Can nutritional supplements help you grow strong, live longer and feel like a super-fortified new-age warrior?

Maybe.

Scientific research is beginning to link nutritional deficiencies with such serious health problems as birth defects, coronary disease and brittle bones. The research is proving that some nutrients really can keep you healthy throughout your lifetime -- and assure the vitality of future generations.

The B vitamins, particularly B-12 and folic acid, are essential, according to the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences, which sponsored a recent study.

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The research showed that low intakes of folate, the naturally occurring folic acid found in food, have been linked with neural tube defects in infants and heart disease in adults, says Roy M. Pitkin, professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, who serves on the nutrition board.

To reduce the chances of certain birth defects, he says, women should eat a varied diet and take 400 micrograms of folic acid, a synthetic form of folate. Folate is found naturally in foods. Folic acid can be found in enriched bread, pasta, flour, crackers, breakfast cereal, rice and other foods in the United States.

It's critical, research shows, that women take the supplements before becoming pregnant, since folate needs to be in the system at least a month before conception occurs to prevent neural tube birth defects, like spina bifida, which causes a sometimes crippling curvature of the spinal column.

Dr. Sandy Schlicker, another food and nutrition board member, disagrees that a supplement is always necessary. She thinks most women can get enough folate from eating fortified cereals and a diet rich in beans and dark green vegetables.

"You are always better off getting your vitamins and minerals from food," she says. "The one exception is vitamin B-12. Research has shown that 10 to 30 percent of people over 50 have lost the ability to absorb B-12 (naturally)," she adds. (Your doctor can test for the condition at your request.)

Along with folic acid, B-12 helps the body neutralize homocystein. And high levels of homocystein have been linked to coronary disease.

-- Valerie Alvord, Contributing Writer