Critterina
Senior Member
- Messages
- 1,238
- Location
- Arizona, USA
So, first let me say "NOT TRUE! NOT TRUE" to the part about my understanding it a WHOLE lot better than you do. I may understand just enough to be dangerous.@Critterina, clearly you understand this a WHOLE lot better than I do !! You're correct that I'm -/- for C677T. So that means I can make my own methylfolate, but I can't use it, eh? So you recommend reducing mfolate (opposite of what I'm hearing elsewhere) to see if I've gotten overloaded with mfolate. Very interesting.
Then let me say: Yes, you got it! You can make methylfolate, but all the exit routes are blocked, by your MTHFR A1298C and your MTRR A66G. So, when you take methylB12, you can use the methylfolate for the methyl cycle (homocysteine to methionine, facilitated by the MTR enzyme, which thankfully works just fine in you. So that part of the cycle is good, but it's the biopterin stuff that has me worried.
When you take methylfolate, it temporarily elevates the methylfolate available, pushing through the A1298C, to have more activated biopterin which makes neurotransmitters. Usually this is a good thing, but depending on other things that I don't understand too well, it makes some neurotransmitters more than others. That's where I'm thinking your agitation, twitchy, achy, woozy, hyper-ish, exhausted, just yuck feeling comes from - not a set amount of neurotransmitters, but an imbalance. I know that your serotonin breakdown is slowed (MAO A +/+), so that maybe more dopamine gets made, since you'd already have a high(er) serotonin from reduced breakdown. And then, it could also be limited by your tryptophan and tyrosine stores. Tryptophan (for serotonin) has to come from the diet, but tyrosine (for dopamine) can be made by your body. Who knows what is actually going on there?
So, do I recommend reducing your methylfolate? Well, maybe. To me, 4-5 mg/day seems pretty high. Do you space it throughout the day? I'll tell you what you might try: How many doses do you take it in? Take the same total amount but spread it out during the day into more smaller doses. Try at least 2x or 4x as many doses. See what that does. (Only if you want, of course.) Then, if that seems to help, not changing anything else, try incrementally reducing your total dosage.
Some people here report that it's best for them to take methylfolate in the morning because it does sort of spin them up. (not me, but some.) Maybe plan to finish your methylfolate doses at least a few hours before bed? That's a separate experiment, though, OK?