Folic Acid by Power Health from £2.88

Customer Reviews, Special Offers

Folic Acid Price Details:

Ref	Status	Details	£ Unit Price	£ Price (GBP)
PFOL90		Power Health Folic Acid 400µg -90 Tablets	0.03 per Tablet	2.88 (was 3.20)
PFOL-1000		Power Health Folic Acid 400µg - 1000 Tablets (Bulk Bag)	0.02 per Tablet	15.38
Select currency Australian Dollar Canadian Dollars Danish Krone Euros Japanese Yen Norwegian Krone Swedish Krona Swiss Franc UK pounds sterling US dollars

For extended stock information, use the button under status.

A food supplement providing on average 400µg Folic Acid which is 200% of the EC Recommended Daily Allowance. The first three months of a baby's development are the most important. The Government’s Chief Medical Officer recommends that all women planning a pregnancy should take a 400µg supplement prior to conception and until the 12th week of pregnancy.

Ingredients: Microcrystalline Cellulose, Modified Starch, Magnesium Stearate, Folacin (as Folic Acid) ( Suitable for Vegetarians)

Nutritional: Each tablet provides on average 400µg of Folic Acid (200% RDA). Free from artificial colours and preservatives, yeast, gluten and lactose. No added salt or sugar.

Directions: Take one tablet a day as a food supplement. Women planning a pregnancy or who are already pregnant should take one tablet a day with food until the end of the third month of pregnancy.

Health Warnings: Keep out of sight and reach of children.

Health Brand: Power Health, Shelf: Vitamin A B D, Room: Vitamins and Minerals, Health Category: Vitamin Supplements

Additional Health notes Information:

from Power Health

	Power Health Alpha Lipoic Acid 200mg 30 Tablets	£8.7 (was £13.75)
	Power Health Nature Knows Best Scarborough Fair Shampoo 250ml	£2.63 (was £4.2)
	Power Health Tea Tree Professional Oil -12ml	£2.99 (was £4.42)
	Power Health Devils Claw 250mg -30 Capsules	£1.93 (was £3.05)
	Power Health Cypress Professional Oil 12ml	£4.16 (was £6.16)

**All Special Offers**

There are currently no reviews for this product.

Health Notes Information:

How It Works:

Many doctors recommend that all women who are or who could become pregnant take 400 mcg per day in order to reduce the risk of birth defects. Some doctors also extend this recommendation to other people in an attempt to reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering homocysteine levels. Since the FDA mandated addition of folic acid to grain products, the average intake of folic acid from food has increased in the United States by about 100 mcg per day. However, studies have found that this amount of folic acid is inadequate to maintain normal folate levels in a significant percentage of the groups assessed.²³² It now appears that, for pregnant women, supplementing with at least 300 mcg (and optimally 400 mcg) of folic acid per day is sufficient to prevent a folate deficiency, even if dietary intake is low.

Many people consume less than the recommended amount of folic acid. Scientists have found that people with heart disease commonly have elevated blood levels of homocysteine, a laboratory test abnormality often controllable with folic acid supplements. This suggests that many people in Western societies have a mild folic acid deficiency. In fact, it has been suggested that increasing folic acid intake could prevent an estimated 13,500 deaths from cardiovascular diseases each year.²³³

Folic acid deficiency has also been common in alcoholics, people living at poverty level, those with malabsorption disorders or liver disease (e.g., cirrhosis), and women taking the birth control pill. Recently, elderly people with hearing loss have been reported to be much more likely to be folic acid deficient than healthy elderly people.²³⁴ A variety of prescription drugs including cimetidine, antacids, some anticancer drugs, triamterene, sulfasalazine, and anticonvulsants interfere with folic acid.

Deficiency of folic acid can be precipitated by situations wherein the body requires greater than normal amounts of the vitamin, such as pregnancy, infancy, leukaemia, exfoliative dermatitis, and diseases that cause the destruction of blood cells.²³⁵

The relationship between folic acid and prevention of neural tube defects is partly thought to result from the high incidence of folate deficiency in many societies. To protect against neural tube defects, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has mandated that some grain products provide supplemental folic acid at a level expected to increase the dietary intake by an average of 100 mcg per day per person. As a result of folic acid added to the food supply, fewer Americans will be depleted compared with the past. In 1999, scientific evidence began to demonstrate that the folic acid added to the U.S. food supply was having positive effects, including a partial lowering of homocysteine levels.²³⁶ In the same year, however, a report from the North Carolina Birth Defects Monitoring Programme suggested the current level of folic acid fortification has not reduced the incidence of neural-tube defects.²³⁷ Many doctors and the Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta²³⁸ believe that optimal levels of folic acid intake may still be higher than the amount now being added to food by a few hundred micrograms per day. A low blood level of folate has also been associated with an increased risk of miscarriage.²³⁹

People with kidney failure have an increased risk of folic acid deficiency.²⁴⁰ Recipients of kidney transplants often have elevated homocysteine levels, which may respond to supplementation with folic acid.²⁴¹ The usual recommended amount of 400 mcg per day may not be enough for these people, however. Larger amounts (up to 2.4 mg per day) may produce a better outcome, according to one double-blind trial.²⁴²

Folate deficiency is more prevalent among elderly African American women than among elderly white women.²⁴³

Folic acid naturally found in food is much less available to the body compared with synthetic folic acid found both in supplements and added to grain products in the United States. Women with a recent history of giving birth to babies with neural tube defects participated in a study to determine which form of folic acid is best absorbed—dietary folic acid or folic acid from supplements.²⁴⁴ They received either orange juice containing 400 mcg of folic acid per day or a supplement containing the same amount. Overall, the supplement folic acid was better absorbed than the folic acid from orange juice.

Side Effects:

With the exception of rare cases of allergic reactions,²⁴⁶ folic acid is not generally associated with side effects,²⁴⁷ although there have been rare case reports of allergic reactions to the vitamin.²⁴⁸ Folic acid supplementation can interfere with the laboratory diagnosis of vitamin B12 deficiency, possibly allowing the deficiency to progress undetected to the point of irreversible nerve damage.²⁴⁹ Although vitamin B12 deficiency is uncommon, no one should supplement with 1,000 mcg or more of folic acid without consulting a doctor.

Vitamin B12 deficiencies often occur without anaemia (even in people who do not take folic acid supplements). Some doctors do not know that the absence of anaemia does not rule out a B12 deficiency. If this confusion delays diagnosis of a vitamin B12 deficiency, the patient could be injured, sometimes permanently. This problem is rare and should not happen with doctors knowledgeable in this area using correct testing procedures.

Interactions:

Folic acid is needed by the body to utilise vitamin B12. Proteolytic enzymes inhibit folic acid absorption.²⁴⁵ People taking proteolytic enzymes are advised to supplement with folic acid.

References: