What Are the Top Folate Benefits for Men?
Medically Reviewed by Dr. Nicole Avena

Brain Health, Healthy Lifestyle, Ingredients, Nutrition

You may be familiar with B vitamins such as vitamin B1 (thiamin), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), and vitamin B3 (niacin).

But do you know what vitamin B9 is named?

What Is Folate?

Vitamin B9 is called folate. It’s a group of substances that supply the body with chemically simple methyl groups. The body needs folates but can’t make them from scratch and, therefore, must get them from foods or dietary supplements.

Folate is vital at every life stage, from early development in the womb through birth and all the way through adulthood. But for many people, lifestyle factors, popularly used medications, or common gene mutations can deplete their folate stores. For these individuals, and most everyone else, the best dietary form of folate is methylfolate (MF).

What Is Methylfolate?

Methylfolate (technically methyltetrahydrofolate) is the body’s most active form of folate. All our cells need MF to drive specialized enzymes that make our DNA, genes, and chromosomes.

Also, our cells need MF to repair damage to DNA. Methyl, coming mainly from folate, also is very important for epigenetics – turning genes on and off using methyl – as well as to enable cells to grow, maintain their structure, and make new cells.

Our estimated 200 billion brain cells need MF for all these reasons. But they also need MF to enable them to make nerve cells’ electrical insulation and important neurotransmitters.

While considering these impressive benefits of MF, it’s also important to be aware of the potential dangers of not taking MF.

Folate Mutations

When consumed, methylfolate doesn’t need to be converted into active folate – as the body’s most active folate form, it can be immediately used by our folate enzyme systems. One of the most common human gene mutations is the C677T mutation in the enzyme Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR), whose function is to produce MF.

This mutation is associated with impaired folate utilization from food. Taking MF by mouth bypasses this mutation: as premade, authentic MF, it doesn’t need to be produced by MTHFR. For people with C677T, or various other less common MTHFR mutations, methylfolate is a health breakthrough!

Folate-Rich Foods

Avocados

This incredibly underrated fruit is full of healthy fats that help to sustain brain blood flow and maintain blood pressure already within a normal range. Avocados are rich in many vitamins, including folate.

Asparagus

Asparagus generates energy for your brain and body and is an incredible source of fiber and folate. It’s also an excellent source of vitamins A, E, and K. Asparagus is loaded with polyphenols and provides generous amounts of phosphorus, iron, and chromium.

Cruciferous Vegetables

Cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli and Brussels sprouts, are rich in folate. They also contain sulforaphane, which our friendly gut bacteria can convert into substances that help the body detoxify various potential toxins. They’re also high in carotenoids which are powerful antioxidants and assist with our vision and brain function.

Leafy Green Vegetables

Leafy green vegetables have tremendous health benefits. They provide an enormous array of vitamins, essential minerals, carotenoids, and free-radical blocking antioxidants to help protect the brain and body against toxins. One of the vitamins abundant in these nutrient-dense vegetables is folate.

Spinach

This nutrient-dense vegetable is a good source of fiber and is rich in magnesium, potassium, and vitamins A and K. Spinach also contains a high level of folate, which may help relieve mood issues.

What Are the Top Folate Benefits for Men?

Here are just a few of the many folate benefits for men:

Fundamental to the growth, renewal, and functioning of cells, tissues, and organs.*
Helps support a healthy mood, memory, cognition, and behavior.*
Enhances the clinically demonstrated mood benefits of SAMe (s-adenosyl-methionine).*
Essential for the brain to make the key neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine.*
Promotes the brain’s healthy production of melatonin, our main sleep hormone.*
Enhances the body’s regulation of homocysteine, a potentially toxic human metabolic product.*

Other folate benefits for men may include mood and cardiovascular support.

Folate Supplements

Most folate vitamins use inexpensive, synthetic folic acid. This is a problem because folic acid can’t be used by the body until it’s converted to methylfolate.

If your body can’t convert folic acid to MF, you’re missing out on the benefits of this vitamin for mood, brain, and organ function.*

Since MF isn’t commonly found in foods and very rarely provided by dietary supplements, BrainMD has made MF a priority ingredient in our brain-directed dietary supplements.

To ensure you’re receiving enough MF daily, consider taking…

BrainMD’s MethylFolate Supplement

Methylfolate is a form of the folate vitamin that’s better utilized than folic acid or other folates.* BrainMD’s MethylFolate is essential for mood, cognition, behavior, and overall brain and body health.*

Methylfolate is the body’s most fully active form of folate, a vitamin that provides methyl groups (-CH3) which are crucial for a broad range of brain functions, including healthy mood.*

Highly Bioavailable Source of Methyl Groups

To be utilized by the body, dietary folates from foods or supplements must first be converted to methylfolate. But the enzymes involved in this conversion process often carry mutations that can interfere with their activity. High-quality MF supplements bypass these enzymes, directly supplying methyl to make SAMe and other methyl cofactors that manage the body’s extensive networks of methyl metabolism.

Promotes Metabolic Recycling of Homocysteine

Homocysteine (HCy) is a byproduct of SAMe production from MF and the amino acid methionine. If allowed to build up in the blood and other tissues, HCy can become toxic. MF facilitates the recycling of HCy to methionine, which helps reduce its toxic potential.

Supports Brain Health and DNA

Methyl from MF is needed from the moment of fertilization of the human egg, through the development of the brain, heart, and other organs, to birth, and across the lifespan. All our cells need methyl groups to make their DNA, repair ongoing DNA damage, and regulate their utilization of DNA.

Methylfolate is Great!

Taking folate as MethylFolate can help provide nutritional support for your brain and body.* This versatile supplement is also fundamental to the growth and renewal of our cells, helps regulate potentially harmful homocysteine, and much more.*

You can enjoy all these benefits of methylfolate for men in BrainMD’s MethylFolate supplement.

Try it today!

At BrainMD, we’re dedicated to providing the highest purity nutrients to improve your physical health and overall well-being. For more information about MethylFolate and our full list of brain healthy supplements, please visit us at BrainMD.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This content is for informational purposes only. It is not meant to substitute for medical or healthcare advice from a physician, nor is it intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Consult your healthcare provider before beginning a new health regimen.

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Keith Rowe

Keith has been a member of the BrainMD team for several years, providing his research and writing talents. Keith is grateful to have the opportunity to write about supplements since many of them have made a dramatic difference in his life. He is often heard around the office saying, “We have supplements for that.”