My Folate Deficiency Worse with Folic Acid

[KieranA001]

I was wondering if one of you can understand what is going wrong. I have had my blood work done and it says that I have got a folate deficiency. But, it seems when I take folic acid (the active form) at 800mcg I get really bad anxiety, tiredness, very bad depression, feeling "on-edge". So, I stopped taking it after two days and it takes me three days for all the bad side-effects to go away.

I then recently brought the optimized version of a B-complex by Jarrow formulas as I've heard good stuff about it. It has less active folic acid, and has some B12 and nicotinic acid. But, I still get these terrible side-effects.

I have been suffering from brain fog, depression and anxiety my whole life but it hasn't been to this extent. It's only now when I start taking a supplement I'm deficient in it's 100 times worse.

Any idea why guys?

 

[pamojja]

Good that you tried a B-complex, maybe try it at a lower dose by taking only parts of a capsule at a time? Most often when you first take a nutrient you're deficient in, other nutrients in the same metabolic pathway get a demand your system isn't used to, and drive those from sub-clinical deficiency to reals with bad side-effects. Could be anything, but my first guess would be B12, potassium and magnesium.

The other thing to consider, folic acid still has to be converted in the body in about 5 steps into real active methylfolate. In up to 50% of the population this multi-step conversion isn't working as it should. Thereby you not only stay deficient, you could even worsen your deficiency because non-metabolized folic acid might block folate receptors. Blocking even what little real active methylfolate you've got. Read this could happen at about 1mg of folic acid a day, where you seemingly get less. Though if you consider many foods are fortified already with folic acid, you already could be above 1mg/d of folic acid.

 

[arewenearlythereyet]

I was wondering if one of you can understand what is going wrong. I have had my blood work done and it says that I have got a folate deficiency. But, it seems when I take folic acid (the active form) at 800mcg I get really bad anxiety, tiredness, very bad depression, feeling "on-edge". So, I stopped taking it after two days and it takes me three days for all the bad side-effects to go away.

I then recently brought the optimized version of a B-complex by Jarrow formulas as I've heard good stuff about it. It has less active folic acid, and has some B12 and nicotinic acid. But, I still get these terrible side-effects.

I have been suffering from brain fog, depression and anxiety my whole life but it hasn't been to this extent. It's only now when I start taking a supplement I'm deficient in it's 100 times worse.

Any idea why guys?

The best way to take folate is low and slow and split doses to 3 doses per day and take it with B12 and B complex

I have folate deficiency but this goes hand in hand with Vitamin B12 deficiency so I take significant quantities of both but had to increase quantities (particularly folate) in very low and slow increments over around 6 months to a year. I started with B complex only then slowly increased Methyl folate on top whilst also increasing my B12. I am now on 1200mcg methylfolate and have been stable on this dose since around January this year. I split the dose into 3x400 every 3-4 hours starting when I wake up.

Its also advisable to take a multivitamin and mineral and have potassium on hand since you will go through a period of Red blood cell production if you have been deficient for a period of time. Its a bit of a rollercoaster but things do settle down after around 8 weeks after each dose increase (well it did for me anyway).

I great resource I found helpful was the pernicious anemia society at Healthunlocked
https://healthunlocked.com/pasoc

 

[KieranA001]

Good that you tried a B-complex, maybe try it at a lower dose by taking only parts of a capsule at a time? Most often when you first take a nutrient you're deficient in, other nutrients in the same metabolic pathway get a demand your system isn't used to, and drive those from sub-clinical deficiency to reals with bad side-effects. Could be anything, but my first guess would be B12, potassium and magnesium.

The other thing to consider, folic acid still has to be converted in the body in about 5 steps into real active methylfolate. In up to 50% of the population this multi-step conversion isn't working as it should. Thereby you not only stay deficient, you could even worsen your deficiency because non-metabolized folic acid might block folate receptors. Blocking even what little real active methylfolate you've got. Read this could happen at about 1mg of folic acid a day, where you seemingly get less. Though if you consider many foods are fortified already with folic acid, you already could be above 1mg/d of folic acid.

I tried taking B-complex and standalone real active methylfolate, that was in these products. Does that mean these 5 different steps won't occur? I don't know if that's a bad thing.

I get lots of weird reactions with various supplements. I remember someone suggested Sam-E a few years ago for my depression, but it actually spiked my anxiety and made me more depressed, made me feel exactly like I do on methylfolate.

With regards to my folate issue though, what dose to do suggest? Half the pill to about 200mch from 400mcg? Really don't fancy feeling like I did when I was on it before it was so unbearable.

 

[pamojja]

I tried taking B-complex and standalone real active methylfolate, that was in these products. Does that mean these 5 different steps won't occur? I don't know if that's a bad thing.

Real methylfolate is the active form which doesn't have to be converted anymore. So that's not your issue.

I remember someone suggested Sam-E a few years ago for my depression, but it actually spiked my anxiety and made me more depressed, made me feel exactly like I do on methylfolate.

Maybe nicotinc acid could be an antitode in that case. However, start it low, at about 50mg, so you don't get too much scared by the flush. And then gradually increase to see if it helps with these acute reactions.

With regards to my folate issue though, what dose to do suggest? Half the pill to about 200mch from 400mcg? Really don't fancy feeling like I did when I was on it before it was so unbearable.

In that case try a speck and gradually increase to a quarter of a capsule. And further if it works this way, otherwise reduce again.

 

[KieranA001]

Maybe nicotinc acid could be an antitode in that case. However, start it low, at about 50mg, so you don't get too much scared by the flush. And then gradually increase to see if it helps with these acute reactions.

I have tried nicotinic acid with the methyl-folate but it didn't do much, I felt warm and less anxious for the first half an hour after ingestion of the b-complex then after it didn't help me for the three days I felt bad.

I will try a quater of a capsule and then report back, or I might try incorporating better food into my lifestyle to increase folate. It's difficult to determine with food because you don't know if you're then going to be missing another type of food that helps folate etc.

 

[pamojja]

Also don't forget the B12 and potassium. Potassium best as powder well dissolved in a glass of water. Like Potassium bicarbonate, citrate, chloride.

 

[Eastman]

Sherpa used B2 to resolve his problem with methylfolate.

Or you could have an abnormal autonomic nervous system caused, according to Dr Derrick Lonsdale, by thiamine/B1 deficiency, which, I suspect, could be aggravated by B12/folate supplementation.

Ben Lynch has an article on preventing methylfolate side effects.

 

[Richard7]

When taking sublingual B complex or b12 and b9 I find that I can get palpitations or muscle twitches. I assume that these are due to excessive use of electrolytes (chiefly potassium and magnesium). I also associate these symptoms with an increase in anxiety.

So when I take salt, potassium and magnesium I will also often use a zinc lozenge at the same time. I do not know if the zinc is important but I think about refeeding syndrome and want to make sure that I have everything that might run out available.

I do not know how much is absorbed but to this end I have most recently being using Life extension 2 per day tablets either a half or a whole. Each tablet contains 200mg methylfolate and 150mg methyl cobalamine and just about everything else that I might need.

I do not know what ther impact might be on teeth though, I have only being doing it for a bit over a week.

 

[echobravo]

But, it seems when I take folic acid (the active form) at 800mcg I get really bad anxiety, tiredness, very bad depression, feeling "on-edge".

Dr. Walsh says in his book Nutrient Power that some of his patients ("undermethylator" category) are "folate intolerant" and have adverse reactions to folate, like the ones you describe. The reason is supposed to be epigenetic, resulting in increased serotonin transport out of synapses. The two times I have tried a methylation protocol have both ended in malaise, despite taking low doses of 5-MTHF (100mcg). I am not sure if a "start lower and go even slower" approach would help in my case, having read of Dr. Walsh's experiences.

 

[Timaca]

I like your idea of trying to use foods to get your folate. I think foods are often better than supplements as you get the whole package, and all the nutrients work together....

You might find this helpful: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Folate-HealthProfessional/

Good luck!