Don't know what to do, need help!

[taniaaust1]

A couple of months ago I was diagnosed with b12 deficiency.

I'm scared that taking a lot of methylfolate makes my b12 deficiency worse. I took 2000 mcg metafolin today and 3000 mcg b12. I don't know if I need less or more. In what ratio are most people here taking metafolin/b12?

Seeing you have B12 deficiency, you arent going to be able to compare ratios with what others are doing as obviously you will need a higher ratio of B12 then someone who hasnt got B12 deficiency.

If you having issues with getting your supplements right.. maybe it would be a good idea to take a step back and just sort on fixing your B12 deficiency first and then come back to this with starting off at the normal procotols which are done here to see how things go. Treating with supplements isnt a race but should be done cautiously as everything interacts with everything else (over taking something could screw up other ratios and cause new deficiencies which may be complicated to work out)... and you dont want folate masking B12 deficiency.

Experiment slow with the principle in mind to do no harm.
.........

You said you dont take other Bs. When I was naturopathy collage we were taught that if one has a deficiency in one B.. there are often problems with other Bs too. You may want to consider taking a multi B vitamin too (note some countries have the start of their normal range in still deficiency levels)

 

[veronica_corningstone]

I take potassium at up to 1g per dose, up to 7 times per day when I'm in a crisis for it.

I realized yesterday that I cannot take enough potassium to keep up with my needs for it, so have cut my mB12.

Over the last 6 weeks, I'd stabilized my potassium needs (by lowering B1, B2, B3) and was taking 2-3g/day. I was taking about 4mg mB12, 4mg aB12, and 4mg hB12.

The hB12 I take is out of stock, so I thought I'd try slowing switching over to more mB12, while cutting down on hB12.

I got up to 6mg m12 and wow, I felt amazing for awhile, but then the low potassium symptoms started creeping back in. I upped my potassium supplementation, but couldn't keep up. On Tuesday, I took 6g and then got really sick overnight Tuesday night because of low potassium. I didn't take my multi-B or any b12/methylfolate yesterday. I would take 1g of potassium and in about an hour, felt more comfortable and sleepy and would finally fall asleep, but then would awaken a couple of hours later to low potassium symptoms again, so I would start the cycle again. By nighttime, I was feeling a lot more stable and am definitely better today, although tired and sore.

But I'm back down to 4mg mB12.

This has shown me that mB12 is far more powerful for me than hB12.

Also saw on Yasko's forum that licorice can increase need for potassium.

 

[Lou]

I take potassium at up to 1g per dose, up to 7 times per day when I'm in a crisis for it.

I realized yesterday that I cannot take enough potassium to keep up with my needs for it, so have cut my mB12.

Over the last month, I've stabilized my potassium needs (by lowering B1, B2, B3) and have taken 2-3g/day. I was taking about 4mg mB12, 4mg aB12, and 4mg hB12.

The hB12 I take is out of stock, so I thought I'd try slowing switching over to more mB12, while cutting down on hB12.

I got up to 6mg m12 and wow, I felt amazing for awhile, but then the low potassium symptoms started creeping back in. I upped my potassium supplementation, but couldn't keep up. On Tuesday, I took 6g and then got really sick overnight Tuesday night because of low potassium. I didn't take my multi-B or any b12 yesterday. I would take 1g of potassium and in about an hour, felt more comfortable and sleepy and would finally fall asleep, but then would awaken a couple of hours later to low potassium symptoms again, so I would start the cycle again. By nighttime, I was feeling a lot more stable and am definitely better today, although tired and sore.

But I'm back down to 4mg mB12.

This has shown me that mB12 is far more powerful for me than hB12.

Also saw on Yasko's forum that licorice can increase need for potassium.

Good for you, but at those doses of potassium I would consider myself playing with fire. And not because I might in special circumstance need 7g of potassium, but that I got myself into that special circumstance.

 

[girlfromeurope]

I still feel terrible. Don't know if its from high potassium or low
Taking potassium doesn't make me feel better
And cutting back on potassium while on b12 makes me feel worse

 

[marcoz]

I know this is an old thread but I had a similar experience of having a mb12/folate 'honeymoon' period - initially I felt great from Mb12 and folate for about a week, then felt worse again and couldn't get the positive effects back - and have been looking for answers, so this might be helpful to someone.

So, the heartfixer doc suggests that if you have a CBS mutation that's causing high ammonia/sulfates and you start taking mb12/folate without first addressing those issues, you will initially have a 'honeymoon' period of feeling good but will then feel bad due to incomplete detoxification. It suggests that you should address high ammonia/sulfate before taking any b12 or folate to avoid that crash.

"Many of you with CBS and BHMT abnormalities will also bear MTHFR (compromising methyl-folate generation) and MTRR (compromising methyl-B12) abnormalities, and thus you will need and benefit from corresponding supplementation (with these molecules that you are having trouble making). However, if we treat you with methyl-folate, methyl-B12, or BH4, before we have the CBS problem under control (sulfite/sulfate levels low enough to allow for appropriate glutathione and cysteine assimilation) then we will be subjecting you to “incomplete detoxification”. You will feel great for 1-2 days, as beneficial neurotransmitters are generated. Detox pathways then open up, creating toxic intermediates that cannot be metabolized further due to the block in glutathione utilization (Dr. Yasko’s position) and possibly other genomic/nutritional blocks in Phase I and Phase II detoxification which we need to work on – and you will feel horrible. Thus we need to resist the temptation to treat your MTHFR/MTRR abnormalities until CBS/BHMT are under control. You’ve lived your entire life with a gene set that is maladaptive to the toxic environment of modern man. It will take us some time to change your internal environment to “bypass” these genomic challenges. "

URL: http://www.heartfixer.com/AMRI-Nutrigenomics.htm

If that's the case girlfromeurope may have ammonia/sulfate issues and experienced symptoms of incomplete detox rather than potassium deficiency.

I may be way off the mark here as I'm new to all this, but I'm going to remove the mb12/folate and try ammonia/sulfur testing and detox to see if that helps recover the positive effects I initially had from mb12/folate.

 

[Valentijn]

If that's the case girlfromeurope may have ammonia/sulfate issues and experienced symptoms of incomplete detox rather than potassium deficiency.

Unlikely, since Yasko and/or Heartfixer are/were very much wrong about CBS SNPs causing problems.

As a side note, why on earth would they blame a mild CBS upregulation for resulting in less glutathione? If anything, it should increase glutathione production. They just don't make any sense at all.