He folic acid It is an indispensable vitamin in pregnancy. Its main function, the most widespread, is to prevent congenital neural tube defects, from which the central nervous system originates, but according to new research it would also serve to prevent delays in baby's language.
Among the anomalies that folic acid helps to avoid, those that occur most frequently whenever there is a neural tube defect are spina bifida or anencephaly. Both occur due to a failure in the formation of the spinal cord in the first month of pregnancy. Hence the recommendation to take folic acid from three months before pregnancy, to ensure that the reserves of this vitamin are sufficient at that time, before many women know they are pregnant.
But folic acid could be even more useful than we thought so far. Because according to a group of researchers from the Oslo Public Health Institute in Norway, they have been able to observe the contribution of folic acid from the four weeks prior to conception until at least eight weeks of gestation it is associated with a lower risk of language delay in the baby.
The study authors followed almost 39,000 children and found that those lower risk of language delay presented were the children of those participants who had taken folic acid at the beginning of pregnancy.
It is still too early to say that there is a causal relationship, but if there were, many disorders could be prevented through dietary supplements in women of reproductive age.
It is strongly believed in this hypothesis, since folic acid is considered "a food for cells", a helper for cell multiplication, so it makes sense that its role is important at different stages of development, experts say.
Of course, in view of all investigations related to folic acid, including the latter that suggests that it also works to prevent delays in baby's languageIt is essential to start taking a daily supplement from the moment the pregnancy is planned, ideally from three months before conception.
Via | The World Photo | Showbits on Flickr On Babies and more | Folic Acid: indispensable help during pregnancy, Language disorders: Language delay
