MTHFR - high homocysteine and b12 in blood

[Bonniepun]

My nutritionist gave me methyl folate and brought the homocysteine down thankfully. I wonder if anyone is in the same boat and taking methyl b12. My symptom is itchy skin. I think the body builds up histamine without working b12, is that right?

[Gambit62 Administrator]

sorry, I'm not clear what you are taking - are you taking both methylfolate and methylB12? or just methylfolate?

MTHFR can affect your ability to convert folate and B12 to methylated forms but the extent of the problem depends on what combinations of genetic variants you have. It has a much more significant impact on folate than it does on B12.

If you have itchy skin and are taking methylB12 then it could just be a reaction to the B12 - micro-organisms on the skin react to B12 by secreting an irritant.

Not heard of the histamine thing and not sure what the relevance is.

[Bonniepun in reply to Gambit62]

Thanks so much. I have been taking methyl folate and my homocysteine has come down drastically and within range. My b12 reading is 850, way over the ideal 145-569 range. I'm mostly vegetarian. I think my body must be lacking working b12 although I don't have symptoms. I was thinking perhaps I should take to methyl b12 but I think my nutrahacker reports says no.

[Bonniepun in reply to Bonniepun]

I was told the b12 cycle is interlink with histamine cycle.

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to Bonniepun]

histamine-2 receptor antagonists work in the same ways as PPIs and can inhibit the uptake of B12 leading to a deficiency

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/243...

think this is probably what you have read about.

If you aren't symptomatic of B12 deficiency then I would advise you not to consider supplementing further/use methyl B12 supplements.

If you eat dairy, egg and fish and/or supplement then dietary B12 is unlikely to be an issue.

3 steps in metabolising B12 - absorbing it from your food (which gets it into your blood), transferring it from blood to cells (which can go wrong if levels in blood get too high) and processing the B12 in your cells.

MTHFR is a problem that relates to the last step in the process.

[fbirder in reply to Bonniepun]

Your nutrihacker has got it right.

If you do have a problem with MTHFR that grossly affects its activity (the only proven one being homozygous for C677>T) then your body may not be able to produce enough methylfolate.

Methylfolate is needed to convert other forms of cobalamin into methylcobalamin.

If you supplement with methylfolate then there is no need to take methylcobalamin because your body should now be able to do it itself.