I was looking up articles about how much folic acid to take when having Methotrexate. I was doing this, because I downloaded an app to monitor what I eat. I did this to ensure I have enough vitamins and minerals in my diet, which, it would seem, I generally do 😇
I take a 5mg folic acid tablet everyday, except my mtx day. As I put today's folic acid tablet in, it showed up as a mega amount! 😅 I thought I'd look into what I might actually need. I found the article an interesting read. Don't panic! I would never change my meds without consulting my GP/Rheumatology Consultant.
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Moomin8
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Although I no longer take methotrexate, I did research taking folic acid with it and concluded that I probably would benefit from taking it given the gastro-intestinal side effects that I had.
Trust your Rheumatologist! I would not trust an article which is not always verified by research. I have been in this dose for 8 years with no problems with either methotrexate or folic acid!
It’s a very difficult question. I would be taking what my consultant prescribes and trust their judgment for me, we are all different and one size doesn’t fit all as we know. For me and I’m only going on my personal experience, I found upping my folic acid to counteract the nausea I had with mtx on my consultants advice made things 10 times worse as folic acid didn’t help me at all. I was only on 7.5mg of mtx but the nausea was off the scale for 5:7 days. I had to give up in the end but having Covid made the mtx useless for controlling my RA and I gave it 7 months afterwards so went beyond what is considered tolerable. Get advice from your consultant and then try it and see but folic acid just like mtx isn’t for everyone.
I realised that I was on a high dose - 5 mg 6 days a week - when I was away from home for a few days and found I’d forgotten my folic acid. I went to a pharmacist to see if I could get some without a prescription and she told me all I could buy without a prescription would be the tablets advised for use during pregnancy but I’d need to take 12 of them at a time!
She was very reassuring about taking the higher dose with methotrexate saying it was often necessary to prevent the side effects I’d had when I first started taking methotrexate but also said that I’d be ok waiting the couple of days until I got home and could take the tablets I’d been prescribed.
I'm on 6 x 5 mg and have been since a few weeks into first taking Methotrexate (2019) I recently paused Methotrexate due to antibiotics for a root canal infection and stopped taking the Folic Acid but quickly developed a mouth ulcer - resumed the Folic Acid and it quickly healed. Makes me think that because Methotrexate stays in the body for a while, the Folic Acid is still useful and personally, I'm happy to keep taking it as my rheumy prescribed 😁
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