Vitamin B12 Or Folate Deficiency Anaemia - Causes - NHS

Causes of folate deficiency

Folate dissolves in water, which means your body is unable to store it for long periods of time.

Your body's store of folate is usually enough to last 4 months. This means you need folate in your daily diet to ensure your body has sufficient stores of the vitamin.

Like vitamin B12 deficiency anaemia, folate deficiency anaemia can develop for a number of reasons.

Diet

Good sources of folate include broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, peas, chickpeas and brown rice.

If you do not regularly eat these types of foods, you may develop a folate deficiency.

Folate deficiency caused by a lack of dietary folate is more common in people who have a generally unbalanced and unhealthy diet, people who regularly misuse alcohol, and people following a restrictive diet that does not involve eating good sources of folate.

Malabsorption

Sometimes your body may be unable to absorb folate as effectively as it should. This is usually caused by an underlying condition affecting your digestive system, such as coeliac disease.

Excessive peeing

You may lose folate from your body if you pee frequently.

This can be caused by an underlying condition that affects one of your organs, such as:

• congestive heart failure – where the heart is unable to pump enough blood around the body
• acute liver damage – often caused by drinking excessive amounts of alcohol
• long-term dialysis – where a machine that replicates the kidney function is used to filter waste products from the blood

Medicine

Some types of medicines reduce the amount of folate in your body or make the folate harder to absorb.

These include some anticonvulsants (medicines used to treat epilepsy), colestyramine, sulfasalazine and methotrexate.

Your GP will be aware of medicines that can affect your folate levels and will monitor you if necessary.

Other causes

Your body sometimes requires more folate than normal. This can cause folate deficiency if you cannot meet your body's demands for the vitamin.

Your body may need more folate than usual if you:

• are pregnant – read more about complications of folate deficiency in pregnancy
• have cancer
• have a blood disorder – such as sickle cell anaemia, an inherited blood disorder that causes red blood cells to develop abnormally
• are fighting an infection or health condition that causes inflammation (redness and swelling)

Premature babies (born before the 37th week of pregnancy) are also more likely to develop a folate deficiency because their developing bodies require higher amounts of folate than normal.