Importance of Folic Acid

Vanessa Minnillo is the celebrity face of a new campaign called “Girlfriends for Folate!” The campaign is sponsored by The March of Dimes, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, and DailyCandy.com. The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness among women about the importance of taking folic acid daily.

Folate is a B vitamin that can be taken as folic acid. The vitamin helps cells regenerate and reduce the risk of spine and brain birth defects in babies, known as neural tube defects. These defects can form in the first weeks of pregnancy, before a woman even knows she’s pregnant, which is why it is so important to take folic acid on a daily basis. For its part in the campaign, Bayer will donate $1 for every woman who registers with Girlfriends for Folate. Minnillo will lead a celebrity March of Dimes in either NYC, LA, Houston, or Minneapolis, depending on which U.S. region has the most registered participants. The regions are divided into: Edgy East, Midwest Maven, Southern Belle, and Woman of the West.

Benefits of Vitamin A

What do broccoli, carrots and milk have in common? They are all an important part of nature's arsenal to protect your skin from the effects of aging and the environment. The common element in these foods is that they are all good sources of Vitamin A, which act as an anti-aging agent.

Many people equate only eyes and vision with Vitamin A. But the health of our epithelial tissue -- skin and the lining of passageways that open to the outside of the body, such as the throat and sinuses -- is directly dependent on the amount of Vitamin A in our diet. Vitamin A acts as an antioxidant to neutralize harmful elements in our skin, helping to prevent wrinkles, resist infection and keep our skin youthful.