Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate, a B vitamin that occurs naturally in some foods, including vegetables, fruits and dried beans and peas and is essential for health.
Folate is vital for the production and maintenance of our bodies’ cells, especially during rapid periods of growth, such as pregnancy and infancy. It’s needed to make DNA and RNA, the genetic material that dictates cell functions, and it helps prevent changes to DNA that may lead to cancer.
Deficiency of the vitamin could hamper immunity. In animal experiments, severe folate deficiency has been found to impair immunity.
For healthy adults, the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of folate from both natural and synthetic sources (fortified foods and vitamin supplements) is 400 µg a day.
Pregnant women should take more—600 µg a day—to reduce the risk of neural tube defects such as spina bifida in their babies.
Others who may need more than the RDA include people with intestinal disorders that interfere with absorption of nutrients; people who take certain medications; and alcoholics, because alcohol reduces the absorption of folate and promotes its excretion through the kidneys.
The Tolerable Upper Intake Level for folic acid from supplements or fortified foods is 1,000 µg a day.
Folic acid is water–soluble and any excess is excreted in the urine, so the risk of toxicity is small even if you exceed that limit.
Naturally occurring folate from foods is not associated with any health risk.
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Akshaya Srikanth
Does Folic Acid Help My Immune System?
Folic acid is beneficial to your immune system. According to a review published in "Progress in Food & Nutrition Science" in 1991, folic acid deficiency has a negative effect on your body's immune response. Folic acid is a water-soluble vitamin that helps your body produce DNA and RNA. DNA and RNA are essential for the growth and production of cells such as white blood cells that are integral to your immune system.
Dose
Taking the recommended dietary allowance, or RDA, of folic acid ensures your immune system continues to function at optimal levels. The RDA for folic acid varies according to age. Infants less than 6 months old need about 65 mcg of folic acid daily, while those that are 7 months to 1 year old need 80 mcg. Children between 1 and 3 years of age need 150 mcg of folic acid each day. This RDA increases to 200 mcg between the ages of 4 and 8. When children reach the ages of 9 to 13, they need 300 mcg of folic acid daily. People 14 years of age and above need 400 mcg of folic acid. Pregnant women need 600 mcg of folic acid, while breastfeeding women need about 500 mcg daily.
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Immune System
The immune system is your body's natural defense system that protects you from infections and pathogenic substances. Your immune response refers to the collective set of steps your immune system takes to protect you. White blood cells, or leukocytes, are cells your immune system uses to attack infections. The two types of leukocytes are phagocytes and lymphocytes. Phagocytes destroy invading organisms. Lymphocytes are further divided into two types, B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes. B lymphocytes identify invading substances, or antigens, while T lymphocytes seek out and destroy them. B lymphocytes identify and tag antigens through the use of antibodies.
Folic Acid and Immune Response
Folic acid deficiency reduces the ability of B lymphocytes to secrete antibodies necessary to identify antigens, according to the "Progress in Food & Nutrition Science" review. Folic acid deficiency also decreases your T lymphocytes' ability to destroy potential threats. The review suggests that your overall ability to resist infections decreases when you do not receive adequate amounts of folic acid.
Low folate levels decrease your levels of proteins involved in immune response. The study collected blood plasma samples from people who were treated with either a placebo or 1.2 mg of folic acid daily for 12 weeks during a randomized controlled trial. The researchers then measured homocysteine and folate levels and found that folic acid supplements helped strengthen the immune system of the test subjects involved.
Folic Acid and Allergic Response.
Folic acid may help ameliorate your response to allergens, according to a study published in "The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology" in June 2009. Conducted by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, the study determined that people with folate levels below 8 ng/mL were 40 percent more likely to have wheezing problems than those with folate levels higher than 18 ng/mL. Elevated IgE antibodies are signs of allergic predisposition. People with folate levels that were less than 8 ng/mL were 30 percent more likely to have elevated IgE antibodies than people with folate levels above 18 ng/mL. People with folate levels below 8 ng/mL were 16 percent more likely to be asthmatic than people with folate levels exceeding 18 ng/mL.
Definitely, folic acid will help to improve immune system of body.folic acid helps in the production of white blood cells,they are soldiers of the body which protects against diseases and foreign matters.
Cell mediated mediated immunity is especially affected by folate deficiency: the blastogenic response of T lymphocytes to certain mitogens is decreased in folate-deficient humans and animals, and the thymus is preferentially altered. The effects of folic acid deficiency upon humoral immunity have been more thoroughly investigated in animals than in humans, and the antibody responses to several antigens have been shown to decrease. Conversely, the phagocytic and bactericidal capacities of polymorphonuclear cells have been studied mainly in folate-deficient humans. However results in this field are controversial. Alterations in immune system functions could lead to decreased resistance to infections, as commonly observed in folate-deficient humans and animals.
What was the supplementation range that folic acid has been tested?
Folic acid is a stable vitamin in the serum with an estimated half-life of about 48 d in a comparison to B1, for example, of 0.07. The reference range for the serum vitamin is 3-18 ng/ml with an estimated median and average of 7.1. The RDA for main population groups is 0.4 mg/d for the natural vitamin form and about 0.32 mg/d for a synthetic form.
As for all other micronutrients, the physiological effect of the vitamin on the human body has a U-shape trend and such an effect is also persists probably for the immunological activities.
Such U-shape effect is strongly ignored by the majority of the scientists who are studying the effects of folic acid on human physiology. When meta-analyses are performed, the statisticians are checking very carefully the study design, subject number, etcetera, ignoring thoroughly what should be the reasonable allotment of the vitamin. Finally they are taking together all the studies with low supplementation (mostly rare) and studies with 5 mg/d and over and getting an output of no effect or even negative one.
Because of a high rate of polymorphism in crucial enzymes activating by folic acid, in some studies very high quantity of daily folic acid (5 mg/d and more) was found helpful for patients with polymorphism. Such indication of 5 mg might be in the consensus for such people but they are extremely out of the range for the whole population.
Any discussion for the effect of folic acid on the physiologic activity for the whole population (not for example, for patients with >25microM homocysteine) should be based on studies in which the vitamin was supplemented at an amount of about 0.16 mg/d (assuming the same amount, at least, is consumed in food).
Such studies are extremely rare.
The B complex vitamin, simply called folate - and also known as folacin or folic acid at times - has a very important role to play in many of the vital systems that are vital to the maintenance of the body’s metabolic rate and internal biochemical balance in the health continuum of the human body. Scientist have found that folate is vital for the biochemical synthesis of the essential nucleic acids, DNA and RNA; at the same time, research has still not let us to an understanding of the exact role performed by folate in human cellular metabolism. Folate is also involved in the synthesis of some essential biochemical proteins that are essential for cellular reproduction and division; therefore it is not hard to realize just how devastating a deficiency of this vitamin could be to a person. Organs that are most affected or hardest hit by a deficiency of folate include organs which are dependent on the rapid proliferation of new cells, such as bone marrow tissues, hair and fingernails, the immune system, as well as certain mucous membranes and red blood cells.
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