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How I manage extreme sensitivity/reaction to methyl cobalamin and methyl folate (lithium orotate)

Has Lithium Orotate helped you overcome sensitivity to methyl cobalamin and methyl folate

  • YES (i have extreme sensitivity)

    Votes: 3 75.0%
  • NO (i have extreme sensitivity)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • YES (i have some sensitivity)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • NO (i have some sensitivity)

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • I am sensitive to Lithium Orotate

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    4

prioris

Senior Member
Messages
622
I have been extremely sensitive to methylcobalamin and methylfolate for a long time. Even a grain of a tabulate would set into motion head pain, jittery, nervousness etc.

There are 3 general classes of MTHFR people
A) those who take those supplements without problem
B) those who take those supplements WITH problems but by starting small are able to gradually take them
C) those who are extremely sensitive to the supplement

This supplement may help group B and C with sensitivity


I came across a supplement called Lithium Orotate. It is one of the most powerful brain supplements I have come across.This supplement has allowed me to take cobalamin and methylfolate without the side effects.

Clinical research has found lithium active in the following functions:

Protecting brain cells from toxicity
Promoting brain cell regeneration
Increasing gray matter of the brain
Regulating brain neurotransmitters
Supporting healthy mood balance
Improving blood sugar metabolism

Here are some links about the benefits
READ THIS
http://tahomaclinic.com/2010/05/lithium-the-misunderstood-mineral-part-1/
http://tahomaclinic.com/2010/05/lithium-the-misunderstood-mineral-part-2/


Here is a FAQ link on it. It is the most complete information on the internet for the supplement I have found. Please read this fully.

IMPORTANT TO READ
http://www.thelithiumdoctor.com/faqs/

Please be aware that

5 mg of Lithium Orotate contains 0.2 ELEMENTAL Lithium.
120 mg of Lithium Orotate contains 4.6 ELEMENTAL Lithium.

The supposed toxic dose of Lithium is 100 mg of EL Lithium so one would have to take more than 25 120mg tablets to exceed that. That may apply to most people but not you. Funny thing is that the 5 mg capsule is way larger than the 120 mg tablet

EXCERPT START
The overall elimination half-life of lithium is approximately 24 hours.
Lithium is distributed slowly and unevenly in the human body. Distribution is usually complete within 12 hours of first ingestion. During lithium therapy, steady state concentrations are generally reached within 4-7 days of repeated oral application in patients with normal renal function.

What is the safe maximum serving of LO?

As a general rule for most of the adult and adolescent population the safe maximum serving of LO is 100mg/day of pure elemental lithium (EL). However there are exceptions to this rule. So to be on the safe side, if you intend to use LO in excess of 40mg of EL (for the long term), you should consult with your physician or call Dr. Millar for a consultation. Dr. Millar is also available to consult with your physician during your office visit with your doctor so both of you can collectively ask questions of Dr. Millar together.

The good news is that once your nervous system and endocrine (hormonal) glands have had time to heal and regenerate you will be able to drastically reduce your LO daily serving (maintenance serving).

You can start lowering your serving within 1 month of using LO. If you back slide into the same symptoms as before, then you are not ready to reduce your serving yet. Try reducing every 30 days until you are able to maintain the positive results you have achieved at a lower serving. This is a trial and error process and only you will know what the best serving is for you. A physician cannot tell you what is best for you regarding your lower maintenance serving.
EXCERPT END

I started out taking 5 mg just to see if I had any sensitivity to it. I felt a positive effect. I raised it to 10 mg next day. Still no problem. Next day I tried 20 mg for 3 or 4 days. Next I tried 60 mg. Still feeling positive effect. I went up to 120 mg without problem. I raised it to 240 mg but I felt sleepy so I dropped back down. I estimate that I could go to 150 mg without problems. I am staying at 120 mg for now. I will try to lower at to 60 mg sometime in future to see how low I can go. I have been taking this for around one month i think.

As far as taking the methylcobalamin, I did that slowly. I first started with hydroxycobalamin and after I worked my way gradually to higher doses of 2500 mcg then I did same thing with methylcobalamin to 2500 mcg. I am staying at 400-800 mcg of methylfolate for now. I will try playing with higher doses. Someone has analogized the methylcobalamin as wood and methylfolate as fire. Not sure if that is true but I want to be careful about it.


Please be aware that I also had to manage my occipital neuralgia and ATN with Taurine and Magtein before.

I have had many benefits.

1) I haven't needed to take Taurine and Magtein to quell glutamate anxiety.
2) I feel my neurotransmitters are more balanced whereas before there was more chaos
3) I haven't needed to take Magtein to avoid severe brain fog
4) I can take methylfolate and methylcobalmin without head pain, nervousness, jittery and anxiety
5) I believe it has moderated my high cortisol level

I came across Yasko who was finding that her MTHFR patients were deficient in Lithium.

The only anecdotal side effect I have read is mention of being possible adverse for hypothyroid and weight gain but those anecdotes didn't provide anything but vague info. Read that FAQ link above also. It's long but worth it.

I may have had hypothyroid problems before but resolved it with Conjugated Linoleic Acid. It is important to take it with saturated fat because research has said it won't work unless saturated fat is present.

I am surprised that more posts on this haven't popped up about this. I searched for years on this topic and hardly a peep.

Of course, I am not done commenting on this. I will try to give update within 12 months.

Hope this helps someone out there
 
Last edited:
Messages
10
Lithium Orotate has been critical to my ability to work on methylation. Lithium is involved in transport of both B12 and folate into the cells. I often see B12 and lithium mentioned together, but it's also crucial for folate activity. Before supplementation, I believe I was getting almost none from my diet/well water (probably less than 25mcg/day).

Initially Lithium gave me horrible head pains. This was with tiny doses of about 100mcg/day. But I took it as a sign that I needed it, so over the past 4 months or so I have slowly titrated up from 25mcg to 600mcg/day. I have neuro lyme as well, and LO has recently become quite helpful for those symptoms as I get up to a more therapeutic dose. I plan to increase to 5mg LO on a more rapid schedule, now that increases are no longer associated with increased head pain for me.

LO has helped with some of my mood and sleep issues as well. I seem to wake up less during the night. I have a history of waking up every 75 minutes during the night, ever since my problems with CFS/lyme became severe.

MB12 hasn't been too tough for me to increase over time (up to 1mg/day). But methylfolate has been very challenging (only up to 225mcg, after 6 months). My main problems have been increased agitation, insomnia, and head inflammation. I have been unable to get these to resolve with either increased potassium or folate. I then came across a post by Rich Vank where he describes increased excitotoxicity in the early stages of treating methylation, as a result of glutamate/GABA imbalance. His suggestion to increase B6 to help alleviate these symptoms is proving very effective for me, so I thought I would mention it. I now take 30mg of P5P per day, and the problems I was having have diminished enough that I feel I can start pushing forward with mfolate again. I do take all of the other B's as well, but I have to be especially careful with B1, have to keep that one under 10mg/day. Any higher and my potassium needs go through the roof, and my inflammation becomes unbearable. Freddd has mentioned that B1, B2 and B3 can all cause these kinds of problems if taken in excess while working on methylation. But B2 and B3 don't seem to affect me the way B1 does.

Anyway, you can see Rich's post here:

http://forums.prohealth.com/forums/...ank-anxiety-from-methylation-protocol.210564/
 
Last edited:

prioris

Senior Member
Messages
622
It's always interesting hearing how people are sensitive to different things. I didn't know that about mb12/mfolate.

I would take any sensitivity to a nutrient to mean one of these

1) my body has too much of it
2) my body is deficient in something else
3) there is a toxin of some type inside that is reacting
4) there is inflammation in brain etc causing dysfunctionalism in processing it

I would also think that since you have to be so careful with so little amounts that you
haven't hit the nail on the head yet. The Lithium may have helped but why the sensitivity to it

Lithium is suppose to have similarities to calcium and magnesium
Do you get any reaction to taking magtein ?
How long have you been ramping up on the lithium orotate

Yasko observation is that most of her MTHFR patients are deficient
The lithium being an important nutrient for brain would help with healing some of the brain inflammation. the disease depletes nutrients from the body.

I think the reason why people are having problems with this MTHFR is because it involves things that go way beyond the methylation pathways.

the plumber tells you you got a plumbing problem
the electrician tells you you got a electrical problem
the methylation expert tells you you got a methylation problem
prioris tells you everything is going to hell ... lol

i don't view lithium as solving the methylation problem at least for me but more healing the brain inflammation problem so now the brain can process the methylation.

i think just for neurological protection as one ages, it is a good nutrient to take at some level.but sucks if you got sensitivity to it. sensitivity always intrigues me.

i am glad to hear you are making progress even if it is lot of little baby steps.

i believe if i take this for long enough time, my brain will heal even more where i will be able to take other things i was sensitive to. when i am done with some other things, i will push the envelope some more and see if my brain explodes ... lol.

this is just one more tool to add to the ME/CFIDS tool box. i like that it is low cost too.
 

prioris

Senior Member
Messages
622
Just a caveat and this goes for any mineral chelate.

I said
5 mg of Lithium Orotate contains 0.2 ELEMENTAL Lithium.
120 mg of Lithium Orotate contains 4.6 ELEMENTAL Lithium.

The lack of standard in mineral labeling is a problem. The labeling on minerals is not standard so unless they say ELEMENTAL or are clear enough in language, you should call number on bottle to get clarification how much elemental any chelate contains just as a sanity check.