Folic acid

Does folic acid help toget rid of mouth ulcers? I have so many it is painful to eat my rheumatologist recommends only one a week

[helixhelix]

Yea, it can. Many people take folic acid 6 days a week, or even 7/7 in the US. I found increasing my folic acid did help, but not enough so I swapped to injections and haven’t had a mouth ulcer since.

[Hidden in reply to helixhelix]

Thanks for yr reply. What sort of injections did you have?

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I already inject methotrexate makes no difference

[oldtimer]

Although most people don't have problems, I had horrendously large and persistent mouth ulcers on methotrexate both with the tablets and the injections. I took folic acid daily except for the day of the methotrexate injection as many people find that does the trick. In the end I had to stop it for that reason and other problems.

[Downtime]

Yes folic acid helps but as Helix said changing to injections finally stopped me getting horrible sores on my lips which made eating painful. I still take 5 mg folic acid for the 3 days after the injection.

[Wobbies]

Mine cleared up by using Gingigel mouthwash as recommended by my rheumy nurse. Expensive but has certainly worked.

[allanah]

Same as above yes it helped , I also started mouth washes and used a mouth ulcer gel , I'm sure others on here will know the name, but it forms a sort of protective bubble around the ulcers and that really helped...oh the name iglu gel coming to mind .

[nomoreheels]

Yes, it's one reason we take folic acid with MTX because being an anti folate it nicks off with our natural supplies so we need to replenish it. Folate is a necessary part of replacing cells & renewal of tissue so why mouth ulcers is a common side effect.

As you’re only prescribed 1 x 5mg a week there is room to increase it so do please ask your Rheumy. The thing is there are no guidelines for folic acid at higher doses than once weekly as it's off license use so Rheumys differ in how many they choose to prescribe, initially usually. The US seem to recommend taking it every day, including MTX day, but generally only take 1mg daily not 5mg like us, so when added up it's still only 7mg a week not the potential 30mg as week we can take.

My experience when I first started MTX was taking it only once, increased to the day before too when I had some early hair thinning which resolved itself the longer I stayed on it. When I moved back to the UK my Rheumy had all her MTX patients on 6 x 5mg a week so that's what I still take.

So do ask for an increase, no point suffering when a few more folic acid could solve the problem. Another alternative is to change to injections, you could ask especially if he won't increase your folic acid! Fortunately I’ve never had mouth ulcers but can empathise. 🤤🥴

[Hidden]

Thanks for all yr replies about mouth ulcers. Still have them tried mouthwash and igloo I have now increased my folic acid to 6 days a week

[Bessieboo1]

I have over 20 mouth ulcers at the moment, they have been going on for about 7 weeks now😥. I spoke to the rheumatology nurse this week she told me to stop Abatacept for a few weeks to see if they resolve, I had a telephone consultation with a maxillofacial consultant yesterday as they were querying whether I had oral cancer, thankfully he doesn’t think so but agrees that it is probably the Abatacept. I hope that it resolves as I have felt so much better on the drug. I did ask about Folic acid and the rheumatology nurse said it may be considered later. Feeling quite desperate now. Hope you get yours sorted soon. Sorry to be so miserable. Xx