Metafolin vs Quatrefolic? Anybody notice a difference?

[joejack102]

It seems like there are two different types of "activated" folate: Metafolin® and Quatrefolic®. Has anybody tried both? Can anybody tell me the differences, if any, you noticed between them?

 

[PinkPanda]

For me, Quatrefolic had a stronger effect, but not positive. It seemed to raise my adrenaline or something.
I took it at night and got a racing heart beat and the feeling like having woke up from a nightmare.
Methylfolate doesn't have that effect.

I also read in some study, can't find it right now, that quatrefolic raises folate blood levels more than other forms.

 

[ebethc]

For me, Quatrefolic had a stronger effect, but not positive. It seemed to raise my adrenaline or something.
I took it at night and got a racing heart beat and the feeling like having woke up from a nightmare.
Methylfolate doesn't have that effect.

I also read in some study, can't find it right now, that quatrefolic raises folate blood levels more than other forms.

do you know if quatrefolic raises nitric oxide more than metafolin?

 

[Gingergrrl]

Is "Metafolin" the same as "Folinic Acid" and "Quatrefolic" the same as "5MTHF"?

 

[PinkPanda]

Metafolin and Quatrefolic both contain 5-MTHF/Methylfolate.
Metafolin is 5-MTHF bound to calcium: Calcium L-5-MTHF
Qautrefolic is 5-MTHF bound to a glucosamine salt: 5-MTHF-glucosamine salt
They both get converted to 5-MTHF in the body.

Folinic Acid contains 5-formyl THF. That is another folate form. It doesn't have a methyl group and can be converted easily to 10-formyl THF which is a cofactor in the purine synthesis (AMP, GMP synthesis).

So both 5-MTHF (quatrefolic, metafolin) and 5-formyl-THF (folinic acid) are folate forms and can eventually be converted into one another, but they have different main effects.

do you know if quatrefolic raises nitric oxide more than metafolin?

No, sorry. Since they both get converted to 5MTHF, I think their effect would be similar?

 

[CCC]

There's an old post on this somewhere that had a 5mg quatrifolic tablet giving the same feeling as 3.7 mg of metafolin.

In other words, the quatrifolic says it has 5mg metholfolate, but it really doesn't work out like that in terms of how it feels. It feels like only 3.6 mg of methfolate. We confirmed this with our own experimentation.

If you take that into account, quatrifolic and methylfolate are similar in effect.

We take a fix of all three:

• quatrifolic in the morning first thing and last thing before going to bed (to get through the night)
• folinic with b2 through the day
• metafolin very occasionally (almost never now).

We didn't start like that. We were taking metafolin for a long time, until we got the B2 levels in the body up.

Some other post on here somewhere happened to mention that, if you don't have genetic problems, then B2 with folinic should be fine. Since our patient is a growing teenager, I liked the more diverse benefits of folinic for DNA synthesis etc.

Hope this helps.

 

[Gingergrrl]

Folinic Acid contains 5-formyl THF. That is another folate form. It doesn't have a methyl group

Thank you for explaining this and I wish I had your depth of knowledge to understand it all! In my case, I am doing really well with Hydroxy B-12 and Folinic Acid but do not tolerate any of the Methyl forms.

 

[ebethc]

Thank you for explaining this and I wish I had your depth of knowledge to understand it all! In my case, I am doing really well with Hydroxy B-12 and Folinic Acid but do not tolerate any of the Methyl forms.

is there any link between methyl intolerance and histamine problems that you know of?

 

[Gingergrrl]

is there any link between methyl intolerance and histamine problems that you know of?

I believe there is a link, but I don't remember what it is, and am sure someone else could explain it better than me!

 

[PinkPanda]

Thank you for explaining this and I wish I had your depth of knowledge to understand it all! In my case, I am doing really well with Hydroxy B-12 and Folinic Acid but do not tolerate any of the Methyl forms.

Thankyou
HydroxoB12 is also the B12 form I tolerate best and I take that a lot. How do you take your B12 (sublingual/capsule/..)?
I give methylfolate a try from time to time but don't really tolerate it well enough to add it to my basic supplements. I have not tried folinic acid much yet. Does it help you with anything?
I don't know wether folinic acid works for me as supplement, but I was definitely thinking that enough formyl-folate is important.

The purine synthesis needs formyl-folate and produces AMP and GMP. By adding phosphate groups they can be converted to ATP (in the respiratory chain) and GTP. Obviously ATP is really important for energy, but GTP activates G proteins and Neil McGregor showed a lot of mutations in G proteins of pwME. So G protein function might be a problem in ME/CFS and I think enough GTP could be important.

Folate status is influenced by so many stuff like MTHFR and enought B12 etc, which makes folate status so complicated but it's cool that you tolerate folinic acid

is there any link between methyl intolerance and histamine problems that you know of?

If there is a theory on that, I don't know it. I think there is some theory on undermethylators with high histamine tolerating methyl supplements well? But that doesn't work out for me. I would be an undermethylator and although methylfolate isn't horrible for me, I don't tolerate it that well either.

 

[Gingergrrl]

HydroxoB12 is also the B12 form I tolerate best and I take that a lot. How do you take your B12 (sublingual/capsule/..)?

I take a sublingual lozenge by "Seeking Health" that is Hydroxo B-12 (1000 mcg) and Folinic Acid (800 mcg).

If there is a theory on that, I don't know it.

I know there is a connection between MCAS/histamine intolerance and having problems with the methylation cycle but I am embarrassed that I cannot remember what it is and don't have time to Google it right now.