Folic Acid News and Research

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Folic acid is a B vitamin. It helps the body make healthy new cells. Everyone needs folic acid. For women who may get pregnant, it is really important. When a woman has enough folic acid in her body before and during pregnancy, it can prevent major birth defects of her baby's brain or spine.

Foods with folic acid in them include leafy green vegetables, fruits, dried beans, peas and nuts. Enriched breads, cereals and other grain products also contain folic acid. If you don't get enough folic acid from the foods you eat, you can also take it as a dietary supplement.

Folic acid during pregnancy reduces rate of colon cancer in offspring

Folic acid supplements given to pregnant and breast-feeding rats reduced the rate of colon cancer in their offspring by 64 per cent, a new study has found.

27 May 2011

Taking prenatal vitamins early during pregnancy can reduce risk of having children with autism

Women who reported not taking a daily prenatal vitamin immediately before and during the first month of pregnancy were nearly twice as likely to have a child with an autism spectrum disorder as women who did take the supplements - and the associated risk rose to seven times as great when combined with a high-risk genetic make-up, a study by researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute has found.

26 May 2011

Allos, Mundipharma enter strategic collaboration to co-develop FOLOTYN

Allos Therapeutics, Inc. and Mundipharma International Corporation Limited today jointly announced that the companies have entered into a strategic collaboration agreement to co-develop FOLOTYN (pralatrexate injection).

11 May 2011

Extensive folic acid fortification of foods prevents neural tube defects in neonates

Neural tube defects in neonates are common in Germany compared with the rest of Europe. Extensive folic acid fortification of foods in Germany might prevent these in 85-100% of cases, Wolfgang Herrmann and Rima Obeid argue in this issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108[15]; 249-54).

30 Apr 2011

Spectrum receives FDA approval for FUSILEV to treat colorectal cancer

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company with fully integrated commercial and drug development operations with a primary focus in oncology, received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on April 29, 2011, for the use of FUSILEV in combination with 5-fluorouracil in the palliative treatment of patients with advanced metastatic colorectal cancer.

30 Apr 2011

Researchers identify three enterotypes in human intestinal bacteria

It would appear that in terms of composition, the intestinal bacteria of every individual can be divided into three main groups known as enterotypes. The intestinal bacteria in each enterotype organise themselves into distinct, stable clusters displaying common features.

28 Apr 2011

Softgels as effective as tablets in delivering folic acid

Folic acid, an essential vitamin formulated to be part of a multivitamin + DHA liquid softgel capsule, is absorbed and available within the body in amounts similar to folic acid formulated for solid tablets, according to a study presented in a late breaking session at the Experimental Biology (EB) 2011 annual meeting.

28 Apr 2011

Early surgery, timely treatment and prenatal diagnosis can help prevent oral clefts

Affecting more than 7,000 U.S. babies each year, cleft lip and/or cleft palate are the second most common birth defect, the cause of which continues to mystify scientists despite growing evidence of a complex interplay of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors.

22 Apr 2011

FDA approves Spectrum's FUSILEV Injection to treat metastatic colorectal cancer

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company with fully integrated commercial and drug development operations with a primary focus in oncology, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Company's Supplemental New Drug Application for FUSILEV Injection.

22 Apr 2011

Nearly all 2.6 million stillbirths worldwide occur in low-, middle-income countries, Lancet series says

Approximately 2.6 million pregnancies worldwide end in stillbirth - most commonly defined as death in the final trimester - each year, "with the poorest nations worst affected," according to a series of articles published Thursday in the Lancet, BBC reports.

15 Apr 2011

Multivitamin supplements can optimize body's metabolic performance

Eating well is a difficult task for most people given the frantic pace of everyday living. Convenient pre-packaged and fast foods, rich in calories and low in nutrients, offer an easy solution to those short on time, but neglect to provide daily essential nutrients. And the short-changing of necessary nutritional requirements for good health is furthered by routine stress itself.

22 Mar 2011

Extra intake of iron may not benefit pregnant women, except when anemic

Although universal prenatal supplementation with iron is recommended, an extra intake of iron does not noticeably benefit pregnant women, except when they are anemic. This was observed by researchers of the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp and colleagues who followed more than a thousand pregnant women in Burkina Faso.

11 Mar 2011

Allos reaches SPA agreement with FDA for FOLOTYN Phase 3 trial in PTCL

Allos Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that the Company has reached agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under its Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) process for the design of the Company's Phase 3 clinical trial of FOLOTYN® (pralatrexate injection) in patients with previously undiagnosed peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL).

4 Mar 2011

'Real world' guidelines may effectively prevent cardiovascular disease in women

Practical medical advice that works in the "real world" may more effectively prevent cardiovascular disease in women than recommendations based only on findings in clinical research settings, according to the 2011 update to the American Heart Association's cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines for women.

15 Feb 2011

USDA nutrient dosage recommendations not sufficient, says USANA

USANA Health Sciences, Inc. commends the USDA for recognizing that nutritional gaps are common in the average American diet and that dietary supplementation can play a vital role in filling those gaps. However, USANA scientists and advising physicians caution that many important nutrients were not included in the recently published Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 and that the USDA dosage recommendations are not sufficient to improve and maintain overall health.

15 Feb 2011

More research needed to determine link between folic acid and breast cancer

Seven-year study demonstrates clear benefits of fetal surgery to treat spina bifida in babies

Results of a landmark, seven-year National Institutes of Health-funded trial, Management of Myelomeningocele Study (MOMS), demonstrate clear benefit for babies who undergo fetal surgery to treat spina bifida, the most common birth defect in the central nervous system.

11 Feb 2011

Women with high folic acid levels may impact child's risk of developing asthma

Recent Norwegian research suggests that there may be a connection between high levels of folic acid in pregnant mothers and the development of asthma in their children. However, the researchers stress that pregnant women should continue to take folic acid supplements.

10 Feb 2011

Enrollment stopped in one of two global necitumumab Phase III studies in NSCLC

Eli Lilly and Company and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced today that they have stopped enrollment in one of their two global Phase III studies evaluating necitumumab, an investigational anti-cancer agent, as a first-line treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

3 Feb 2011

FOLOTYN Phase 2 peripheral T-cell lymphoma study results published in Journal of Clinical Oncology

Allos Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that the Journal of Clinical Oncology has published data from the Company's pivotal Phase 2 PROPEL study demonstrating clinical activity of FOLOTYN® (pralatrexate injection) in patients with relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL).

20 Jan 2011