Suppletion B-vitamins (methyl trapping?)

[Nieke]

I'm a 30 year old women, suffered burn-out symptoms 2 years ago. (As a child I got allergies/asthma/eczema). One year ago I started taking a methylated B-supplement with B1/B2/B3/B5/B6/biotine/choline/inositol and 400mcg methyl folate and 250 mcg B12 (50% methyl, 50% adenocobalamine)

Now a few a months ago I’ve found out that my cortisol is low and I’ve a low reversed T3 value.

My doctor advised to take additional lozenges of 5000 mcg methylcobalamine and 8600 mcg adenocylcobalamine, each every other day with on every day 1000 mcg methylfolate. This gave me a lot of symptoms like fatigue, passiveness, emotional, palpitations, headache, sweating, shallow breath, at some point it seemed almost like a heart attack. At one point I couldn’t get out of bed anymore so I had to stop taking it.

The next 2 days the symptoms lowered a bit. I then started 3000 mcg methylcobalamine and 3000 mcg adenosylcobalamine lozenges each day, with 400mcg folic acid. Again I got aggravating symptoms but now with diarrea. After a week the symptoms didn’t go down a I got skin inflammation. So I had to stop.


My doctor advised me to take an active multi-vitamin with 300mcg methyl folate and 130 mcg B12 (50% methyl, 50% adenocobalamine) I expected to feel better after quitting the extra suppletion (lozenges). But I didn’t.

I got a huge histamine reaction (itchy eyes, skin inflammation, sneezing, shallow breathing, asthmatic reaction, anxiety, tingling feeling, numbness/ cold feeling in my legs and feet, moodiness, difficulty concentrating). I’ve felt like that for a week now and symptoms don’t seem to go down.


I’m waiting for my 23andme results but I really would like some tips or advise how to handle this in the meantime.

 

[minkeygirl]

I'm no expert at all on methylation but no one seems to be adding to tbks

What i do know is you want to start very slow. I think they say start low on MB12. Then slowly add methyl folate

If you look at @ahmo signature she has info in methylation. Also maybe @PeterPositive can help.

Look around here at fredd's protocol or rich vank.

Usually the rule is start with one thing low. And slowly add something else.

You might be having a huge reaction. And just my thought. If you don't have 23andMe results how do you know if you need this? @caledonia has a guide in her signature about what SNP mean

 

[ahmo]

As a child I got allergies/asthma/eczema

Maybe *simple* allergies, histamine response, or could possibly be a mast cell problem. Excellent mast cell info.

Now a few a months ago I’ve found out that my cortisol is low and I’ve a low reversed T3 value.

Are you doing something to address these? Thyroid replacement?

My doctor advised to take additional lozenges of 5000 mcg methylcobalamine and 8600 mcg adenocylcobalamine, each every other day with on every day 1000 mcg methylfolate.

That's a lot to start with.

I then started 3000 mcg methylcobalamine and 3000 mcg adenosylcobalamine lozenges each day, with 400mcg folic acid

Is it really folic acid? Not a good idea. MethylFolate is the referred version.

Looks to me like you started too high. It's not uncommon to have histamine effects when increasing folate. Common way to slow things down is taking B3. Alternatively, I had good results when this happened by taking 1mg B12, sublingual. See the links in my signature, including Methylation for Dummies. And Caledonia's guides.

 

[Nieke]

Thanks for the reply minkeygirl and ahmo.

Yes we are looking into mest cell problems and histamine intolerance as well. Great to have some extra info.

My doctor advised me to take the b12 and folate because I have a lot of the b12/folate deficiency symptoms and she has treated me for over a year now and my energy stays very low.
And yes the second time was really folic acid but that was my own (stupid) fault.
While reading all the information on this forum, I also think I started too high. I’m wondering how I can go back to neutral. I just ordered the B3.

 

[caledonia]

Thanks for the reply minkeygirl and ahmo.

Yes we are looking into mest cell problems and histamine intolerance as well. Great to have some extra info.

My doctor advised me to take the b12 and folate because I have a lot of the b12/folate deficiency symptoms and she has treated me for over a year now and my energy stays very low.
And yes the second time was really folic acid but that was my own (stupid) fault.
While reading all the information on this forum, I also think I started too high. I’m wondering how I can go back to neutral. I just ordered the B3.

Just popping in so you can see my signature link, which leads to a lot of great info for beginners and more.

For quick relief, my suggestion would be to take a slow release/non flushing type of niacin - only 50-100mg (a normal pill is 500mg, so that's 1/10 to 1/8 of a whole pill). Take that every 4 hours or even up to once an hour if necessary. It may take several days to totally calm everything down as once methylation gets cranking, it can keep going for a very long time.

ps. I think you could have gotten methyl trapped with your original supplement, as the methyl B12 is lower than the folate and is also not sublingual, so it barely absorbs. Adding the large amount of methylcobalamin turned on methylation and the existing inflammation caused all of the adverse symptoms.

You'll likely need to take care of the inflammation first before being able to proceed with methyl supps again. Ben Lynch has some good info on this in his articles on Methylfolate Side Effects. A CBS protocol might also be necessary (Dr. Ben has a short quick version of that in his info.)