(Press-News.org) Folate is a naturally occurring form of vitamin B found in food, while folic acid is synthetically produced and used in fortified foods and supplements.
It is well known that taking folic acid before and during early pregnancy reduces the risk of neural tube defects like spina bifida. The current recommended dose is 400 ìg (micrograms) a day, but it is still not clear exactly how much daily folic acid is needed to prevent neural tube defects.
A previous study carried out in Ireland showed the risk of a having a child with a neural tube defect increased as red blood cell folate concentrations decreased, suggesting that this could be used as a 'biomarker' to predict neural tube defect risk in a population – and help inform prevention programs.
So an international team of researchers set out to determine an optimal red blood cell folate concentration for the prevention of neural tube defects.
They used data from two population based studies in China involving over 220,000 births and 250 babies with neural tube defects. Mathematical models were used to estimate the association between red blood cell folate concentration at the time of completion of neural tube closure (day 28 of pregnancy) and neural tube defect risk.
The estimated risk of a neural tube defect was highest at lower red blood cell folate concentrations (neural tube defect risk of 25.4 per 10,000 births at a red blood cell folate concentration of 500 nmol/L).
But the estimated risk was substantially attenuated at red blood cell folate concentrations above 1,000 nmol/L. For example, estimated neural tube defect risk was 6 per 10,000 births at a red blood cell folate concentration of 1,180 nmol/L.
"Our results indicate that a red blood cell folate concentration of roughly 1,000 to 1,300 nmol/L might achieve optimal prevention of folate sensitive neural tube defects, with a resulting overall risk of neural tube defect of about 6 per 10,000," say the authors.
This range seems to be applicable to women in different countries and could be useful in the development and monitoring of folic acid fortification programs, they add.
They point out that it is not known how much natural food folate and/or folic acid intake is necessary to achieve red blood cell folate concentrations in the 1,000 to 1,300 nmol/L range in any given person or population and say this should be the focus of future research.
Setting "optimal" or target population red blood cell folate concentration cutoffs "will be useful in assessing the need for and monitoring the success of programs for the prevention of folate sensitive neural tube defects," they conclude.
In an accompanying editorial, researchers from the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford say tracking red cell concentrations will help to guide important policy decisions worldwide "and allow public health leaders to monitor a population's response with the ultimate goal of reducing the incidence of largely preventable neural tube defects."
INFORMATION:
A blood test could help prevent neural tube birth defects
This could be useful for developing and monitoring prevention programs
2014-07-30
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Why we should vaccinate boys against HPV as well as girls
2014-07-30
Gillian Prue, from the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Queen's University of Belfast, says that the human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is common in men and can lead to genital warts and the development of some head and neck, anal or penile cancers. She says incidence of this has increased in the past two decades with HPV causing 5% of all human cancers.
Since September 2008 a free vaccination has been available for 12-13 year old girls in the UK with a catch up programme for girls up to age 18. Australia, the US, Austria and parts of Canada have introduced a vaccination ...
Problem drinking in midlife doubles chance of memory problems in later life
2014-07-30
A study published today [Weds July 30] in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry indicates that middle-aged adults with a history of problem drinking are more than twice as likely to suffer from severe memory impairment in later life.
The study highlights the hitherto largely unknown link between harmful patterns of alcohol consumption and problems with memory later in life – problems which may place people at a high risk of developing dementia.
The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Exeter Medical School with support from the NIHR Collaboration ...
Maternal obesity modulates offspring microflora composition and gastrointestinal functions
2014-07-30
7/29/2014, Seattle, WA. Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, finds that maternal obesity leads to marked changes in the offspring's gastrointestinal microflora composition and gastrointestinal function.
The gastrointestinal microflora consists of multiple species of microorganisms that live in the digestive tracts of animals and assists the host in digestion. An imbalance in an individual's microflora is suspected to ...
Is hunger suppression the key to reducing risk of overeating and obesity?
2014-07-30
The failure of some obese individuals to generate or detect adequate signals to stop eating has been frequently been reported in medical science. Researchers at the University of Leeds, UK have devised a simple metric to quantify satiety responsiveness - Satiety Quotient (SQ) – and are applying it to their research to find out why some people struggle to manage their weight and whether certain foods may help to amplify sensations of fullness.
In an experiment at the University of Leeds, researchers used the SQ in conjunction with different amounts of whole raw almonds ...
Blood sugar levels closely linked to how our brains respond to the sight of food, twin study finds
2014-07-30
7/29/2014, Seattle, WA. Our brain's response to the sight of food appears to be driven more by how low our blood sugar level is at the moment than our upbringing or genetics, researchers said at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior. "The finding suggest our brains have a way to override our genetic inheritance, upbringing and habits to respond to our immediate nutritional needs," said Dr. Ellen Schur, associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington.
In the study, Schur and UW Medicine colleagues at Harborview Medical Center, ...
Drinking sugar-sweetened beverages during adolescence impairs memory
2014-07-30
7/29/2014, Seattle, WA. Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, finds that daily consumption of beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup or sucrose can impair the ability to learn and remember information, particularly when consumption occurs during adolescence. Both adult and adolescent rats were given daily access to sugar-sweetened beverages that mirror sugar concentrations found in common soft drinks. Adult rats ...
Secular and longitudinal trends in dieting strategies in young adult women from 1982 to 2012
2014-07-30
7/29/2014, Seattle, WA. Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behaviors, finds that the younger a woman is when she goes on her first diet, the more likely she is to experience several negative health outcomes later in life.
Dieting is very common among girls and young women; however, people often fail to consider the long-term consequences of weight-loss diets, particularly in those who begin dieting at a young age. A team led ...
Striatal dopamine transporter binding correlates with body composition and visual attention bias for food cues in healthy young men
2014-07-30
7/29/2014, Seattle, WA. Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, describes a way that brain chemistry may make some people notice food more easily, which can tempt overeating even in people who are not overweight. Dopamine activity in the striatum, an area of the brain sensitive to food reward, was linked to how quickly men noticed a food picture hidden among neutral pictures. In turn, the men who quickly noticed food pictures ...
Parents' reported food preparation time is inversely associated with energy density
2014-07-30
7/29/2014, Seatle, WA. Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, suggests that the amount time parents spend on food preparation at home influences children's food intake decisions made in the laboratory without parental supervision.
"In general, research shows that children tend to eat inadequate amounts of nutrient-rich foods while eating large amounts of sugary and fatty foods," Shehan said. "It's encouraging to see that ...
Research shows impact of soft drinks in meal planning
2014-07-30
Seattle, WA. 7/29/20134. New research by academics in the University of Bristol's Nutrition and Behaviour Unit (NBU) has looked into whether we take liquid calories into account when planning meals.
The research, to be presented at the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior Conference (SSIB 2014) in Seattle, USA this week [29 July to 2 August], argues that we do.
The team was led by Professor Jeff Brunstrom, and is based in the School of Experimental Psychology.
As part of a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) grant, the researchers looked ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Rice membrane extracts lithium from brines with greater speed, less waste
Exercise lowers disease risk. This researcher wants to understand how
Hurricane evacuation patterns differ based on where the storm hits
Stem Cell Reports welcomes new members to its Editorial Board
Researchers develop molecular qubits that communicate at telecom frequencies
Mayo Clinic awarded up to $40 million by ARPA-H for pioneering air safety research
People with Down syndrome have early neuroinflammation
CNIO researchers create the “human repairome”, a catalogue of DNA “scars” that will help define personalized cancer treatments
Strengthening biosecurity screening for genes that encode proteins of concern
Global wildfire disasters are growing in frequency and cost
Wildfire management: Reactive response and recovery, or proactive mitigation and prevention
Phosphine detected in the atmosphere of a low-temperature brown dwarf
Scientists develop rapid and scalable platform for in planta directed evolution
New tiny prehistoric fish species unlocks origins of catfish and carp
Plant microbiota: War and peace under the surface
Fossilized ear bones rewrite the history of freshwater fish
Detection of phosphine in a brown dwarf atmosphere raises more questions
USF study: Ancient plankton hint at steadier future for ocean life
MIT researchers find a simple formula could guide the design of faster-charging, longer-lasting batteries
Towards efficient room-temperature fluorine recovery from fluoropolymers
Mapping RNA-protein 'chats' could uncover new treatments for cancer and brain disease
The hidden burden of solitude: How social withdrawal influences the adolescent brain
Kidney disease study reveals unexpected marker
AI wrote nearly a quarter of corporate press releases in 2024
The ‘big bad wolf’ fears the human ‘super predator’ – for good reason
Kidney organoid unlocks genetic cause of chronic kidney disease
Body composition and cardiometabolic risk in children
Use of ambient AI scribes to reduce administrative burden and professional burnout
Newly recognized pathway could protect diabetics from hypoglycemia
Studies find connection between impaired musical rhythm abilities and developmental speech-language disorders
[Press-News.org] A blood test could help prevent neural tube birth defectsThis could be useful for developing and monitoring prevention programs