What are the proven benefits of folic acid

Folic acid is a kind of vitamin B group. It is also a water-soluble vitamin. The origin of the word folic acid is the Latin folium, which means leaf. process, DNA and RNA synthesis, neurotransmitter synthesis, and gene expression.

Folate plays an important role in protein synthesis, metabolism, and other processes related to cell proliferation and tissue growth.

Folate deficiency is often associated with inadequate dietary intake, alcohol abuse and liver disease, malabsorption, increased needs during pregnancy and lactation, and drug interference.

How is Folate different from Folic acid?

Dietary folic acid (folate) is a naturally occurring nutrient found in foods such as green leafy vegetables, beans, egg yolks, liver, and citrus fruits.

Folic acid refers to a synthetic dietary supplement found in artificially added foods (such as flour and breakfast cereals) and medicinal vitamins.

What are the proven benefits of folic acid?

1. Folic acid is beneficial for gastric precancerous lesions

Gastric cancer (Gastric cancer) is the second most common cause of cancer-related death and ranks fourth in global cancer incidence, with prognosis varying by stage. The 5-year survival rate of advanced gastric cancer is less than 20%.

In contrast, early gastric cancer has a good prognosis, with a 5-year survival rate of over 90%. Therefore, individualized management of gastric cancer high-risk groups is very important.

2. Folic Acid Helps Blood Sugar Regulation

Diabetes is the most prevalent metabolic disease. It is estimated that more than 460 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes. In the United States alone, there are 34.2 million patients, accounting for 10.5% of the total population.

High blood sugar is associated with symptoms such as frequent urination, thirst, blurred vision, fatigue and recurrent infections (Patients are 3 times more likely to be hospitalized than non-diabetics.

In addition to relieving symptoms, the purpose of glycemic management is to reduce long-term complications of diabetes. Good blood glucose management can reduce the occurrence and progression of microvascular complications.

3. Folic acid aids blood lipid regulation

Dyslipidemia is a disorder of one or more lipoproteins in the blood, such as elevated total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, or triglycerides, or low levels of HDL cholesterol alone.

Dyslipidemia, the most important and modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease, is highly prevalent and continues to increase in many countries due to westernized diets, obesity, aging populations, reduced physical activity, and other adverse lifestyle effects one.

A systematic literature review and meta-analysis (including 38 randomized controlled trials, with a total of 21,787 participants) found that folic acid supplementation reduced serum triglycerides (triglyceride) and total cholesterol compared with placebo (total cholesterol) concentration.

4. Folic Acid Reduces Autism Rates

Autism spectrum disorder (Autism spectrum disorder) is a multifactorial neurodevelopmental disorder caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Possible environmental factors include folic acid deficiency, neonatal hypoxia, maternal obesity, and gestational diabetes (8 years old The prevalence of autism in children is 1/54, and the male to female ratio is 4.3:1).

A meta-analysis of 10 observational studies found that folic acid supplementation in early pregnancy was associated with a reduced risk of autism.

5. Folic Acid Reduces Risk of Preterm Birth

Preterm birth, defined as birth between the 20th and 37th week of gestation, is a major obstetric health care problem and an important contributor to perinatal morbidity, mortality, and long-term disability.

Worldwide, an estimated 15 million babies are born prematurely each year, resulting in 1 million deaths. 

A meta-analysis of the literature (Meta-Analysis, including 27 observational studies) showed that blood folate levels, folic acid supplementation, and dietary folic acid intake were inversely associated with the risk of preterm birth (but the relationship between dietary folic acid and the risk of spontaneous preterm birth no apparent connection).

6. Folic Acid Reduces Risk of Stroke

Stroke (Stroke) can be divided into hemorrhagic or occlusive/ischemic stroke, most (80%) belong to the latter, in terms of mortality, stroke is the fourth leading cause after heart disease, cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease Cause of death, also the largest cause of disability, with approximately 50% of survivors permanently disabled.

Risk factors associated with stroke, including history of hypertension, smoking history, diabetes, waist-to-hip ratio, dietary risk score, physical inactivity, alcohol consumption, psychosocial stress and depression, cardiac causes, and apolipoprotein B to A1 ratio.

A systematic literature review and meta-analysis (meta-analysis, including 12 randomized controlled trials, a total of 47523 patients with cardiovascular disease) showed that compared with patients receiving control treatment, folic acid treatment significantly reduced the risk of stroke (especially Most significant in subjects with daily dose < 2 mg and follow-up time ≥ 40 months).

7. Folic Acid Prevents Neural Tube Defects

Neural tube defects (NTDs), congenital malformations of the brain and spinal cord resulting from the failure of the neural tube to close within 21 – 28 days of conception, are the second most common serious birth defect, accounting for one in every 1,000 pregnancies worldwide. About 0.5 to 2 cases are affected.

The most common types of neural tube defects are spina bifida (spina bifida due to failure of posterior (caudal) neural tube fusion) and anencephaly (anencephaly due to failure of anterior (cranial) neural tube fusion).

A Cochrane review (Cochrane Review, including 4 studies, a total of 6425 female participants) showed that folic acid supplementation from pre-pregnancy to early pregnancy (Periceptional) can reduce the incidence of neural tube defects by 72%.

8. Folic Acid Reduces Events of Hypertensive Disorders in Pregnancy

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including preeclampsia and gestational hypertension, are the most common complications of pregnancy and are associated with adverse health outcomes for both mothers and their offspring.

A meta-analysis of the literature (13 cohort studies and 1 randomized controlled trial, with more than 300,000 female participants) found that the risk of gestational hypertension was not associated with folic acid supplementation during pregnancy. However, folic acid supplementation during pregnancy can significantly reduce the risk of preeclampsia.

In addition, subgroup analyzes showed that a reduction in the risk of preeclampsia was associated with multivitamin supplementation containing folic acid (but not folic acid alone).

9. Folic Acid Reduces Risk of Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital heart disease (Congenital heart disease) is the most common type of congenital malformation, mainly defined as a large number of structural and functional defects during the embryogenesis of the heart, accounting for one-third of all major congenital malformations.

Worldwide, 1.35 million babies are born with congenital heart disease each year and are considered a substantial cause of early fetal death.

Causes are usually divided into two categories: genetic and non-genetic. Nongenetic causes include environmental teratogens (dioxins, PCBs, pesticides), maternal exposure (alcohol, isotretinoin, thalidomide, antiepileptic drugs), and infectious agents.

A literature meta-analysis (Meta-Analysis, including 20 case-control studies) pointed out that in Chinese and European patients, folic acid supplementation during pregnancy is a protective factor for preventing congenital heart defects, which can reduce the incidence of congenital heart defects by about 40% risk, while no link was found in the US.

10. Folic acid reduces cleft lip and palate incidents

Cleft lip and palate (oral clefts) is a congenital cleft lip deformity variation caused by abnormal facial development during pregnancy, including: cleft lip only, cleft lip with palate and cleft palate only are born babies The most common orofacial congenital malformation, accounting for 65% of all head and neck deformities, is usually non-fatal.

Cleft lip is estimated to occur in approximately 1 in 700 to 1 in 1000 live births in different populations around the world, with wide variability according to geographic origin, ethnicity, and socioeconomic conditions.

About 70% of cleft lip cases are nonsyndromic, meaning the patient has no other physical or developmental abnormalities.

When a cleft lip and palate occurs, it has a great impact on the baby's feeding, speech, language and voice formation, breathing, oral function, occlusion, tooth formation and other functions.

A literature meta-analysis (including 6 cohort studies and 31 case-control studies) pointed out that maternal folic acid supplementation can reduce the risk of all types of cleft lip and palate.

Folic acid supplementation alone reduced the risk of non-syndromic cleft lip and palate by 27% and cleft palate only by 25%.

Multivitamin supplementation containing folic acid reduced the risk of non-syndromic cleft lip and palate by 35% and cleft palate only by 31%.