Read Case 12 The Folic Acid Fortification Decision: Before and After on pages 351-363 of your text. Once you have read the case, you are to address these questions. The word limit per response is 200 words. 1. Describe the authorizing environment for folic acid fortification in the United States.
Beginning the case study, we are introduced with the call from the British Medical Research Council (MRC) being informed of the significant results showing the benefits of folic acid and the reductions of NTS’s. The next step for the United States was to decide amongst the CDC and the FDA on the best way to implement these results to women of childbearing age. At that point in time, there were only a few ways to ingest folic acid, which brought
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Why would a decision based on strong British studies influence the U.S. decision to fortify cereal products but yield a delayed response in the U.K.? I find that the delayed response to fortify foods with folic acid was due to two factors including the potential adverse health effects as well as deciding what the best way would be to improving the folic acid levels in childbearing women. One example includes the animal studies showing that of high doses of folic acid resulted in conflicting results. Following this study resulted in controlled studies, evaluating the effects of the potential for a higher risk of cancer. However, following these studies, the SCAN reported with the statement,” the evidence for an association between folic acid and increased or reduced cancer risk is equivocal” (p. 360). In addition to the SCAN study on increase risk of cancer, there was also the concern of fortification of folic acid on the elderly population. Overall, I find that for a great period of time the concern of adverse effects caused further studies to be conducted and ultimately delaying the onset of the fortification of folic acid. Aside from adverse health effect, I find that the U.K also struggled to determine the best approach to implementing folic acid. With this, the U.K had narrowed down 4 options. Overall, the final decision was to implement a mandatory fortification of flour products in …show more content…
In the 1993 case of the CDC, they found that the number of cases avoided was estimated at 116 NTD- affected births per year. While the University of California study of 1995 estimated that, the number of cases avoided was estimated at 304 NTD per year. Furthermore, both cases found there to be a substantial economic benefit with the fortification of folic acid. The CDC included a benefit of $5 million per avoided case while the University of California estimated there to be a benefit of $342,500. On of the major differences between the two studies and their values includes the fact the University took into account the loss of productivity. Along with this, I find that the time in which the studies occurred played a role. I noticed that the University estimated there to be substantially more prevented cases than the CDC’s prediction. I find that the difference between the two studies could be due to the fact the University of California’s study come out after the FDA’s decision to mandate the fortification of folic acid in cereal products and that there may have been more accurate research or
Agnes was, “the first to demonstrate that a commonly used food preservative, sulfur dioxide, had a protective effect on vitamin C and a damaging effect on thiamin (King)”. She learned this by studying the vitamin content of many important California-grown foods, wheat, almonds, and walnuts, and the effects of processing them. She also was extremely interested in developing the conclusion of why there were so many low weight (underweight) children, and what the cause was driven from.
A testimonial appeal stemming from the article, was taken up by Denmark, who, in 2011 said that “any foods high in saturated fat” were to be taxed, and this was passed into law. A secondary testimonial came from the United Nations, which declared that heart disease and “uncatchable” diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, etc. pose a greater risk now than ever before. Another testimonial taken from the text was this: “Western diet is now dominated by “low-cost, highly-proc...
"Discard the Vitamins and Eat More Fruit and Vegetables," which was made by Morley. Although, this doc. was biased to one side I was still able to find evidence for my side on this. Now in this doc. they talked about how they were researching people as said in this quote, "A recent study followed women from Iowa who were between 55 to 69 for 22 years." In this quote they said they followed women from 55-69 for 22 years that took vitamins but, the thing is that they watched them for 22 years they will start dieing due to other circumstances other than multivitamin. They also say that in this doc. we should be eating foods instead of vitamins as said from, "These studies suggest we waste a large amount of money on vitamins and other supplements…" But, my question to that is what about people who have allergies they need to get vitamins somewhere and if they can't get them from the foods they should get it from vitamins or, even better, multivitamins which can help on multiple levels of
To begin this study there were a total of 349,043 births but due to missing information of supplement use and the amount of multiple births only 280,127 where used for obtaining information. The study was conducted to show any relationship between the use of multivitamin and folic acid with placental abruption. The findings were quite intriguing. Compared with no use, vitamin supplement use was connected with a 26% decreased risk of abruption with the strongest reduction being when folic acid and a multivitamin were used in tandem followed by a multivitamin alone then by folic acid alone. With the data collected it suggest that folic acid and other vitamin use during pregnancy is associated with a reduced risk of placental
Vitamin B12 deficiency, or Cobalamin deficiency, occurs frequently among elderly people. Vitamin B12 is a nutrient that helps keep the body's nerve and blood cells healthy and helps make DNA, the genetic material, in all cells. Vitamin B12 also helps prevent a type of anemia called megaloblastic anemia that makes people tired and weak. Often times, the symptoms of this deficiency are undetectable because the signs are subtle. This creates several issues including identifying those at risk for deficiency and providing those individuals with the correct treatment. Throughout the paper I will address issues such as the causes and evaluations, treatments and procedures, and dietary impacts of vitamin B12 deficiencies using several studies related to vitamin B12 deficiency within the elderly. The purpose of this paper is to determine what the effect of lack of vitamin B12 has on the elderly and what, if any, can be a preventative for such deficiency.
Folic acid and folate is a B vitamin and an important part of nutritional intake. The B vitamins are a group of water-soluble vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism and folic acid and folate are both forms of vitamin B9 (Barrowclough, 2009). They occur naturally in food and can also be taken as supplements. Vitamin B has a wide range of functions that occur biologically in the body and during pregnancy an important factor of vitamin B9 is the production and maintenance of new cells. Vitamin B9 als...
Since 1916, the United States Department of Agriculture (the government agency responsible for all U.S. policy regarding agriculture, food, and farming) has revised their recommendations several times. Unfortunately, money talks and the USDA’s recommendations are based on outdated science and are influenced by people with business interest. Even so, its recommendations are considered almost “holy” by physicians, nutritionists, and dieters, but in reality, they are the root cause of the problem. A single visit to our local public school cafeteria and it will become clear that they do not have the best interests of the children at heart. What they are feeding our innocent children is preposterous. Doctors, the people we trust and expect to be “the experts”, do not know much about the subject of nutrition. A vast majority of medical schools in the U.S. require just 25-30 hours or less of nutrition training, and some do not require at all. So doctors must rely on the ...
Vastag, Brian. "FDA Reviews Expanded Claims On Health Benefits Of Certain Foods." JNCI: Journal Of The National Cancer Institute 96.16 (2004): 1198-1199.
Before the advent of penicillin, in 1930, infant mortality was common. Without access to birth control and health education, poor couples often bore more children than they could adequately feed. In contrast, modern families are far more educated about birth control, sanitation methods, and have access to health care and antibiotics, even if it is only acquired in the emergency room. With better living conditions and a greater sense of personal security, the population exploded, and the availability of fast food has permitted people to consume high-calorie, nutrition-poor food to the exclusion of almost anything else.
Food science has also done some damage to people’s diets by replacing fresh food in our supermarkets to aisles of boxed and frozen food that lack nutrients in them This problem was noticed in 1977 when a document called Dietary Goals for the United States was created after rates of coronary heart disease had soared in America since World War II. In 1977, the lipid hypothesis, it proposes that dietary or saturated fat causes heart disease by raising the concentration of cholesterol in the blood. Government has been changing the Dietary Guidelines for the United States quite often which proves not even scientists know everything about nutrition. Nutritionism has led to the creation of processed foods which has been
Chronic food shortages are widespread, and malnutrition levels among young children are high. These statistics are slightly higher in rural as opposed to urban areas.... ... middle of paper ... ...
"Global Dietary Changes Threaten Health." World Health Federation. Medtronic Foundation, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. .
The only vitamin I was deficient in was vitamin D. I consumed 72% (10.76 mcg) of my daily recommended intake or DRI. Non-pregn...
Vitamins, a group of organic substances required in our diets in small amounts for growth and nutrition, are usually found in foodstuffs or taken as supplements. Yet vitamins probably present a wider gap between myth and reality in the layman's understanding than almost any other area of our diet. Surveys have found that while a majority of Americans do take vitamin supplements on a regular or occasional basis for reason of health concerns, there exists enormous confusion about the actual purpose and benefits of this practice ("Use of Vitamin and Mineral Supplements in the United States," 1990:161). Most people have a recognition that Vitamin C prevents scurvy, that Vitamin A is found in fish-liver oils, or that Vitamin D is found in dairy products; many people believe that Vitamin E preserves youth and prevents sterility, or that Vitamin C can present colds and cancer. Beyond this, however, there is still considerable ignorance and widespread myth.
There are many women who do not get the quality care, whether it is because of not being educated or not have women health facilities. There are too many women who do not understand the importance of screenings and tests. I plan on working in a rural area to be able to reach out to the women who have limited access to this vital health information. As a nurse, I aspire to reach out to all people of the community, but educating women of the health of them and their babies is my passion. In doing so, I would like to raise awareness of the risk of vitamin and nutrient deficiencies while breastfeeding. This could be harmful for both mother and child. For example, vitamin D, which is essential in absorbing calcium is amongst one of the most common deficiencies in breastfeeding infants.(cite) Milk from the mother contains very little vitamin D, so the baby must have supplementation in order to get daily requirement. (cite) If the baby is not able to absorb calcium, they will develop hypocalcemia. Not many women are aware of this, because care providers are neglecting to tell them until it is too late. Though physicians are aware, they tend to brush it off as if it is unimportant. This happens especially in southern states that get more sunshine. It is very strange that that though we encourage mothers to breastfeed, but are not educating them of these possible deficiencies and how to prevent them as we should. I want to inspire