Methylfolate: The Inexpensive FDA-Reviewed Vitamin That Might Save Your Life

Many of us know someone who had normal or even low cholesterol who had a heart attack. You may know a non-smoker who got lung cancer, an intelligent person who develops Alzheimer's, a couple who just can't get pregnant (and who may be suffering multiple miscarriages), or an entire family that gets diabetes they can't seem to control no matter what they do.

Usually doctors and health gurus place the blame for these "diseases of modern civilization" on the people who have them. It's their fault they ate too much sugar, or they did maintain low cholesterol, or they didn't stay mentally active, the self-proclaimed experts say. But in an astonishingly large number of cases the real problem may be an inherited inability to use the B vitamin folic acid that can be easily treated with a supplement.

Five Letters You Need to Remember, MTHFR

Folic acid is a vitamin, a substance we have to get from food, that we can't live without. Folic acid (or, in its food form, folate) is essential for the formation of the spinal column, the urinary tract, and the structures in and around the lips and palate during embryonic development. 

This vitamin is key to maintaining healthy nerve function throughout life, for avoiding a condition known as neuropathy, and it offers some protection against colon cancer. And deficiencies of folic acid are associated with Alzheimer's disease, stroke, and heart disease.

Just about no one in North America is deficient in folic acid.

The problem with folic acid is that from 2% (among persons of African descent) to 22% (among Italians and Hispanics) of people have mutations in the gene that codes the protein for methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, or MTHFR mutation, an enzyme that acts as a cofactor for folic acid. Without this enzyme, the body cannot efficiently activate folic acid into the methylfolate form it actually uses, and only1 to 10% as much of the active form of the vitamin is available. 

It might seem like a simple solution just to take 10 to 100 times more folic acid than most people need. The problem with this approach is that overdosing ordinary folic acid overloads the bloodstream so that the tiny amount of folic acid that actually gets converted into its active form can't enter the bloodstream of the brain or go into the nerves or other organs that need it most. Too much of this good thing makes the genetic problem even worse.

See Also: Vitamin B-Complex: Health benefits

A Simple Supplement Solution

Fortunately, people who have MTHFR mutations can take the activated form of the vitamin, methylfolate. Sometimes people who have diabetes, or cardiovascular disease, or cancer feel enormously better after taking the supplement for just a few days--and it's available for less than $10 a month if you shop around. But not everybody reacts to methylfolate the same way.

How To Use Methylfolate For Maximum Results

The best indication for using methylfolate is a lab test your doctor ordered and interpreted for you. Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, many insurance plans cover the cost of testing in full, although the test runs about $200 if insurance does not cover it.  If you know you have an MTHFR mutation, then you know methylfolate will work for you. 

What can you expect if you take methylfolate?

• Some people start taking methylfolate and start feeling great. They just wonder why they didn't take the supplement before.
• Some people start taking methylfolate and feel great for about a week. Then they feel unhinged, nervous and irritable and achy, for a week or two.
• And some people feel side effects like headache, insomnia, anxiety, palpitations, headaches, and itchy skin right away.

The reason for the different reactions to methylfolate is that the healing process can be unpleasant.

And if your metabolism has become so sluggish that you're tired all the time and you've become so accustomed to it you don't notice it any more, waking up your metabolism may come as a jolt.

There are ways to avoid these unpleasant side effects.  Here are some suggestions:

• In addition to taking methylfolate, take a B vitamin supplement containing no more than 50 to 100 mg of niacin. Methylfolate helps the body make a nerve activating agent called s-adenosylmethionine (sam-E). Niacin helps regulate the amount of s-adenosylmethionine the body makes.
• And in addition to taking niacin, take hydroxycobalamin, or activated vitamin B12. Methylfolate helps your blood vessels make nitric oxide, relaxing arterial walls and increasing circulation. But vitamin B12 helps prevent an excessive dilation effect.

See Also: Vitamin B6 Strengthens Immune Response

How much methylfolate is enough?

Your doctor could order a lab test for unmetabolized folic acid and methylfolate and eliminate all the guesswork. Or you could start with the smallest available capsule of methylfolate every other day and build up to a capsule every day if you don't experience any unpleasant side effects. It's always better to work with your doctor, and it's always better to rely on blood tests rather than guesswork, but if you simply cannot find or pay a doctor to help you with this potential issue, the smaller the dosage, the smaller the potential side effects. If you haven't been getting the methylfolate your body needs your entire life because you have a MTHFR defect, waiting an additional week or two to get the full benefits of the supplement really is not a sacrifice.