Folic Acid

[Marianne1]

What strength do people use when taking folic acid, the pharmacist advised 5mg if you are on B12 injections, but I've been told that this strength is prescription only, I was also told they what you buy over the counter is a much lower dose for pregnant women

[Hidden]

Hi Marianne1,

It depends if you are deficient, if your serum folate is to low. In UK if you are def you will get prescribed 5mg folic acid tabs daily for 3-4 months. You can not by these at the chemist as there is currently no Conclusive research that can say if to much artificial folic acid may or not be harmful.

A haematologist I saw said taking just an over the counter multi vitamin is best if you are not def as it will have all vits/ mins in balance. Giving to much of one vitamin and not enough of others will not help, many vitamins need each other to be taken up.

Some more to read here:

pernicious-anaemia-society....

I hope this helps,

Kind regards,

Marre.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

The tablets I use are 0.4mg - which seems to be 200% RDA - though I usually take 2-3 - so not taking the dose that pharmacist advised - may be that they are used to dealing with people who are folate deficient as well as B12 deficient which is why they are recommending that amount as it does sound rather high.

[hiteshhp]

Yes 5mg is prescription only but you can find them on online or amazon.

I take B complex with 1 mg Methyl folate.

[pvanderaa]

In the middle- east I was able to get the 5mg over the counter but in the west I've found 400 mcg and 600 mcg (with DHA). I take a combo of these to get 2 mg per day.

I get some symptoms like pulsating tinnitus if I get too much folic acid and not enough B12