Like I said, I have had benefits from taking vitamin B2 that I didn't have on methylation protocol or from a multivitamin. I'm not saying that vitamin B2 will help everyone, but it might be beneficial for some.
Certainly taking a vitamin or a supplement can provide benefits, and I have found benefit from quite a few supplements.
Although when you do find one that helps, the reason that it helps is often unknown, or is at best a series of biochemical guesses. For example, I found high dose selenium greatly improved my brain fog and energy, but I was never really able to figure out why, although in my
thread I listed various biological mechanisms that involve selenium, which might be responsible for the benefits I experienced.
I am certainly not saying people shouldn't experiment with supplements or drugs. The very opposite: I think this often leads to discovering beneficial treatments.
I am just saying that I don't know any example of someone not getting benefits from the methylation protocol because of some assumed blockage in their methylation, and then when that magic supplement is found to unblock the blockage, bingo, the benefits then start to appear. I have never come across that.
In that sense, there is no evidence, not even anecdotal evidence, of what you might call "
methylation tinkering" leading to benefits.
But if you know of some good anecdotes, or have some evidence, I am more than happy to consider them.
Having a canned "one size fits all" methylation protocol can be very detrimental to people.
You are making bold statements, but can you back them up with evidence? Is there any scientific evidence for your above statement? Or even anecdotal evidence?
I have been reading these forums for many hours a day ever since I first joined in 2009. When I first read about methylation, and all the complexities of "methylation tinkering", I was very open minded, and followed all the theory and practice of this tinkering, as I enjoy experimenting with new treatments, and am often curious about all sorts of treatment ideas.
However, I have not seen a single case on this forum where "methylation tinkering" led to a positive result. That is to say, after reading these forums every day for nearly 10 years, I have yet to come across even just one anecdotal account of "methylation tinkering" paying dividends.
So that is why I am pointing out that playing around with methylation has a very poor track record. In my experience, the methylation protocol either works, or it does not. If it does not, you may be best advised to move on to another treatment that may be more fruitful.
I have often seen major benefits reported on these forums from other treatments, such as low-dose naltrexone, oxymatrine, Valtrex, Famvir, Valcyte, cholestyramine + BEG nasal sprays for those with mold illness, and then more minor benefits from things like transdermal magnesium, probiotics, prebiotics, Q10, D-ribose, melatonin, piracetam, and so forth.
Thus for me it almost borders on unethical to promote "methylation tinkering" to new patients, when we know its success rate is very poor, yet it is incredibly time consuming, and requires you to spend weeks if not months trying to study it all, with the promise of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but a pot of gold nobody ever seems to reach.
Is that really the most productive use of time for us poor brain fogged ME/CFS patients, trying to reach the mythical end of the rainbow?
Having a personalized nutrient protocol can make a huge difference in function and can make the difference between having a mental illness and cancer vs. avoiding them completely.
There are certainly studies linking certain supplements to a reduced (and sometimes increased) rate of cancer, I agree. I have not seen any evidence for supplements or personalized nutrition ever
preventing mental illness though.
However, to blow my own trumpet, my
N-acetyl-glucosamine anti-anxiety protocol often gets very good results, as lots of people trying it have reported on the thread.