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New research has linked low folate levels to miscarriage. An important new study has given new reasons for women thinking of becoming pregnant to ensure they have a good folic acid intake. It may also encourage the authorities to push ahead with folate supplementation of the food supply. Swedish research into women having miscarriages has found that that those with low folate levels in their blood had a higher risk of miscarriage - and that the reason for those miscarriages was more likely to be grossly abnormal chromosomes in the foetus. Other factors which could account for miscarriages such as smoking, the mother's age and her past history of losing pregnancies were allowed for and still the association with low folate stood up. This doesn't tell you that low folate causes miscarriage because there is as yet no good biological reason to explain it. But it does offer reassurance for people pushing for folic acid supplementation to the food supply. Critics have argued in the past that high folate levels might increase miscarriage rates - and this study suggests no such thing.
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