrexate from killing cancer cells.
You might want to read this article: Why are 80 percent of us magnesium deficient?
.
.
Helping with research and references
- Abularrage CJ, Sidawy AN, White PW, Aidinian G, Dezee KJ, Weiswasser JM, Arora S. Effect of folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12 on microcirculatory vasoreactivity in people with hyperhomocysteinemia. Vasc Endovascular Surg. 2007 Aug-Sep;41(4):339-345.
- Folic acid intake and spina bifida in the era of folic acid fortification of foods. Ahrens K, Yazdy M, Mitchell A, Werler M. Epidemiology. 2011; 22(5):731-737.
- Albert CM, Cook NR, Gaziano JM, Zaharris E, MacFadyen J, Danielson E, Buring JE, and Manson JE. A randomized trial looked at the effect of folic acid and B vitamins on the risk of cardiovascular events and total mortality in women at high risk for heart disease. JAMA. 2008;299(17):2027-2036.
- Nutrition and depression: folate is the key, say Alpert JE, Mischoulon D, Nierenberg AA, and Fava M. Nutrition. 2000;16:544-581.
Nutrition and depression: the role of folate
Auerhahn C. Taking folic acid every day for 3 years slowed down hearing loss caused by getting older. 2007 July;10(3):88. Evid Based Nurs.
Bleie O, Semb AG, Grundt H, Nordrehaug JE, Vollset SE, Ueland PM, et al. In people with stable coronary artery disease, lowering homocysteine does not change the inflammatory markers of atherosclerosis. 2007 August;262(2):244–253. J. Intern. Med.
Booth GL, Wang EE. Preventive health care, 2000 update: screening and treatment of hyperhomocysteinemia to prevent coronary artery disease events. The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care.
Homocysteine-lowering vitamins and cardiovascular mortality: Do they work? Celik T, Iyisoy A, Yuksel UC, Isik E. 2007 August 7; [Epub ahead of print]. Int J Cardiol.
Folate and carcinogenesis: an integrated scheme, by Choi S-W and Mason JB. J Nutr. 2000:130:129-132.
Chowers Y, Sela B, Holland R, Fidder H, Simoni FB, and Bar-Meir S. Higher folate levels are linked to higher levels of homocysteine in people with Crohn’s disease. Am J Gastroenterol. 2000;95(12):3498-3502.
Christen WG, Glynn RJ, Chew EY, et al. Folic acid, pyridoxine, and cyanocobalamin are used together to treat women with age-related macular degeneration. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169:335-341.
Folic acid improves the way blood vessels respond in humans: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. 2007:86(3):610–617 in Am J Clin Nutr.
- Durga J, Verhoef P, Anteunis LJ, et al. A randomized, controlled trial of the effects of folic acid supplements on hearing in older adults. Ann Intern Med. 2007;146:1-9.
- Case-control study of plasma folate, homocysteine, vitamin B12, and cysteine as markers of cervical dysplasia. Goodman MT, McDuffie K, Hernandez B, Wilkens LR, Selhub J. Cancer in 2000: 89(2): 376–382.
- Vitamin B9. Rev Prat. 2013; 63(8):1079,1081-4. Guilland JC, Aimone-Gastin I.
- Honein, M.A., L.J. Paulozzi, T.J. Mathews, J.D. Erickson, and L.Y.C. Wong. The effect of adding folic acid to the food supply in the US on the number of neural tube defects. JAMA. 2001;285(23):2981-2236.
- Chemoprevention of colorectal cancer. N Engl J Med. 2000;342(26):1960–1968. Janne PA, Mayer RJ.
Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics by Kliegman. 19th ed. Saunders, an imprint of Elsevier, published a book on this subject in 2011.
Krauss RM, Eckel RH, Howard B, Appel LJ, Daniels SR, Deckelbaum RJ, et al. AHA Statement on the Science: Dietary guidelines Revision 2000: A statement from the American Heart Association’s nutrition committee for people who work in health care. 2000;102(18):2284-2299 in Circulation.
Mayne ST, Risch HA, Dubrow R, et al. What you eat and how likely you are to get certain types of esophageal and stomach cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2001;10:1055-1062.
Nilsen RM, Vollset SE, Rasmussen SA, Ueland PM, Daltveit AK. A population-based registry study looked at the link between taking folic acid and multivitamin supplements and the risk of placental abruption. Am J Epidemiol. 2008;167(7):867-874.
Suren, P., Bresnahan, M., Roth, C., et al. There is a link between moms taking folic acid supplements and their kids having autism spectrum disorders. JAMA. 2013; 309(6):570-577.
Temple ME, Luzier AB, Kazierad DJ. A risk factor for atherosclerosis is the amino acid homocysteine. 2000:34(1):57–65.
Thompson JR, Willoughby ML, Gerald PF, and Armstrong BK. A case-controlled study looked at the link between giving folic acid to a pregnant woman and preventing a child from getting acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Lancet. 2001;358(9297):1935-1940.
Thomson SW, Heimburger DC, Cornwell PE, etc. Folic acid, copper, and cervical dysplasia are all linked to total plasma homocysteine. Nutrition. 2000;16(6):411-416.
Title LM, Cummings PM, Giddens K, Genest JJ, Jr., Nassar BA.
How endothelial dysfunction is affected by folic acid and antioxidant vitamins in people with coronary artery disease. 2000:36(3):758-765 in J Am Coll Cardiol.
Drug-nutrient interactions: a focus on cholesterol-lowering drugs
- Torkos, S. Drug-nutrient interactions: a focus on cholesterol-lowering drugs. In 2000, Int J Integrative Med was 2(3):9–13.
- Randomized trial of folic acid supplements and homocysteine levels in the blood. Arch Intern Med. 2001;161:695-700.
- Vitamin B12 and folate in relation to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
- GC Windham, GM Shaw, K Todoroff, and SH Swan. Miscarriage and folic acid or multivitamin use. Am J Med Genet. 2000;90(3):261-262.
- Wong WY, Thomas CM, Merkus JM, Zielhuis GA, Steegers-Theunissen RP. Possible causes of male factor infertility and how nutrition affects it. Fertil Steril. 2000;73(3):435-442.
