[ RadSafe ] RE: birth defects in Basrah

[John Jacobus]

Beyond the genetic issue, spina bifida is typically a
nutritonal problem:

"Folic acid (also known as vitamin B9 or folate) is
one of the few nutrients known to prevent neural tube
birth defects such as spina bifida, which affects
about one in 1,000 pregnancies each year in the United
States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
report that women who take the recommended daily dose
of folic acid starting one month before they conceive
and throughout the first trimester reduce their baby's
risk of birth defects such as spina bifida by up to 70
percent"

http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/476.html

--- "Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj at aecl.ca> wrote:

> >3.  Are there any alternative hypotheses for the
> birth defect
> >increases in Basrah, U.S., and U.K. troops which
> have not been ruled
> >out?
> >
> 
> As the researcher says, "spina bifida is a very,
> very common birth defect,
> affecting one to two births out of every 1,000" and
> it "leads to...
> anencephaly, a fatal condition in which part of the
> brain and the skull are
> absent.
> 
> 
>
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=671b97bc-a60e-467d-
> 83cf-8f729acb9edf
> Gene shown to cause spina bifida
> McGill team studied disorder for 10 years
> RENE BRUEMMER, The Gazette, Thursday, April 05, 2007
> 
> McGill University researchers have identified a gene
> that causes the
> developmental disorder spina bifida, the
> second-most-prevalent birth defect
> after cardiac abnormalities.
> 
. . .

+++++++++++++++++++
“We must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent or omniscient — that we are only 6 percent of the world’s population; that we cannot impose our will upon the other 94 percent of mankind; that we cannot right every wrong or reverse each adversity; and therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem.”
-- John F. Kennedy 

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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