Taking folic acid turns stool dark green

Whether women are preparing for pregnancy or pregnant, when taking folic acid tablets, they will find that the color of their daily stools is green or black. This makes many women very worried and they mistakenly believe that there is something wrong with their bodies. So, why does folic acid tablets cause stools to turn green?

Why does folic acid tablets cause green stools?

Folic acid, also known as vitamin B29, is an essential substance in the growth and development of the fetus. It is a nutrient in the vitamin B2 group and has the characteristics of being water-soluble, so it cannot be accumulated in the body. This nutrient was first discovered in broccoli leaves, which is why it is called "folic acid tablets." Folic acid is an important nutrient. It is an important component of DNA, helps the human brain function normally, and is an essential vitamin for humans. For pregnant women, taking appropriate folic acid tablets can effectively prevent premature birth, deformity, spina bifida, underweight, cleft lip and other conditions in the fetus.

The Chinese Nutrition Research Association recommends that folic acid supplements can be started from the first 90 days of pregnancy to ensure that the body's folic acid level is maintained at a certain level, to prepare for the storage of folic acid for the baby, and to allow the baby to grow up in an environment with sufficient folic acid in the early stages. The fetus begins to develop neural tube defects in the first four weeks of pregnancy, and by the time the pregnant woman realizes she is pregnant, the neural tube defects of the fetus have already closed, so it is too late.

The role of folic acid

1. Reasonably avoid neural tube defects in the fetus. Many pregnant mothers still don't understand what neural tube defect is. Simply put, neural tube defect is the spinal nerve and the human brain. During the early growth and development period of pregnancy, the fetus needs to develop and fold the neural tube defect. If the amount of folic acid is insufficient, it will cause abnormal closure of the neural tube defect, which will lead to developmental deformities of the baby, such as encephalopathy, anencephaly, intellectual disability, spina bifida, etc. The British Disease Monitoring Center found that if women take 400 mg of folic acid tablets every day during the first month of pregnancy and the first three months of pregnancy, the risk of neural tube defects in their babies can be reduced by 50% to 70%.