Answer to Question 1
By consuming enough folate during her childbearing years a woman can ensure her folate intake both before and during pregnancy is adequate. With adequate folate intake before and during pregnancy, a woman can reduce her child's risk of having one of the devastating birth defects known as neural tube defects (NTD)abnormalities of the brain and spinal cord apparent at birth. The FDA ordered all enriched grain products such as bread, cereal, rice, and pasta sold in the United States to be fortified with an absorbable synthetic form of folate, folic acid. Since this fortification began, typical folate intakes from fortified foods have increased dramatically, along with average blood folate values. Among women of childbearing age, for example, prevalence of low serum folate concentrations dropped from 21 percent before folate fortification was introduced to less than 1 percent afterward. During the same period, the U.S. incidence of NTD dropped by a fourth. Miscarriages and certain other birth defects, such as cleft lip, diminished as well.
Answer to Question 2
The main function of vitamin K is to help activate proteins that help clot the blood, so vitamin K deficiency causes uncontrolled bleeding. Newborn infants are most at risk for vitamin K deficiency because they are born with a sterile intestinal tract and the vitamin Kproducing bacteria take weeks to establish themselves. To prevent hemorrhage, the newborn is given a single dose of vitamin K at birth. People who have taken antibiotics that have killed the bacteria in their intestinal tracts also may develop vitamin K deficiency. Supplements of vitamin K are needed in these cases.
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