Sickle cell anemia is the most widely inherited genetic disorder in the United States. Folic acids are one important nutrient that helps increase and produce some red blood cells in the bone marrow. This paper investigates how folic acid has used a supplement for pregnant women.
Sickle cell anemia can be genetically passed to the baby from a mother who has it or who is a carrier. Symptoms of the disease include headaches, irritability, fatigue, dizziness, diarrhea, cold feeling, difficulty when breathing, difficulty concentrating and pale skin ( Lindenbaum, John, and Klipstein ,16 ).
Malnutrition in pregnant women is the commonest cause of sickle cell anemia. Heavy bleeding also leads to sickle cell anemia ( Hyacinth, Gee, and Hibbert,18 ). Pregnant women lose their folic acid due to morning sickness and because the fetus absorbs most of the folic acid from the woman.
400 to 1000 micrograms of folic acid are recommended as a daily dose by doctors to help prevent a folic acid deficiency in pregnant women ( Haris, 2). Pregnant women can, however, take a higher dose of the nutrient depending on how low their folic acid levels are. They can take up to 1000mcg of the nutrient without overdosing. One of the easiest ways to administer folic acid is through tablets. However, if the levels of folic acid in the body are too low, the medical team administers the folic acid intravenously (Barfield, et al, 10).
The food one eats also plays a huge role in the treatment process (Anderson, et al, 4) .The patient should also consume foods that have a high nutritional value of folic acid. Foods such as oranges, pinto beans, and spinach have a high level of folic acid (Anderson, 25). The combination of folic acid and a balanced diet will steer the way to recovery for a pregnant woman.
Work cited
Anderson, Mavis, et al. "Sickle-cell disease in pregnancy." The Lancet276.7149 (1960): 516-521.
Barfield, Wanda D., et al. "Sickle cell disease and pregnancy outcomes: women of African descent." American journal of preventive medicine 38.4 (2010): S542-S549.
Haris, Nadia. "Folic Acid & Sickle Cell Anemia | LIVESTRONG.COM". LIVESTRONG.COM. N.p., 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
Hyacinth, H. I., B. E. Gee, and J. M. Hibbert. "The role of nutrition in sickle cell disease." Nutrition and metabolic insights 3 (2010): 57.
Lindenbaum, John, and Frederick A. Klipstein. "Folic acid deficiency in sickle-cell anemia." New England Journal of Medicine 269.17 (1963): 875-882.
Scholl, Theresa O., and William G. Johnson. "Folic acid: influence on the outcome of pregnancy." The American journal of clinical nutrition 71.5 (2000): 1295s-1303s.
