Thanks
@caledonia. I stumbled across an October 2010 email from Rich, after I told him I was taking 6-7 betaine HCLs with each meal, where I think he's saying kind of the same thing:
"The betaine will stimulate the alternative BHMT pathway in the liver and kidneys, and
that may make it difficult to lift the partial block in the methionine synthase pathway, which is linked to the folate metabolism, and which
needs to be operating normally to bring glutathione up and also get the folate metabolism back to normal. So if you don't notice much change after being on the simplified treatment approach for a couple of months or so, then you could consider adding some DMG (dimethylglycine), which will slow down the BHMT pathway and hopefully shift more of the flow to the methionine synthase pathway. I think this has to be done by trial and error, because different people may respond differently, based on genetics."
Interesting from your link, he says: "(DMG) forces more of the flow through the parallel methionine synthase pathway,
provided that the B12 and folate have been built up prior to this."
So I have a feeling I've indeed been cluelessly either draining whatever folate I may have eaten/taken, and/or almost completely bypassing any fix of the methionine synthase pathway with such an excess of betaine HCL.
sigh.