Relationship with b12 and folate

[Krealan]

I have been self injecting b12 for quite some time now from home (three years or so). I have stumbled on a few people who have mentioned that the proper folate levels are required for the b12 to be effective.

My question is If you have too much b12 in your body does it deplete your folate stores over time? Lets say someone was injecting once a week of hydroxo lets say without supplementing folate, would this be a problem long term (three years)? I do eat a lot of veggies and my doctor has never mentioned a problem with my folate levels (but I don't trust doctors anymore, sadly) as they have never offered or mentioned needing folate to work with b12.

I know it's better to take folate supplements over folic acid, I was just curious on other people's thoughts and opinions on the matter. Ever since I started to self inject b12 which was methyl at the time once a week or so. It has felt like my hair has gotten worse not better (which I hoped for the opposite reaction).

I know it has been three years or more of steadily injecting and not supplementing folate because I met my current girlfriend at the time of starting to self inject. Would this mass ammount of b12 in methyl or hydroxo form use up my folate and cause thinning of the hair and possible fatgiue due to deficiency?

Thanks for any replies in advance.

[Hidden]

Hi, I get B12 injections at the hospital every two weeks but I still wasn't feeling great. Then a friend suggested taking 5mg folic acid daily and it has been life changing for me. I feel almost totally normal again at last. I mentioned to the Doc on my last visit and she has now added them into my regular prescription, she didn't explain why but it has made a drastic difference to my general well being.

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to Hidden]

5mg a day is quite a large dose of folic acid.

would recommend talking to your GP about looking at a lower dosage - although there isn't much evidence of toxicity in humans very high levels in mice have shown toxicity effects and there is also this study which showed the development of MTHFR (problems methylating folic acid) in mice

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/257...

[Hidden in reply to Gambit62]

Thanks Gambit62, I'll ask her at my next review. I was barely able to function 6 months ago before I started taking it, breathless & chronic fatigue so perhaps the high dose has given me the boost I need and can perhaps be tapered to a lower mg going forward.

[Polaris]

Personally, I feel its not just folic acid that's vital - all the B vitamins work synergistically together but you have to be careful as you can overdose on some of them. Biotin is particularly good for hair but so also are many other essential nutrients, e.g. essential fatty acids.

My hair has only finally improved after illness a year ago - sea buckthorn seemed to help thickness and shine.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

most B12 vitamins aren't stored in the body - only B12 so there isn't any store of folate to be depleted.

However, you will use up more folate processing B12 so unless you increase the intake in some way your levels are going to drop. The best source is food but if you have a general absorption problem - or possibly problems methylating folate - then you may need more than you can get from your food.

[fbirder]

My question is If you have too much b12 in your body does it deplete your folate stores over time?

No. It's a bit like making gin and tonics for a group of people. No matter how much gin (B12) you have you'll the same amount of tonic (folate). If the amount of gin drops too low then your rate of G&T production will decrease. The same will happen if you run low on tonic.

But lots of gin, not being used to make G&Ts, will not use up the tonic any faster.

The other B vitamins can be used to make other drinks, but they're not vital to the making of G&Ts.

[Krealan in reply to fbirder]

Can not enough folate cause hair loss if the b12 in your body is not being able to do its job due to low folate?

[fbirder in reply to Krealan]

I can find lots of non-scientific web sites that make spurious claims for a link. Here's a study that looked at B12, folate, iron and ferritin as causative agents for alopecia - they found no link. They did, however, suggest that alopecia may be an autoimmune disease, and we know that they often come in bunches.

ijdvl.com/article.asp?issn=...