Young women not getting enough folic acid

WASHINGTON - More U.S. women are taking daily supplements of folic acid, a B vitamin crucial to prevent some major birth defects, but the number remains too low, federal health officials said on Thursday. Forty percent of women ages 18 to 45 said in a survey last year that they took the supplements each day, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report. That compares to 28 percent in 1995, the CDC said.