Folate and pernicious anemia

[Freezeframe]

If you inject Methylcobalamin twice a month do you need to do the cofactors only on the days you inject or everyday? Also just how much folate is sufficient?

[fbirder]

Your body needs folate all the time, not just on the days that you inject B12. Folate is important for lots of the body's processes. The most vital are making DNA and for DNA methylation - which is the body's way of switching DNA on and off.

Injecting B12 doesn't increase the body's need for folate.

About 400 mcg a day should be enough for everybody. This can come from food or supplements.

[Freezeframe in reply to fbirder]

I keep reading that while doing b 12 injections I should be taking 5mg of folic acid. Is this overkill ? I do not tolerate folic acid ( MTHFR). So I am doing Folinic Acid . If I am homozygous c667 and May only convert a fraction of folic acid would it makes sense that I may not need as much Folinic Acid based on that 5mg folic acid protocol?

[Freezeframe in reply to Freezeframe]

How easy does Folinic Acid covert to Methylfolate? Ugh

[fbirder in reply to Freezeframe]

Both folic acid and folinic acid are converted to methylfolate by the action of the MTHFR enzyme.

Before that both need to be converted to tetrahydrofolate. For folic acid this is done by the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). Folinic acid (5-formyltetrahydrofolate) first needs to be converted to methenyltetrahydrofolate which is then converted to formimino tetrahydrofolate or 10-formyltetrahydrofolate. These are then both converted to tetrahydrofolate.

The only time folinic acid can have any superiority over folic acid is if there is a problem with the DHFR enzyme. This can happen in people that take methotrexate for chemotherapy. Otherwise the two are equivalent.

[Freezeframe in reply to fbirder]

Makes sense. Again thank you for being able to help me

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to Freezeframe]

yes the 5mg folic acid is overkill.

Your particular polymorphism on the MTHFR gene means that your cells are less efficient at converting folate to methylfolate in your cells and that the cells are less efficent in methylfolate. This can have a minor impact on how efficiently your cells use B12 but it is not that significant and the levels of B12 you have from injecting should make this entirely irrelevant.

[Freezeframe in reply to Gambit62]

That’s what I thought. Thank you

[wedgewood]

Best way to get your folate is to eat plenty of vegetables and fruit which have high folate content eg , green leafy veg , spinach, peas , citrus fruits etc Then you get your folate, plus all the other nutrients, plus fibre that come with the fruit and veg .And no bother with homozygous condition .

[Freezeframe in reply to wedgewood]

I’ve been trying to eat most of my folate. I I thought there is no way to eat 5000 mcg a day. I can eat about 1000 mcg and that’s hard. Glad you all agree that it may be overkill. My folate level is normal at 9. Hope I can get it to go up a bit more. Thanks