Vitamin ABCs: Can Folic Acid Alter Your Genes?

In 1990, the U.S. Department of Coercion and the Public Institutes of Health launched the Human Genome Project (HGP). The goal? To determine the genes in the human body, to arbitrate DNA sequences, and to make them accessible for further interpret that might enable us to fitter our lives. Humans being the most entangled and sophisticated species, researchers expected to gem at least 100,000 genes. Instead, they create about 25,000 just 300 bounteous than a mouse. However, continued research construct another influencing instrument the epigenes: chemical switches that turn our genes on and off without altering the genes themselves. Various substances are known to flip those switches, and include folic acid.
During the HGP, researchers gave folic acid to overweight mice with fertility problems and either prostate or breast cancer. While it didn"t pocket money anything for the mothers, they nevertheless had healthy pups free ride of their mothers" adverse physical conditions.
This is good news for women who are or could be remodelled pregnant. In fact, according to the Centres for Disease Driver's seat and Prevention, up to 70 percent of all brain and spine birth defects could be prevented provided every woman of childbearing date took folic acid daily. Studies bear too constitute it to lower the risk of untimely birth and low birth weight, and it may prevent a baby from developing a heart defect, cleft lip, or cleft palate.
However, the good advice approximately folic acid doesn"t point there: It may besides play a role in protecting us from the all too common diseases many of us suffer as we satisfy older. Studies hold linked folic acid deficiency to anemia, Alzheimer"s disease and Parkinson"s disease. Folic acid also lowers homocysteine levels -- shown to be significantly elevated in people with blocked arteries - and thereby reduces our risk of heart attack and stroke.
Does folic acid transform our genes? In a nutshell, no. But it could drastically act on our health, our quality of life, and the addition of our children, their children, and so on down through the ages. To live a longer, healthier life, convey folic acid a try. And don"t forget to pass this hash on to your daughters.

Keywords: