Mental health is a very serious public health problem that has grown considerably in recent years. As a result, several studies to understand how to handle this issue in the best way. In this sense, recent research has shown that folic acid can reduce the number of suicide attempts.
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If you didn't think this would be possible, follow along and understand the role of this nutrient in psychological health.
Folic acid, the name for vitamin B9, is a micronutrient found primarily in whole grains. There is a great deficiency of it in Brazil and, for this reason, a food fortification program with it was created.
You can see that wheat flour is enriched with iron and folic acid.
This was done precisely to help with the intake of this nutrient, which is relevant to brain health, as it participates in the formation of new cells. Given the importance of this vitamin for the brain, researchers conducted a study to assess its influence mental health and, as a result, identified that folic acid reduced suicide attempts in adults Americans.
The study
The work was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. Scholars used data from 867,000 people and observed a 44% reduction in suicide attempts and self-mutilation. In addition, the research also indicated that each additional month of acid treatment showed a further 5% decrease in suicide rates.
How can folic acid help with mental health?
More studies are still needed to clarify its role in psychological health and suicide prevention, but there are data indicating that this nutrient participates in the production of serotonin, which is known as the “happiness hormone”, since it regulates the mood state of people.
In recent years, there has been a considerable increase in the number of deaths for this cause around the world, especially in the United States. The reasons that are leading people, especially young people, to this are diverse.
Results like this are encouraging, given the expectation of finding alternatives to treat problems such as anxiety and depression, which are often associated with suicide attempts in the population worldwide.
