What are the side effects of folic acid for men?

As we all know, women need to supplement folic acid regularly when preparing for pregnancy. In this way, the success rate of pregnancy will be greatly improved. Not only that, folic acid should also be supplemented regularly after pregnancy, which is very effective for preserving the fetus. Therefore, women often supplement folic acid in life. It is rare to hear about men taking folic acid. Men must pay attention. If they take too much folic acid, it will produce side effects.

Are there any side effects for men taking folic acid?

"Neural tube defect" is a disease in which the nervous system is underdeveloped in the early embryo, which can lead to three diseases in newborns: spina bifida, anencephaly, and encephalocele. Most of these babies die before birth, during birth, or within one year after birth. In the United States alone, tens of thousands of babies are affected by this disease each year. China is a country with a high incidence of neural tube defects. Studies have found that the cause of this disease is mainly due to the lack of folic acid in pregnant women. In order to prevent neural tube defects, China has begun to popularize folic acid supplementation for women of childbearing age. As the contractor of the Sino-US birth defect prevention cooperation project, Peking University Pharmaceutical will soon start donating 50 million worth of Silian folic acid to maternal and child health care hospitals across the country to promote more women of childbearing age to take folic acid as early as possible and scientifically prevent the occurrence of fetal neural tube defects.

Of course, taking folic acid is not a "patent" of women. As the other half of the reproduction, the father's nutrition is crucial to the future health of the child. Experts suggest that expectant fathers should also supplement folic acid from before pregnancy, just like expectant mothers. Although the child is conceived in the mother's body, the quality of the offspring depends largely on the quality of the fertilized egg. To put it in a metaphor, the expectant father can better create "excellent seeds" by supplementing folic acid before pregnancy, allowing the expectant mother to conceive more smoothly; while the expectant mother can scientifically cultivate this "excellent seed" by supplementing folic acid before pregnancy, ensuring the baby's smooth and healthy birth.

Many male friends tend to think that nutritional supplements are the exclusive domain of women. In fact, it is very important for men, especially future fathers, to have a comprehensive and balanced nutrition. Because men often have bad habits of smoking and drinking, which are not only harmful to the body, but also easily cause the loss of many nutrients. Even if there are no such bad habits, male friends tend to eat meaty and fishy foods, and eat less vegetables and fruits. This can easily lead to the deficiency of many vitamins and minerals, which has an adverse effect on the body, and then affects many body functions including reproductive function, which will inevitably affect the next generation.

Folic acid is an essential vitamin for the human body and is involved in the metabolism of nucleic acids, amino acids, proteins and phospholipids. The human body cannot synthesize it by itself and must rely entirely on exogenous supply. For future fathers, folic acid is an important substance to improve sperm quality. When folic acid is insufficient in the male body, the concentration of semen and sperm motility decrease, which will reduce the chance of conception. In addition, since folic acid is involved in the synthesis of genetic substances DNA and RNA in the body, the "seeds" that convey the genetic information of the father-to-be cannot do without folic acid! According to research from the University of California, USA, folic acid is also very important for male reproductive health. The current US Department of Agriculture has recommended that the daily dietary standard must ensure that adult men consume 0.4 mg of folic acid per day.