Pregnancy tips Avoid Cleft Lip With Folic Acid

The importance of folic acid in women in their childbearing years has been well publicized for the prevention of neural tube defects. However, this article also talks about how folic acid may prevent cleft lip. Read more:

Cleft Lip Prevented With Folic Acid

From the article:

Folic acid is a B vitamin found in leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, beans, and whole grains. It can also be taken as a vitamin supplement, and it is added to flour and other fortified foods. The recommended daily dietary allowance for folate for adults is 400 micrograms or 0.4 mg. The new study was conducted in Norway, which has one of the highest rates of facial clefts in Europe and does not allow foods to be fortified with folic acid.

The researchers examined the association between facial clefts and mothers' intake of folic acid supplements, multivitamins, and folates in diet. The researchers found that folic acid supplementation of 400 micrograms or more per day reduced the risk of isolated cleft lip with or without cleft palate by one-third, but had no apparent effect on the risk of cleft palate alone. "Folic acid deficiency causes facial clefts in laboratory animals, so we had a good reason to focus on folic acid in our clefts study," said Wilcox. "It was one of our main hypotheses."