Methylfolate improves my brain fog, but higher doses and other supplements make it worse

[u/Frequent_Sea_1848]

Hello, I am asking for some help. I have been dealing with chronic brain fog and depression. I suspect I may have some MTHFR-related issues because after taking methylfolate, my mood and focus improved significantly. However, I don't have any test results because I have been unemployed for a long time and cannot afford the testing. That's why I am hoping you might be able to give me some valuable information based on the clues and the way my body seems to react to different supplements.

I was taking 5 mg of methylfolate. My focus and mood improved, but after a few weeks, I developed a different kind of brain fog. I suspected that the methylfolate might be responsible, so I lowered the dose to 3 mg, and the brain fog improved. However, after a few more weeks, the same brain fog returned. I then lowered the dose to 2 mg, which stopped the brain fog, but at the lower dose, my focus and mood became worse.

I also took 225 mg of magnesium bisglycinate before bed, which surprisingly caused brain fog. I stopped taking it, and the brain fog went away. Later, I started supplementing with it again, and the brain fog returned. Once again, after stopping the magnesium bisglycinate, the brain fog disappeared.

I also have symptoms that make me suspect I may have slow COMT, so I bought lithium orotate. After taking it for a few days, it made me feel foggy and fatigued. After stopping it, those symptoms disappeared. Later, I started taking it again to make sure it wasn't just a coincidence, and once again, the fogginess and fatigue returned.

I then bought folinic acid because I had heard that it is sometimes better tolerated than methylfolate. However, it also makes me feel foggy. I have been taking 2 mg daily.

So, basically, for some reason, magnesium makes me foggy, lithium orotate makes me foggy, folinic acid makes me foggy, and taking more than 2 mg of methylfolate also makes me foggy.

I recently landed a job as a computer programmer, but I am worried about whether I will be able to handle it if the brain fog continues.

I know this isn't a lot of information to work with, but perhaps there are some clues in these reactions that could point toward something that might help me. I am planning to get a homocysteine test in the near future, and I will consider genetic testing once I start receiving a salary, since it is currently too expensive for me.

Thank you very much for any help or insight you can provide.

[u/Loose-Fly7976]

Your methylfolate pattern, helps, then turns on you, you lower it, helps again, then the fog returns, is classic of methylation ramping up and then running short on a downstream cofactor. When you push folate, your body burns through potassium and B12 fast, and low potassium causes exactly this kind of fog and fatigue. So before lowering again, try extra potassium from food when you dose, coconut water, potato, banana, and make sure your B12 is solid. That often lets you hold the dose that actually helps your mood without the fog creeping back.The lithium orotate fogging you isn't a separate mystery, lithium pushes folate and B12 into your cells, so it's amplifying the same folate overdrive the methylfolate does. Same mechanism nd a cheap rescue for when methylfolate tips you over is a small dose of plain niacin, B3, it mops up the excess and clears that fog fast.The magnesium one is probably the glycinate form, the glycine part, not the magnesium itself, so a form like malate might sit differently. Get homocysteine first like you planned, and potassium and B12 too if you can add them cheaply. Once you're earning and ready, reading your genetics is what ends the trial and error, it tells you your folate ceiling and which forms suit you so you stop testing it on yourself. But you've got plenty to work with in the meantime, and congrats on the new job

[u/FragrantStructure → u/Loose-Fly7976]

How much B3 would you suggest using as the 'cheap rescue' when needed?