Folic acid question

[1moregirl]

I bought Megafol today from Chemist Warehouse ($3 for bottle of 100 tablets .5 mg). I stocked up and bought a few bottles. So am I right in thinking I should take 4 of these tablets per day, with dose spread out? That would be 2000mcg of folic acid, which I think is recommended for older Mum's? Thanks in advance for replying. :)

[missiz]

I am currently on Megafol 5 and it is a 5mg tablet, there are also 100 in the bottle... I am thinking its the same thing but you may have misread the quantity in each tablet. But I was told by the pharmacist to only take half a tablet a day and that would still be 2500µg (micrograms). Make sure you check if they are 0.5mg or 5mg. the usual recommendation for pre pregnancy folic acid is only something like 800µg so if the tablets are 5mg you are taking heaps more than that.

[1moregirl]

Missiz - hi. No I didn't misread the bottle Hun. It's called 'Megafol 0.5' and each tablet contains 0.5 mg folic acid. It says on the back that the recommended daily dose is one tablet per day, which would be 0.5mg or 500mcg. So I was understanding if I took 4 per day it would be equivalent to 2.0 mg or 2000mcg. I think the ones you have Missiz are a higher strength folic acid, hence why you were advised to just take half a one per day.

[missiz]

ok no worries, just wanted to check because mine is so similar. what you are planning to do with spreading the 4 tablets over the day should work well and be a total of 2mg :) yea i do have a higher strength but I didnt realise you could get them in different amounts for the megafol

[1moregirl]

I didn't realise either Hun. Lol! Soooo tricky. I'm not sure how I will take them. I wonder if I can take 2 in the morning and 2 in evening? How are you taking them?

[atomic sagebrush]

Good catch missiz always good to doublecheck, much appreciated.

Yes 4 per day with dose spread out over the day. :agree: take thru first tri and then gradually wean off by spacing doses further and further apart.

[missiz]

because mine are such a high dose, I am already only taking half a tablet and they are so darn tiny!! so I am just taking that in the mid morning sometime. The only other way I could think of spreading my dose over the day is to break it into quarters, but it could end up just powder in my hands lol

[atomic sagebrush]

That is what I hate about the Megafol 5, Missiz!! It's really hard to split it up and then you just pee most of it out anyway. I don't get why they make it that way. Just keep doing what you're doing.

[missiz]

so how much folic acid can our body take in at a time/per day? with me having around 2mg, its likely I wont be absorbing that much. Would it be worth it to try and take a quarter morning and night?

[atomic sagebrush]

I'm not sure if anyone really knows the answer to that.

I wouldn't bother with splitting the pills any more than that. If you're concerned about it you could get the smaller dose and take during the middle of the day but then that puts you taking really quite a lot. I'd just stick to the one pill halved.