Folate, one of the B-group of vitamins, is needed for many important processes inside your body, including making red blood cells. If you have less folate than you need, your body won’t make as many red blood cells, and the red blood cells that are produced will be abnormally large in size and won’t last as long as they should.

Anemia occurs when there are too few red blood cells or not enough hemoglobin in the blood. Folate-deficiency anemia is a type of anemia that’s caused when there isn’t enough folate in the body.

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