Folate is a water soluble vitamin b9 substance. It is an important nutrition all of us should have. It plays a vital role for pregnancy and child birth. One should know how much is too much folic acid.
Being a water soluble substance generally our body will eject out more than it needs. Before I explain one problem anyone can face due to more dosage of folic acid let us discuss how important this nutrition is.
Folic Acids
Folate is essential for cell formation and maintenance. It collaborates with many anti oxidant nutrition and supports for cancer prevention where cells divide rapidly.
For production of red blood cells folate is required. Inadequate folate will lead to anemia and consequent symptoms like heart palpitation etc., will be observed. Loss of weight and loss of appetite can also be possible.
How much is too much folic acid? All adults should have 400 mcg of folate per day. In the case of pregnant woman it should be 600 mcg per day. Why?
If you are a child bearing woman irrespective of whether you plan to have a baby now or defer you should have adequate folate levels in your body. It should be 400 mcg per day. If you do not have even before you conceive the baby you had damaged the baby. This is because the first 28 days of conception is where the foundation for brain and spine are laid. You will not even know that you are conceived unless you test when you miss the period. Beware. Such is the power of this nutrition.
Folate should be adequately maintained during the first 3 months of the pregnancy. These periods are crucial to ensure the baby is not born with any neural defect.
Let us now examine how much is too much folic acid in other cases. Studies reveal that folic acid above 1000 mcg per day is considered not suitable. Especially in the case of older adults above 50 years of age this has to be kept in mind. There is a reason for this.
The symptoms of deficiency of folate and vitamin b12 are more or less the same. While majority of them can be resolved by folic acid intake the one relating to nervous system caused by vitamin b12 deficiency cannot be tackled by folate. What will happen? You keep on taking folate to address the nervous problem and folate will mask the problem created by the deficiency of b12. A point will reach that the repair cannot be reversed even after diagnosis that b12 caused this problem. This is a dangerous situation.
We should know that the nutrition should always be balanced in our health. It should not be tilted by too much of any one nutrition. That is the reason I take a fantastic natural nutrition supplement that has all the nutrition derived from more than 70 natural herbs and salts. While my diet generally includes leafy vegetables, citrus fruits etc., which are rich in folate I take this supplement to ensure balance. This has fortunately b12 also to maintain appropriate level of folate and b12. Visit my website and you will have more answers on how much is too much folic acid.