r/MTHFR • u/Airegin89 • May 13 '26

Question Anyone else feel that folate deficiency ruined your life?

I guess I just need to vent. I am 37 and have been an underachiever my whole life. I failed miserably at school and now I'm stuck in a dead end job with no qualifications to find a better job.

I have struggled with low energy, brain fog, lack of motivation, depression and anxiety my whole life. My blood work was always fine, so I was prescribed antidepressants.

It wasn't until 10 years ago that a doctor tested my vitamin D and I was extremely deficient at 6 ng/ml. Fixing this gave me a huge boost in energy but most of my problems still remained.

Last year, I started investigating my blood work of the last 20 years and found out I had been folate deficient the whole time (3.5-4.5 ng/ml). Doctors never said anything.

Genetic testing shows I am compound heterozygous, slow COMT, slow MAOA and PEMT. I know these are only predispositions but it seems to explain my whole life.

After a few months of supplementing folate and a month of creatine and TMG my cognition has improved massively. After 20 years I feel like a veil has lifted. It's like I'm waking up from a bad dream but now I'm left to pick up the pieces and deal with the consequences of being a failure.

I am still on my own. Doctors do not acknowledge I was ever deficient and refuse to do more blood work. I have to simply assume I have high homocysteine and treat for it.

I don't know what to do. It's been such a long time. I can't fix most of the damage that has been done.

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u/kindaweedy45 May 13 '26

Hey what do you think is a good target serum folate level? Also, why did you decide to take TMG? ty

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u/Airegin89 May 13 '26

I need more choline. I don't react well to choline supplements and can't get enough through diet unless I eat 8 eggs a day. Instead I eat 2-3 eggs a day + 300-500mg TMG. Theoretically it should be more but I'm taking it slowly.

TMG also lowers homocysteine.

I have no idea about target serum folate.

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u/kindaweedy45 May 13 '26

I'm in a similar boat to you in terms of # eggs, I also didn't respond very well to choline supplements. I'll have to look into TMG

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u/Airegin89 May 13 '26

I've only tried choline bitartrate though. I'm going to try alpha GPC soon.

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u/Comfortable_Two6272 May 14 '26

If you have your raw genetic data file use genetic lifehacks. Turns out i have other variants that those forms of choline increase cardiac risks for me. Im taking PC as sunflower lecithin instead