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zzz0r: I'm not sure of the exact theory. But it did happen with Freddd. I think too many people on this board discount his experience because he has so many different and unusual genetic mutations. They're like, it won't work for everyone like it did for him because he's so different than everyone else.
But what if, rather than making his experience with methylfolate unique, his mutations only made the healing more difficult? That is, maybe methylfolate works the same for everyone, but the level of difficulty people have with dosage and healing is simply dependent upon the mutations they have and what other supplements they're taking? Methylfolate gets the blame because it stirs everything up, as it were, but in reality it's the good guy and other players (thiols/sulfur, ammonia, other nutrient deficiencies, etc.) are the bad actors.
Dunno, just thinking out loud.
I also wonder what "saturation" has to do with methylfolate and healing. Meaning, if we are deficient in folate then we could soak it up like a sponge for a while, needing ever-increasing amounts to allow healing to take place. But then, once our cells are "saturated" then it would take a much smaller amount to keep saturated, but the healing could still keep going even at the deepest levels, because the level of folate is stable.
Think of a giant sponge in a 12" high bucket filled with water. Until the sponge gets saturated it may soak up all 12" of the water you put into the bucket. But after the sponge is completely saturated, it may only take 0.5" of water to keep it saturated. Maybe it's the same with taking a large dose of folate for a while and then being able to reduce.
But again, just thinking out loud. I am NOT stating this as a fact. It's an idea. Saturation seemed to be a factor in my potassium deficiency symptoms, so maybe it's the same with methylfolate.
Also to consider: it seems like everyone has this one "tip-off" symptom that tells them they're experiencing some level of paradoxical deficiency. I think with ahmo it's little zits, I believe on the neck. With Freddd I think it was angular cheilitis. With me it seems to be minor IBS symptoms. Etc.
When I was radically increasing folate I was feeling pretty good but kept experiencing these IBS symptoms (loose bowels, gut rumbles from small amounts of gas, etc.). So I kept increasing and things got better, but never entirely resolved. When I finally got all the way to 40mg I thought, something's not right. It seemed excessively high. So I experimented a bit based on what I read around here, and it turned out I was out of balance with some of the other B vitamins. Correcting the B deficiency cleared up the trouble and I reduced my dosage of folate.
However, I'm still keeping my dosage much higher than the norm because I'm not willing to take the chance on lowering it at this point, not with the progress I'm making with my female health problem. I could be drawing the wrong conclusion from my experience...maybe it's not folate that's helping my problem, it could be something else...but I'm just not willing to chance it.
So, since there doesn't seem to be any real harm to taking this dose of folate for a while (not forever), I'm going to hang with it.
Point being, I'm not entirely sure if simply correcting the B deficiency allowed me to reduce dosage without problems, or if I'm saturated enough to reduce dosage without problem, or if I've simply healed enough to reduce the dosage without problem. Or it could be a combo of all three factors that allowed me to reduce.
I will definitely report when I begin to reduce my dosage from the 26.4mg/day that it is currently to more normal levels. IMO that will be the real litmus test of the viability of reducing dosage. But that will be six months or more, depending upon how I progress with the non-methylation problem I'm using folate to address. It's a chronic, long-term, intractable problem that will take a deal more of healing to correct.
Hope that clarifies things a bit.
