A Neural Tube Defects Have Fallen. Part 1 of 3

A Neural Tube Defects Have Fallen. Serious parturition defects of the brain and spine called neural tube defects have fallen 35 percent in the United States since obligatory folic acid fortification of enriched grain products was introduced in 1998, federal officials reported Thursday. That decrease means 1300 fewer babies are born annually with neural tube defects such as spina bifida, the most everyday neural tube defect that, in severe cases, can cause partial or complete paralysis of the parts of the body below the waist. However, even with folic acid fortification some women don’t get enough of the B vitamin, especially Hispanic women, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The intercession said all women of childbearing age – even if they’re not planning to get in a family way – need to get 400 micrograms of folic acid daily from fortified foods, supplements, or both, and to eat foods high in folic acid. “All women qualified of having a baby should be taking a multivitamin containing folic acid every day,” Dr Siobhan Dolan, co-author of the March of Dimes book Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby: The Ultimate Pregnancy Guide, said in a scuttlebutt release from the organization.

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