Supplementary versus food source folate

[helvella]

As a forum with considerable understanding and experience of folate and folic acid issues, I am wondering if anyone would care to comment?

The form of folate is being pointed at quite clearly whereas the usual view here seems to be that it all turns out in the wash regardless the form taken. (OK, ultra-simplified version.)

Afraid I simply do not have the understanding to make any reasonable assessment of what is said.

A large number of recent studies have suggested association between pre-conception intake of folate and risk of ASD onset in newborns [46]. A significantly higher rate of ASD has been found in children not exposed to folic acid (FA) compared to in children of mothers who took it. Conversely, some apparently conflicting results were reported by other studies that related an increased risk for ASD and neurocognitive impairments in children of mothers who used dietary supplements of synthetic FA [47,48,49]. A possible explanation of these diverging results might be offered by the different compositions between the FA used in supplements (pteroylmonoglutamic) and the one from natural food sources (ormyl-tetrahydropteroylglutamates). High levels of pteroylmonoglutamic acid, which depend on liver-based metabolism, could result in high levels of unmetabolized and non-useful FA in the blood, which can cause changes in brain synaptic transmission and dysregulation of expression of many genes associated with ASD [50,51,52].

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[fbirder]

From my readings the "pteroylmonoglutamic acid, which depend on liver-based metabolism" are only a problem when the patient is taking methotrexate as this inhibits the action of dihydrofolate reductase (the enzyme responsible for the liver-based metabolism).

[helvella in reply to fbirder]

Thank you. That could make sense given the rest of the article.

[deniseinmilden]

I couldn't help thinking "crickey - it must be complicated if you don't quite get it"... And I was right! 😃

Thank you for all your information and support on here.

Thank goodness fbirder answered!

[helvella in reply to deniseinmilden]

The one thing I can say is that I know how ignorant I am.

Even the best-known things in medicine tend to have subtleties and ramifications that are anything but obvious.

[deniseinmilden in reply to helvella]

Yes, definitely - and it's surprising how much knowledge you need to have to just know this!

The more we learn, the more more we discover how much we don't know!!