The importance of folic acid to prevent birth defects and reduce the risk of heart disease was stressed yesterday at the publication of a report on women's health issues by the National Dairy Council. Since about 50 per cent of pregnancies are unplanned the best advice to women who might become pregnant is to take a folic acid supplement, according to Dr Helene McNulty, lecturer in the department of biomedical sciences at the University of Ulster.
"If all women in Ireland attained the desired folate status the eight babies born a month with neural tube birth defects (NTD), either spina bifida or anencephaly, could be reduced to two," she said, adding that inadequate folate levels can increase the risk of an NTD birth four-fold.
Women should be aware of food fortified with folic acid which raises levels of the vitamin in the blood more effectively than food naturally rich in it.
It was recommended, she said, that 400 microgrammes of a folic acid supplement should be taken four months before conception and for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
A pint of milk, fortified with folic acid, taken daily would account for 25 per cent of necessary levels. But until more foods are fortified, Dr McNulty said, it was advisable to take a folic acid supplement.
Prof Michael Gibney, director of Nutriscan Ltd, a non-profit campus company of Trinity College, Dublin, said the Food Safety Advisory Board was examining the possibility of further fortification of food with the vitamin.
Folic acid also has an important role in heart disease prevention because of its ability to lower homocysteine, a newly-recognised risk factor in coronary heart disease (CHD). This has implications for women's health as CHD is the leading cause of death among women in Northern Europe, Dr Helen Roche, a research fellow at Trinity College, said. "In Ireland one in five female deaths is attributable to heart disease. Because CHD studies have tended to concentrate on male patients, much of the advice on CHD is male-specific. However, now there is more information available and advice can be tailored for women," she said.
She stressed the importance of a healthy balance of fats in the blood. For women this does not just mean cholesterol but also triglycerides. High triglycerides and lowered cholesterol levels are the "major issues for women when it comes to diet and heart disease".
She recommended a moderate fat intake, combined with regular exercise and a good intake of oily fish as "the best advice to women to help prevent heart disease, the risk of which increases considerably following menopause".