A post-methylfolate experience

[Victronix]

After about a year of taking methylfolate, I had to finally stop. There are many reasons why I had to stop that I won't get into here. Mainly, I just wanted to relay my post methyl folate experience so far.

How long does it take for methyl folate to be cleared out of the body? I noticed when I started taking it that my urine had a distinct and different odor than before, somewhat like the smell it has after eating asparagus. Interestingly, that smell is noticeably still present, particularly after eating vegetables for dinner, now about 3 months after having stopped methyl folate.

I had an extremely rough time in the weeks after stopping it -- with my legs getting incredibly stiff, stiffness all over my body, numb feet, numb hands, ear ringing, sore tongue, etc. But when I started having bouts of extreme anxiety for no reason -- at work, at home -- that just didn't make any sense, that was what got me thinking that this wasn't just a methyl folate / potassium complication, but was something else. The anxiety was so abnormal, and many of the symptoms suggested a nerve issue.

Finally I thought, perhaps this is B6. That didn't make much sense, since I have been taking B6 in various amounts since 2010 with, presumably, no problems. But sure enough, when I stopped taking my B-multi, most of those symptoms dropped in half almost immediately (this was the Nature Made B Complex, that has no folate). And over the next week or so, the problems diminished even more, until even the anxiety was totally gone. I went and got a B6 test about two days after I stopped taking it and my level was 30.7 ug/L, near the upper limit of 32.8 (now I'm taking all the other B's individually, without folate or B6).

It's possible that that particular B-multi was the problem, because it had more B6 than any previous ones I had taken. Plus, I was having a lot of bananas, pistachios, and other very high sources of B6, to deal with potassium. Perhaps that combination became too much over time.

So anyway, then I thought I was home free, that everything would be getting better now that I figured that out.

But instead, other very odd symptoms have cropped up, for example, incredibly stiff painful muscles in my neck and back, going on for days.

I remembered that the primary time I've had that symptom of painful stiff neck/shoulder/back muscles had been when I took methyl folate. I also would get hoarse, and this has also been happening recently.

So that got me thinking, could it be that the methyl folate is still in my system, and maybe I'm not having enough potassium to really deal with it?

I had heard an excellent program about the terrible health impacts of sugar, and that got me concerned about the 19 g of sugar in the coconut water I've been drinking. I had never even thought of the amount of sugar in the coconut water until I heard Lusting speak on it. So I had decided it was time to wean myself off the coconut water, and perhaps I didn't need it so much anymore. That may have coincided with the shoulder neck and back pains, I'm not sure. So my husband suggested, why not go back to taking the elemental potassium, and so far that's the plan now.

My situation is complicated by varying levels of thyroid hormones -- I take Synthroid for Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and when I stopped the methyl folate, my TSH went up to 6.6. While on methyl folate, for the first time in my life, my T3 was about 50% higher than what it has ever been in the past (3.1 vs 2.1). That was wonderful to realize, because I had thought nothing could affect that rock bottom level of T3 that I'd always had, and had caused me to consider taking synthetic T3 (for those who don't know, when you take a synthetic thyroid hormone, it only has T4, so that needs to be converted to T3, which many people have difficulty with, and so are low T3). So for the first time, I realized that level was touchable, without needing an external form of T3. And I knew that probably that level would drop again when I stopped methyl folate.

So just the other day I had a thyroid panel done, and it showed that my T3 was still pretty high -- for me -- at 2.7.

How could that be? I stopped taking methyl folate 3 months ago, so why would it still be (relatively) high?

At first I thought, maybe because I stopped having everything that had folic acid in it (went on a gluten-free diet, removed all vitamins that had folic acid in them), my natural folate levels could be higher, not being blocked by folic acid, and are supporting the T4 to T3 conversion. That's one possibility.

But now I'm thinking, maybe I just still have methyl folate being excreted into my system, and so it is still supporting the conversion from T4.

I guess only time will tell. I'll have that panel done again in a couple of months and see where I'm at. I also need to get another B6 test and see where that is that.

This is a work in progress, so I will keep you updated as time goes on.

 

[Milford]

After about a year of taking methylfolate, I had to finally stop. There are many reasons why I had to stop that I won't get into here. Mainly, I just wanted to relay my post methyl folate experience so far.

How long does it take for methyl folate to be cleared out of the body? I noticed when I started taking it that my urine had a distinct and different odor than before, somewhat like the smell it has after eating asparagus. Interestingly, that smell is noticeably still present, particularly after eating vegetables for dinner, now about 3 months after having stopped methyl folate.

I had an extremely rough time in the weeks after stopping it -- with my legs getting incredibly stiff, stiffness all over my body, numb feet, numb hands, ear ringing, sore tongue, etc. But when I started having bouts of extreme anxiety for no reason -- at work, at home -- that just didn't make any sense, that was what got me thinking that this wasn't just a methyl folate / potassium complication, but was something else. The anxiety was so abnormal, and many of the symptoms suggested a nerve issue.

Finally I thought, perhaps this is B6. That didn't make much sense, since I have been taking B6 in various amounts since 2010 with, presumably, no problems. But sure enough, when I stopped taking my B-multi, most of those symptoms dropped in half almost immediately (this was the Nature Made B Complex, that has no folate). And over the next week or so, the problems diminished even more, until even the anxiety was totally gone. I went and got a B6 test about two days after I stopped taking it and my level was 30.7 ug/L, near the upper limit of 32.8 (now I'm taking all the other B's individually, without folate or B6).

It's possible that that particular B-multi was the problem, because it had more B6 than any previous ones I had taken. Plus, I was having a lot of bananas, pistachios, and other very high sources of B6, to deal with potassium. Perhaps that combination became too much over time.

So anyway, then I thought I was home free, that everything would be getting better now that I figured that out.

But instead, other very odd symptoms have cropped up, for example, incredibly stiff painful muscles in my neck and back, going on for days.

I remembered that the primary time I've had that symptom of painful stiff neck/shoulder/back muscles had been when I took methyl folate. I also would get hoarse, and this has also been happening recently.

So that got me thinking, could it be that the methyl folate is still in my system, and maybe I'm not having enough potassium to really deal with it?

I had heard an excellent program about the terrible health impacts of sugar, and that got me concerned about the 19 g of sugar in the coconut water I've been drinking. I had never even thought of the amount of sugar in the coconut water until I heard Lusting speak on it. So I had decided it was time to wean myself off the coconut water, and perhaps I didn't need it so much anymore. That may have coincided with the shoulder neck and back pains, I'm not sure. So my husband suggested, why not go back to taking the elemental potassium, and so far that's the plan now.

My situation is complicated by varying levels of thyroid hormones -- I take Synthroid for Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and when I stopped the methyl folate, my TSH went up to 6.6. While on methyl folate, for the first time in my life, my T3 was about 50% higher than what it has ever been in the past (3.1 vs 2.1). That was wonderful to realize, because I had thought nothing could affect that rock bottom level of T3 that I'd always had, and had caused me to consider taking synthetic T3 (for those who don't know, when you take a synthetic thyroid hormone, it only has T4, so that needs to be converted to T3, which many people have difficulty with, and so are low T3). So for the first time, I realized that level was touchable, without needing an external form of T3. And I knew that probably that level would drop again when I stopped methyl folate.

So just the other day I had a thyroid panel done, and it showed that my T3 was still pretty high -- for me -- at 2.7.

How could that be? I stopped taking methyl folate 3 months ago, so why would it still be (relatively) high?

At first I thought, maybe because I stopped having everything that had folic acid in it (went on a gluten-free diet, removed all vitamins that had folic acid in them), my natural folate levels could be higher, not being blocked by folic acid, and are supporting the T4 to T3 conversion. That's one possibility.

But now I'm thinking, maybe I just still have methyl folate being excreted into my system, and so it is still supporting the conversion from T4.

I guess only time will tell. I'll have that panel done again in a couple of months and see where I'm at. I also need to get another B6 test and see where that is that.

This is a work in progress, so I will keep you updated as time goes on.

If you have done the 23andme test done, do you know if you have the CBS gene defects? This is involved in the Transulphuration pathway and is an UPregulation..... The pathway will move faster than it should. B6 is a cofactor for CBS, so maybe this is what happened with you ? Just theorizing !

 

[Victronix]

Thanks for that thought. I have no CBS mutations in two of them included in the Genetic Genie analysis (CBS C699T and CBS N212N), and on the third one (CBS A360A) there was "no call". I did develop an allergy to sulfa drugs after taking a sulfer-based antibiotic for too long once for a sinus infection.

 

[PeterPositive]

For the record, according to Dr. Ben Lynch, only CBS C699T up regulates the cycle. The others will slow it down. So if you have multiple mutations they may cancel each other out.

 

[Martial]

I don't think methyl folate will have much negative impacts, from itself. It can however trigger major healing crisis/de tox. B6 however can be neuro toxic and cause issues but only in the synthetic form of pyrodoxine is it recognized as toxic. B6 from regular food sources aren't going to cause a toxic burden in the same way.

It does sound like a combination of things, perhaps needing to de tox sulfurs, or ammonia that the folate aggravated as de tox, the de tox in general, lack of potassium, etc.. For the record a lot of what you mentioned happened to me in similar ways but I found them all to be signs of de tox, folate will raise inflammation in the body to deal with infection and create this response, low potassium can do similar. If you were low with magnesium to begin with this could have been another problem. All that potassium you may have taken in would have been excreted due to your body holding onto Mag reserves. To restore levels injections, or topical form is recommended. You will not be able to achieve higher doses in oral form, less you want to have major gastro intestinal complaints LOL.