I was talking about the RDA (recommended daily allowance) of folate, which is set at 400µg for people older than 19 (
reference).
As far is I know, daily requirements are calculated by looking at how much folate healthy people get from their diet every day.
(
reference)
Also, the daily requirements are unrelated to folic acid intake. Foods are not fortified with folic acid in germany and the DGE (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung/ German Association for Nutrition) sets daily requirements at 300µg for people older than 19 (
reference).
'By starting cell formation' seems to me like an optimistic interpretation of why methylation supplements induce potassium deficiency. Some more pessimistic options would be lowered aldosterone, leading to loss of potassium and sodium, or reduction in ATP or phosphorus causing less potassium transport into the cells via ATPases. One way or another, it doesn't seem like we have proof for any of these theories at the moment.
Hi PinkPanda,
The history of setting 400 mcg as RDA goes back historically to be low enough dose because the person to hopefully not cause neurological damage by correcting blood problems without fixing the neurological problems and causing worse. It has nothing to do with actually needed amounts of folate. That can't be determined with folic acid at all. The channel amount is estimated to be 800 -1000mcg for conversion to methylfolate, for 50% of population. Then there is 30% that can convert some but less than 800 mcg. The remaining 20% can't convert any folic acid to active methylfolate. I have never read the history of how RDA type numbers in Germany were set. You are fortunate so far that they are not putting folic acid in white flour. I can't eat white bread or flour or pasta etc. Eating a single piece of bread won't do anything noticeable likely, but day after day it adds up. 70 mcg a day in Soy milk was enough to cause visible lesions on my skin in a few weeks. Unconverted folic acid accumulates according to various studies. That effect on ;lesions can be felt and seen changing either worse or better starting in hours.
I for instance had any number of symptoms that respond quite well.
RDA isn't an optimum vitamin amount. It is considered to be the amount needed to prevent gross deficiency deficiency disease in most people. Even "ranges" from tests may just represent purely statistical values, not any relationship to effectiveness. 60 mg of C might very well prevent scurvy in most people. But a dentist I knew could tell the difference between those taking B-vitamins and C. For me, at 2000mg a day a resistant urinary infection was inactivated and eventually died off. At 14 grams a day, my swollen glands for decades went down and almost no strep infections after half a dozen a year for decades. Optimum amounts and combinations are quite individual. I had neurological damage at serum levels of Cu estimated at 90, while my lab calls 72 as lower limit and other ;labs call 90 as a low limit. I started copper based on symptoms and in 4 hours knew it is working. That is the thing about MeCbl, AdoCbl, L-methylfolate, and L-carnitine (fumarate or form currently working well for your body currently, subject to change). and other things that become deficient in the course of healing usually have pretty quick results. Of a dozen or more different items, on many hundreds of occasions, gone deficient, when I supplement them, I know in hours if it is reacting, and if more healing started then more hypokalemia will show up on the 3rd or 4th day any time more tissues start healing. The thing is that only the main cell formation impediment to healing which is "on top" has an immediate response and then the next set of symptoms (potassium often) pops up. The problem is my copper deficiency wasn't recognized by anybody until it got terrible and then I recognized it, just as I lost half my teeth before I corrected the copper and in 2 weeks my gums stopped being damaged and the wrong color.
In any case, it is so very rarely a single symptom. It's groups of symptoms, patterns of symptoms, and TIMING, and having having all other needed nutrients in place, then the chances that is is anything else other than the targeted deficiency.
There are reasons for things being done in a specific way. One starts with the broadest affecting items. So the 4 nutrients work together for making cells. The form a 4 way deadlock on cell formation. Removal of any one of the items could break the methylation-ATP cycle. Methylation depends on ATP and ATP is dependent upon methylation. Breaking either breaks the cycle.and they eventually all cause a set of symptoms out of a universe of several hundred symptoms affecting every part of the body.
We all are playing "you bet your life". I would have been dead 13 years ago (age 56) if I hadn't been winning my game of "you bet your life" for the previous year (MeCbl and AdCbl). I still had a LOT to learn about folate.
So the 4 way deadlock might cause 200 (high detail) symptoms. Other vitamins can deadlock those 4 also, low enough levels of vitamin D and others can do that. On the other hand Copper, or boron, or manganese, or molybdenum and other trace minerals can be deficient together as they are not usually dependent upon each other. So Cu causes about a dozen of those same deficiency symptoms as the deadlock quartet and hence are usually
invisible until the folate/b12 deficiencies are cleaned up. Same with boron. Cu increased my potassium need by 300 mg day, Boron by 150mg. Manganese and Molybdenum together another 150 mg.
This most recent CBC test is the most "mid-range" I've ever had. Folate fixed some of it. It's not as easy to klink things than can't be directly perceived. Good luck.
