Food fortified with folic acid, a B vitamin required in human diets for numerous biological functions, was associated with reduced rates of congenital heart defects, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.
"Our study examined the effect of folic acid food fortification on each specific subtype of congenital heart disease based on the Canadian experience before and after food fortification was made mandatory in 1998," said K.S. Joseph, M.D., Ph.D., the study's senior author and professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
Controlling for influences such as maternal age, multiple births (twins, triplets), pregnancy complications, prenatal diagnosis and pregnancy terminations, researchers analyzed data from nearly 6 million Canadian births from 1990 to 2011 and found that folic acid food fortification was associated with an 11 percent reduction in rates of congenital heart defects overall.
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