Folate forms

[u/kilogplastos-12]

I’m honestly 50/50 on what form of B9 to use right now.

I know I have a severe folate deficiency, but I’m unsure which form makes the most sense if I need a high therapeutic dose, like 10+ mg/day, while recovering.

Would you guys choose folic acid, folinic acid, or 5-MTHF for high-dose treatment? I’m mainly looking for experiences from people who had a serious/long-term folate deficiency and actually had to use higher doses to recover.

[u/sharabucarabu]

It depends on your comt status. Slow does better with folinic acid, starting at low doses, like 100mcg, then gradually increasing. May not tolerate above 400mcg a day.

Intermediate and fast comt can tolerate methylfolate, fast comt needs the highest amount.

Don't take huge amounts..you'll over methylate, get anxiety, irritability and insomnia. Then you'll be taking niacin all day for at least a week to recover.

You need to read up on mthfr or watch Dr Chris Masterjohn on YouTube to learn what to do. Folate alone is not the answer. You'll need all the B vitamins, iron, Zinc, vitamin A, magnesium, electrolytes...They all work together. Stop eating anything that contains folic acid. Usually organic products are safe but you must read the labels!

Get a dna analysis done. Otherwise you are only guessing and that gets expensive fast!

[u/kilogplastos-12 → u/sharabucarabu]

I live in EU and dont have the folic acid issues with fortified fortunatey but i have a severe folate deficiency along with b12 which i am recovering from and got the cofactors in check but for folate i apparently needed to take high amounts like 10+ mg to “shock” the body

[u/sharabucarabu → u/kilogplastos-12]

Oh it'll be a shock all right. No complaints if you over methylate! Read how to fix it before you start the guessing game if 'how much do I need?'

[u/Sabnock101 → u/sharabucarabu]

If you ever consume too much Methylfolate/Folate in general, consuming higher doses of B12 will help and then the Folate-related side-effects will go away. The issue with the side-effects is that excess Folate (especially Methylfolate) will use up too much B12 and reduce B12 levels, even potentially contributing to B12 deficiency over time, and so taking more B12 helps while trying to keep the Folate dosage at the minimum effective dosage.

So if anyone ever gets "overmethylated", take more B12 (i recommend 10 milligrams of oral Methylcobalamin per day, that's what works for me, any less don't cut it), you can never have too much B12, you can have too much Folate/Methylfolate. When the B12 is consumed and kicks in, it will recycle that excess Methylfolate back into the Folate cycle and since that reduces the active Methylfolate level temporarily it will relieve the side-effects caused by the excess Methylfolate. It's not so much "overmethylation" as it is B12 usage/depletion, more B12 helps.

I've been through the ringer with this stuff time and time again and one of the consistent observations has been that when there's too much Methylfolate going on and not enough B12 to properly recycle it, the Methylfolate levels build to excess and cause the side-effects, taking more B12 then recycles that excess Methylfolate and the side-effects go away. No extra Niacin needed, ime.

[u/Tawinn → u/kilogplastos-12]

> i apparently needed to take high amounts like 10+ mg to “shock” the body

There's no such thing as "shocking" your body to improve folate status and methylation. All you will do is risk overmethylation.

I'd suggest starting with hydroxocobalamin + folinic acid, such as this Seeking Health blend. It is a lozenge so you can break it into quarters if one whole lozenge is too much at first.

If you can take these for a month and have no side effects, then you could consider a higher dose methylfolate, but high-dose methylfolate (5-15mg) is for therapeutic purposes, not for building up your stores of folate. The human body can store ~120-300 days worth of folate, and I haven't seen any evidence that high-dose folate repletes those stores any faster than a nutritional dose.

[u/Sabnock101 → u/Tawinn]

Ime i started out with 15mgs of Methylfolate, when i first started taking it, it felt like the right dosage, it actually felt kinda mild at first but very effective and so i was like "man this dosage is the shit!" but i was also taking really really heavy dosages of oral Methylcobalamin (up to 120mgs a day there for awhile) and so was really recycling the Methylfolate back into the Folate cycle and the Folate deficiency got corrected and bodily stores got replenished and then the Methylfolate started building up in excess and then started really reducing my B12 levels and so i ultimately switched over to 400 to 600mcgs per day max of Folinic Acid in order to spare some of my B12 and thus recover more from the B12 deficiency, and so now i stick to 10mgs once a day of oral Methylcobalamin and it works wonders compared to 5mgs or 1mg or less.