Although some people think of folic acid as a vitamin important only for pregnant women, men also need this micronutrient. Getting enough folic acid each day is essential for men to maintain their good health. Eat food fortified with folic acid or foods that naturally contain folate to boost your consumption of the vitamin.
Purpose
Folic acid, or vitamin B-9, is a water-soluble vitamin that your body needs to carry out important physiological functions. Folic acid works with other B-vitamins to break down proteins and create new ones. The vitamin also helps your body produce DNA, a molecule that carries information about your genes. Folic acid is essential to the production of new red blood cells, making it important to get enough of the nutrient each day.
Recommended Dietary Allowance
Although folic acid is best known for helping pregnant women prevent birth defects, men should take this vitamin every day to stay in good health. The recommended dietary allowance for boys under the age of 13 is 300 mcg per day. Teenage boys and adult men should get 400 mcg per day.
Breakfast cereals, white flour and white rice are typically fortified with folic acid to help you get enough. Leafy green vegetables, asparagus, bananas, melons, lemons, beans and liver are naturally high in folate, a naturally occurring form of folic acid. For example, 1/2 cup of cooked, enriched white rice contains 65 mcg of folic acid, while 1/2 cup of romaine lettuce has 40 mcg of folate.
Benefits
Getting enough folic acid each day helps your intestines absorb nutrients. Appropriate folic acid consumption also prevents megaloblastic anemia, in which your red blood cells grow too large. According to the Mayo Clinic, some scientific evidence suggests that taking folic acid prevents Alzheimer's disease, age-related cognitive decline, pancreatic cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, hearing loss, depression and cardiovascular disease. Folic acid may also improve fertility in men by increasing sperm count.
Risks
Because folic acid is a water-soluble vitamin, your chances of overdosing are low. However, some researchers worry that taking too much folic acid may increase your risk of certain cancers. Physician Joel Mason, director of the Vitamins and Carcinogenesis Laboratory at the Tufts University School of Medicine, notes that colon cancer rates rose during the late 1990s, coinciding with fortification of foods with folic acid. Taking too much folic acid may also increase your risk of prostate and lung cancer. To assess the risks and benefits of taking folic acid, talk to your doctor.
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