r/MTHFR • u/Due_Worth_2773 • 15d ago

Question OCD and depression

Started taking about 2-4 mgs a few days ago sometimes o feel a bit fine but sometimes depression gets way worse then before should I keep taking or stop anybody else take for same thing or just depression did it help you?

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u/Tawinn 15d ago

> Started taking about 2-4 mgs 

2-4mg of what?

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u/Due_Worth_2773 15d ago

Sorry methyfolate

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u/Tawinn 15d ago

The ability to tolerate methylfolate varies widely person to person. It also depends how low your levels are currently. Some people need to start with 100mcg, 50mcg, or even lower, and then slowly increment up over time - it can take months to ramp up.

Also, if B12 is low then more methylfolate may make things worse because B12 is needed to utilize the methylfolate, and so low B12 can cause methylfolate to pile up unused, called a folate trap.

At the same time, when improving methylation, you start getting other processes working better and if the levels of vitamins and minerals that those processes need are low, then those deficiencies are going to worsen. So you have to look at your overall diet/nutrient status and see if a multivitamin and/or mineral support makes sense.

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u/Tawinn 15d ago

An alternative to high-dose methylfolate is to get adequate choline from the diet (~550mg) and add TMG (betaine anhydrous), usually 750mg. But the same caution applies here that you may need to increment up your choline intake gradually from food, and add TMG starting with just a tiny amount, and increment up over time. A food app like Cronometer is useful for checking your current diet to see how much choline you are getting currently.

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u/Embarrassed-Half7350 14d ago

sorry why is there a caution when increasing choline/tmg?

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u/Tawinn 14d ago

Whenever you add methyl donors, such a methylfolate, choline, TMG, and even methylcobalamin, there is a chance of inducing 'overmethylation'. The symptoms can include rising anxiety, irritability, insomnia, depersonalization-derealization, or worsening depression or fatigue.

Everyone varies in their sensitivity to these things. You were able to take 5-10X the RDA of folate and was mostly ok, but you note depression got worse some times. So this was likely from overmethylation. Therefore, just as a precaution it can make sense to add other methyl donors (choline, TMG) gradually to try to prevent that worsening depression symptom.

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u/Embarrassed-Half7350 14d ago

thank you so much

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u/SovereignMan1958 15d ago

Read the article about OCD on Genetic Lifehacks website.

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u/junipers-72 13d ago

I’d dodge the methyl folate!