Take folic acid from 3 months of pregnancy preparation to 3 months of early pregnancy, and take multivitamin after 3 months.
Once I was on the night shift. Near midnight, a very handsome young man came to the window. He asked me stiffly: “Doctor (another person who mistook pharmacists for doctors, I can’t explain the difference between pharmacists and doctors to him in a word or two, so I can only call him), do you have XXX brand folic acid here?” ]
I thought I heard wrong, so I asked him, “Do you want to buy XXX XXX or folic acid?” ]
As a result, he told me with certainty: “I want folic acid, brand XXX XXX.”
Under this circumstance, I was puzzled and couldn’t help asking, “Did the doctor recommend you to buy this brand of folic acid?” ]
Sure enough, his answer was: [No, it was recommended by my wife’s friend.]
Hearing this, I know fairly well.
I told him: Folic acid is a single active vitamin, It will be produced by different pharmaceutical companies, So there will be different trade names, Which is the brand you said. But as far as I know, There is no XXX XXX brand folic acid in the Chinese drug market. You said XXX XXX, In fact, it is a brand of multivitamin taken during pregnancy. This medicine contains 12 vitamins, 7 minerals and trace elements. Such as vitamin A 1.2 mg, calcium 125 mg, folic acid 0.8 mg, iron 60 mg, It just happens to contain folic acid, but it is not a drug containing folic acid alone. Since the tablet type of multivitamin tablets during pregnancy is usually relatively large and may cause uncomfortable feeling in the stomach, it is generally recommended to take them in the middle and late stages of pregnancy to avoid the early pregnancy reaction in the early stage of pregnancy.]
After explaining this to him, I went on to ask him, “Why did you buy folic acid?” ]
He said somewhat shyly: “My wife and I plan to have a baby. I heard people say that taking folic acid in advance can prevent spina bifida of the baby, so I plan to buy some for pregnancy.”
Knowing the purpose of his purchase, I told him: [Our pharmacy has regular folic acid tablets that can be taken in preparation for pregnancy. Each tablet contains 0.4 milligrams of folic acid, A box of 31 tablets, Healthy pregnant women can take one tablet a day, It can be supplemented until the first 3 months of pregnancy. This folic acid tablet taken in preparation for pregnancy is an over-the-counter drug. You can buy it directly at a pharmacy or pharmacy without a doctor’s prescription. After the first 3 months, the fetus’s demand for vitamins will increase. At this time, folic acid is usually recommended to be replaced by pregnancy multivitamins, that is, drugs such as XXX XXX.
“Of course, the pregnancy multivitamin is not the only brand, There are other brands, Their effects are similar. These pregnancy multivitamins usually contain 0.8 milligrams or 1 milligram of folic acid. When taking it, there is no need to supplement folic acid. Normally, Medically, it is safe for healthy pregnant women or pregnant women to supplement 0.4-1 milligram of folic acid every day. Women who have conceived babies with neural tube defects (spina bifida) before and women who have had babies with neural tube defects in their families have had a history of giving birth to babies with neural tube defects. The folic acid supplement will be larger, requiring a daily supplement of 5 milligrams. Folic acid tablets containing 5 milligrams of folic acid are also sold in pharmacies, but this folic acid is for the women with special pregnancy and childbirth history I mentioned earlier. It is a prescription drug and should be taken under the guidance of a doctor’s prescription.]
[My wife is in good health. We have no family history of this kind of disease and have never had a baby before. We don’t need folic acid tablets containing 5 milligrams of folic acid each.] After listening to my explanation, he couldn’t wait to explain his wife’s physical condition to me.
[That 0.4 mg folic acid is suitable for your wife. How many boxes do you want? I asked bluntly.
[I’ll call my wife. She asked me to buy XXX brand folic acid. Since you said no, I have to tell her what you told me to see if she wants to buy it.] Then he went to the side and called.
Usually take 0.4 mg of folic acid every day.
After a while, he returned to the window again and asked me to sell him a box of 0.4 milligrams of folic acid.
[One box is only enough for one month. Usually, if a healthy couple does not have contraception, the probability of pregnancy within one year is about 80%, so it takes time and patience to prepare for pregnancy. You can consider buying two more boxes and continue to take them when you are pregnant. Besides, this medicine is not expensive.] I gave him a quantitative advice.
[Then give me three boxes.] He agreed readily.
[If you are not pregnant after eating three boxes, do you need to continue eating? Will long-term eating be harmful to the body? His question is coming up again.
This is really a very considerate husband, All these detailed questions have been asked. In fact, You can always eat folic acid during pregnancy preparation, Because this is a vitamin that our bodies need everyday, Ordinary people get enough from their diet, During pregnancy, because the fetus also needs it, So pregnant mothers need to add extra, Moreover, folic acid in folic acid supplements can be better absorbed and utilized by the body than folic acid in foods. A daily folic acid supplement of 0.4 milligrams will not cause harm to the body. It is emphasized that starting to eat before pregnancy is to maintain folic acid in pregnant women at a certain level. In order to ensure a better folic acid nutrition status in the early stage of the fetus. Some studies have shown that, After taking folic acid, it takes about 4 weeks for women to improve the state of folic acid deficiency in their bodies. Therefore, in the early stage of pregnancy, that is, the sensitive period of fetal neural tube formation, only sufficient folic acid can meet the needs of nervous system development, and persistent eating in the first 3 months after pregnancy can better prevent neural tube defects.
After I explained these situations to him in detail, I took three boxes of medicine to him and told him that he reminded his wife to take medicine at a fixed time every day. It is best to choose an easy time to remember and not to pay too much attention to whether to eat before or after meals, because the absorption of this medicine has little to do with diet. He took the medicine, thanked me and went to the cashier to pay with ease.
Buying folic acid and choosing the standard name of Chinese medicine are guaranteed.
I was deeply impressed by the experience of providing medication consultation this time, not only because of the man’s care and consideration, but also because it exposed a hidden danger of medication in people’s daily life: in life, when we need medication, most people will subconsciously follow the advice of family or friends.
But is the advice of family and friends correct? Many people will not think further.
In this case, If this man goes to a drugstore casually and listens to a friend’s recommendation to buy XXX XXX, his wife may have taken multivitamins during pregnancy preparation. Although this may not necessarily cause harm to the body, such drugs are much more expensive than folic acid, and wasting money to buy unnecessary drugs is not worth it.
In addition, pharmacies sell both 0.4 milligrams of folic acid per tablet and 5 milligrams of folic acid per tablet. If the people who buy the medicine are not careful enough and the people who sell the medicine are not professional enough, healthy people who buy 5 milligrams of folic acid to prepare for pregnancy will run the risk of overdose of the medicine.
Who should be asked when medication is needed?
Drugs are highly specialized products. It is better to listen to the opinions of professionals such as doctors or pharmacists so as not to be misled by friends or relatives.
Of course, now the vast majority of people’s awareness of safe medication has been strengthened, Take folic acid as an example to prevent neural tube defects in babies. After listening to the opinions of the people around me, many netizens will still consult me on microblogs: [There are many brands of folic acid on the market, including products with Chinese medicine standard brands, as well as products with small blue cap signs on medicine bottles. The following is a list of health food products. Which brand should I eat? ]
As a pharmacist, I suggest to choose products with the approval number of the Chinese medicine standard. As for how to choose a brand, strictly speaking, as long as it is a product produced by a regular pharmaceutical factory bought from a regular pharmacy, the quality difference is not big.
The reason why folic acid with the standard name of Chinese medicine is recommended is that this kind of folic acid is approved according to strict procedures for drug approval and listing, and a series of clinical trials have been conducted before listing and selling.
More importantly, as drugs sold to ordinary people in the market, there are also very strict operating procedures and specifications in the production process, which are strictly supervised by China Food and Drug Administration. However, the pre-market tests and quality monitoring in the production process of this kind of health care products with the small blue cap logo are not as strict as those of drugs.
It is for this reason that we often see or hear from the media that such and such health food has illegally added undesirable ingredients of what, or that such health food quality spot checks have found negative reports such as only starch but not marked effective ingredients.
For safety reasons and in order to effectively prevent the neural tube malformation of the baby, I recommend pregnant women or pregnant mothers in early pregnancy to choose folic acid with the Chinese medicine standard name, that is, folic acid with [Chinese medicine standard word XXXXXXX] printed on the medicine box.
This article is taken from the book “Ji Lianmei Talk: Chinese Should Use Drugs This Way”, which was reprinted by the author’s authorized clove garden.