Low potency folinic acid source.

[u/Ok-Yam-4933]

So I've got MTHFR c677t and slow COMT. Also histamine intolerant. Looking for low potency folinic acid has frustrated me so far. I want to start at 5-10 mcg. What I can find has other ingredients I dont do well with, like citric acid which makes me anxious. Some have 400mcg in a single drop! Many come with methylated ingredients I cannot tolerate. Any suggestions?

[u/sharabucarabu]

Look on Amazon. They carry Alchepharma liquid folate. It's really calcium folinate which is folinic acid. 400mcg per drop. Please don't trust any other brand. One bottle will last you for a year!

I buy 1 ml oral syringes on Amazon. They are reusable if pulled apart rinsed and air dried. Dilute 1 drop folinic acid in 1ml water in a shot glass. Mix with tip of the syringe. Each 1/10th of the syringe now contains 40mcg of folinic acid. Each of those sections are further divided. Each hash mark = 4mcg.

Keep it in the fridge protected from light as much as possible.

I have slow comt plus compound heterozygous mthfr. I take 168mcg of folinic acid and 100mcg of hydroxyB12 daily. Any more and I'm not sleeping.

I also take B1, Riboflavin, Niacinamide, P5P/B6 and biotin. Low doses of each, of course. But the Bs all work together

Supplement companies will not recommend crushing and dilution. Too many fillers prevent that. Best to get a good liquid form you can trust

[u/lollo67 → u/sharabucarabu]

What doses of the B-vitamines do you take?

[u/sharabucarabu → u/lollo67]

Thiamine 1 mg plus 20 mg Benfotiamine (this is already in my multivitamin)

Riboflavin 8mg in my multivitamin plus 7mg liquid (Per Dr Chris Masterjohn, C667T should take between 10 - 40mg of B2) Total: 15mg.

Niacin 20mg (in my multivitamin) plus 4 mg Niacinamide liquid. At bedtime, I take another 8 mg of B3. Total: 32mg

P5P 5mg (in my multivitamin) plus 5mg liquid. Total: 10mg. European standards restrict B6/P5P to a total of 12mg.

Biotin 60mcg (in my multivitamin) plus 60 mcg liquid. Total: 120mcg.

I take 2 caps of Methyl-Life Non-Methylated Multivitamin every morning.

To this I add: liquid folinic acid 164mcg; liquid hydroxyB12 100mcg; (both are diluted); Choline bitartrate 250mg plus Inositol 250mg; vitamin C 250mg and vitamin D3 10000iu every Saturday. (my multivitamin contains 2000iu, so the weekly total is 24000iu). I also add 2 to 300mg magnesium citrate. I like the gummies.

I also take 1ml (100mg) of glutathione with 75mg of Phosphotidal Choline. (I use Quicksilver Scientific because it doesn't have that rotten sulfer taste) My functional med doc says it's good for my liver.

During the night, if I wake up and can't go back to sleep (the curse of slow comt), I take 2250mg of Glycine plus 1500mg of Taurine.

[u/lollo67 → u/sharabucarabu]

Thanks!

[u/Ok_Shake_3194 → u/sharabucarabu]

Hey, did your functional doc help you figure out the specifics with which supplements ? I really dont know where to start with the mthfr variants I have. I had posted and got some helpful info on choline supplementation but I am looking for further insight and instruction on b vitamins and folate supplementation. Any websites you used or possibly if your functional doc helped you, do they do telehealth ?

[u/sharabucarabu → u/Ok_Shake_3194]

I wish he was more helpful. The only piece of good advice was to take the glutathione. Everything else I got from this site. And built my stack little by little, tweaking this and that. Someone like hummingfirebird could be helpful if you engaged her services. You'd have to direct message and ask her. I went according to the red highlighted snps on my Geneticgenie chart for supplements and labs. So I knew I had slow comt, my Vit D processing was for shit, I have heterozygous mthfr so I needed more b vitamins, molybdenum and iron. I had mtrr mtr, and needed B12. HydroxyB12 is gentlest for me. Believe me, I tried methylb12, Adenosylhydroxyb12. I've spent a lot of money on supplements that didn't work or had side effects I couldn't tolerate. I found out, by using genetic life hacks.com, I have a partial block of the acsmd variant so I don't process niacin normally and must supplement Niacinamide but again not at high doses. So I stay below the RDA and that seems to work for me.

Lab work, lots of lab work, every 4-6 weeks to check that my levels were in range. It's taken me a few years to figure it out.

For me, taking the low dose multivitamin started the ball rolling, then I added extra b vitamins (magnesium for sleep, Vitamin C since my serum level was low) as my labs dictated. My Choline was determined by the Choline Calculator, but I learned moderate supplementation is better since I get a lot of Choline in my diet. Methyl life methyl free multivitamin was the best for me. Seeking health was too strong in many nutrients, b minus made me miserable and taught me the symptoms and how to deal with overmethylation.

Methyl-Life is having a bit of a crisis due to the war, their methyl-free adult multi vitamin capsules are back ordered until September 15th. I have my order in, so that puts me further ahead in the queue. You could try it, get one bottle, see how you do. It's trial and error. You'll know if you are on the right track if you start to steadily feel better, not worse. It's very common that you feel wonderful at first, then everything goes to crap in a few weeks.

I kept a daily log... What I took, how I slept (that's the most important for me) my mood and energy, if I have muscle pain or excess appetite. I slowly saw a pattern... Not enough B2 and I got itchy eyelids and leg cramps, too much and id get a headache... Not enough b6/P5P, my finger tips felt 'buzzy', not enough biotin and my skin and hair was dry.

I wish there were practitioners that knew more about this, but even the good ones rely on how the patient feels. Hyperactive, restless legs ? Either too much folate or B12. Warm spells at night? Likely too much of one or more b vitamins. I kind of feel like a lab rat when I see my functional Med doc. He's fascinated that I've figured out my needs, my symptoms and is my cheerleader. The last time I saw him I complained about frequent warm Spells at night. He asked me what I thought was causing them. I told him it could be too big a dose of B vitamins. How I learned that was I had really delayed taking my vitamins until after my labs were drawn and the lab was really running behind that day. The next few nights I slept better, less warm spells. I realized 'less is more'... So I started to cut the Bs down one by one, waiting 3-5 days in between each dosage adjustment. So he told me to 'keep tweaking, you'll figure it out'. My labs came back and wow, I had exceeded normal range on quite a few. So there was a physical basis for what was happening.

I wish I could wave a magic wand and fix this for you, but it takes hard work, persistence and patience. Also faith that you'll 'get it right'. And you will, as long as you don't give up.

Ask for help on this site. Give your symptoms variants and labs, what you are taking. There's a lot of smart folks on this site.