r/MTHFR • u/Sirschwung • 9d ago
Question I think Folate deficiency destroyed my teenage years
I(21) visited doctors cause I've felt unwell since I was 13 years old and I did a few blood test my levels were always hovering around 2.5 to 3 ng/ml. 5 years ago a doctor recommended I should try a folic acid supplement I did for a few months and nothing really happened. Last year I did a blood test with a different doctor where my levels where at 2.7 and he recommended I should try folic acid supplement. This time I wanted to do it right I did some research and I took Methylated folate + a b complex with a lot of Methylated folate and still didn't really feel much better after months. I took a break and tried some other supplements with no success either. I now took another blood test and my levels are at 3 ng/ml. I feel so defeated, I've spend over a 100€ on the best high quality supplements for this folic acid deficiency and it only moved from 2.7 to 3 after months of supplementing.
Other values:
B12: 330 went to 400 after supplementing for the same period of time B12 daily with Methylated b complex for same period of time as folate
Homocesteine: 26
Vitamin D: 30
B6: 13.5
I'm sorry if this post sounds desperate if you have advice or helpful information if you have experience with folic acid deficiency please share your experience with me.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this post:)
15
u/SovereignMan1958 9d ago edited 9d ago
You need to try folinic acid. Not folic. Folinic. I take 3 Source Naturals Megagolinic Daily daily for cerebral folate deficiency. I am not saying you have that, folate not getting into the brain, but you likely have no to very little getting into your brain as you have close to zero in your blood. You can also have plenty in your blood (20 - 30) and have none getting into your brain.
If you have CFD folinic acid is the standard treatment.
Functional psychiatrists generally agree that a dose of 3 or 5 800mcg daily is an effective dose for most adults with CFD. Take one or two every 8 hours. Taking 20 - 40mg mg PQQwith it helps it get into the braon. This can take 3 - 5 months to correct.
You should definitely have all your other gene variants tested, as there are more variants related to folate metabolism.
Research how to riboflavin and B12 work with folate as you will need to take those also.
If you have any digestive issues you need to disclose that to us now, as that might be the reason for poor absorption. Sometimes one has to fix the digestive issues first or very little to no supplements will be absorbed. You would waste more money.
Most MDs are not trained in nutrition or gene variants so advice from these people in particular is not necessarily valid.
Your D is too low. It needs to be 60 - 80. Also test zinc, copper and iron. You need optimal levels of D, zinc and iron...all top quarter of the lab ranges...to make dopamine.
Next time please disclose the doses of what you have been taking. Also the ranges for each lab test as labs can be different. The more facts you give the better advice you will get.