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April 2015 Moms
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Folate vs folic acid

Murran131Murran131 member
in April 2015 Moms
Anyone familiar with this debate? Apparently folic acid is the synthetic form if folate and is harder in our bodies to digest. Some even say it increases cancer risks... I'm wondering how true any of that is and if it's worth it to buy the much more expensive prenatals that actually contain folate?
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Re: Folate vs folic acid

  • Hummingbirdbaby3Hummingbirdbaby3 member
    Oh geez. No I've never heard this. It seems like everywhere I turn something is giving us cancer every second of everyday. I can only assume that the frolic acid is recommended by our OBs for a reason...
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  • Murran131Murran131 member
    Right?! I accidentally stumbled across this topic today... Folic acid is by far the most readily available because it's cheaper to make than to include the real stuff (folate) apparently. And I'm all for keeping things real. Every time we change something genetically or make it ourselves it seems to backfire... But how legitimate is this? I can't decide if it's just the crazies who are worries about this or not! :)
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  • MissLMSMissLMS member
    I have MTHFR, a genetic mutation that about 50% of the population has in one form or another. If you have MTHFR it makes it difficult for your body to absorb folic acid. After two losses my OB told me to take a PNV with folate (easier to process) and I'm also taking extra folate, among other things.

    To me, whether you know if you have mthfr or not, folate is better.

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  • Hummingbirdbaby3Hummingbirdbaby3 member
    From what I can see folic acid is the synthetic of folate. Unfortunately we just never know what is going on in our bodies. IMO some people eat right and workout everyday at still die at 50 of a random cancer. Others eat like shit and don't take care of themselves and live to be 90. We just never know. If this is what my doc recommends I will take it and hope that it is truly what is best.
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  • Smash1215Smash1215 member
    Folic acid is indeed the synthetic version of folate. The bio available form is l-methylfolate. This available via prescription or OTC. The difference is that the MTHFR gene breaks folic acid down into this bio available form. Thus, if you have one of the mutations (677 or 1298), it slows down the metabolism of folic acid into l-methylfolate. All that said, I have a heterozygous (one copy) 1298 mutation and I just take lots of folic acid. The mutations just slow down the enzyme, they don't eliminate its activity altogether.
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  • Smash1215Smash1215 member
    Also, there's no good scientific evidence that folic acid, even a lot of it, causes cancer. It's water soluble, so you wind up peeing out the excess.
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