symptoms returning- related to mthf, p5p, or mb12 doses, or something else?

[xena]

i've been taking high doses of mthf and mb12 since april and improving moderately (20%). i've been tinkering recently and have started feeling worse and am unsure what is responsible/why. what do you all think? details below

recently i added some sam-e and felt great (strong!) for a few days until i developed headaches and insomnia, stuffiness, and flaky dry skin which is very unusual for me. to speed clearing the sam-e, i added 20 mg p5p 2x/day and bumped up my dose of mthf to 20 mg/day from 15mg/day. the symptoms went away.

i had been sporadically taking p5p previously, and felt like it gave me a mild boost in energy- it seemed to speed methylation and clear up nasal congestion (i believe it speeds clearing of histamine) does p5p increase the need for mthf?

since then, for the past 2 weeks, i've continued to take the 40 mg p5p, 20 mg mthf in addition to my usual:
4 mg mb12 sq, vitamin e, fish oil, curcumin, lactoferrin, ala, alcar, coq10, biweekly hydroxyb12. none of these have changed. i also started and stopped vinpocetine, in case that was creating the symptoms.

over this period i've experienced the worsening of these symptoms:

brain fog/spacey feeling
harder to read
vertigo… i live near a faultline and thought we were experiencing small earthquakes for a few days
dry lips (face/scalp not noticeably dry as during sam-e)
increased noise sensitivity
headaches
muscle twitches a few days ago but this resolved w/ a little potassium. rare for me.
worse memory and eyesight

what do you think is going on? i thought, probably...
too much p5p
too much folate
too little folate (linked to too much p5p?)
too little mb12? (linked to too much mthf?)

i just took around 100 mg niacin on the off chance that i was overmethylating... felt uncomfortable flush and feel a bit tired and irritable after. i don't think that was the problem though... i'm planning to cut out the p5p and drop down the mthf back to 15 mg.

 

[Critterina]

Just a couple of thoughts...

When I have had dry skin that no lotion/oil can help, I have needed biotin. When I have run out, I've been lazy about buying more, but after 5-6 weeks, the symptoms come back. You might check to see if you're getting enough from your food or supplements.

The symptoms you describe make me think neurotransmitters, and there is so much in the folate and methyl cycles that affect that, along with all your SNPs, that it's really hard to tell. I like your thought of going back to your pre-SAMe supplements. Let us know the result.

 

[xena]

Just a couple of thoughts...

When I have had dry skin that no lotion/oil can help, I have needed biotin. When I have run out, I've been lazy about buying more, but after 5-6 weeks, the symptoms come back. You might check to see if you're getting enough from your food or supplements.

The symptoms you describe make me think neurotransmitters, and there is so much in the folate and methyl cycles that affect that, along with all your SNPs, that it's really hard to tell. I like your thought of going back to your pre-SAMe supplements. Let us know the result.

thanks @Critterina i actually switched to an ala w/o biotin a while back so i'll try adding some back in

 

[sregan]

Just throwing it out that your ratio of methly folate to mb12 seems low on the b12 side.

 

[xena]

Just throwing it out that your ratio of methly folate to mb12 seems low on the b12 side.

i think that's likely the case- i increased to 8 mg methylb12 (injected in two doses) daily and i feel better than before