Folate

[Harlech]

Hi. Could anyone advice which is the best folate to purchase.

Dr. Will not prescribe.

B/Horizon blood test 8.38. ( 8.83.- 60.8.)

From pervious post I had mentioned the gp. Will not accept blue horizon blood tests. (thyriod 11 test. )

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Harlech

You could buy a stand alone methylfolate supplement, they often come as 400mcg or 1000mcg. Good brands with no unnecessary ingredients are:

400mcg - cytoplan.co.uk/methylfolate...

1000mcg - healthleadsuk.com/folate-l-...

If you go for the higher dose one then I would retest after a couple of months, if you don't want to retest anything else then Medichecks do a fingerprick test for folate for £39.

My folate was near the bottom of range originally 6.9 (4.6-18.7)

and I used Thorne Basic B (a B Complex containing 400mcg methylfolate) and in 2.5 months it had increased to 42.32 (10-42.4)

so you could consider that as well.

[Harlech in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you for your reply. Prior to b/tests I was taking super b - complex which contained folate, but I stopped all vit's for 1 week. My b/test for vit b is high.

735. ( b/ Horizon says reduce to 569.) So I was thinking of just taking folate, but unsure of which to purchase 400, 600, or 1000mcg.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Harlech]

Harlech

You don't need to wory about your B12 level. If Blue Horizon unit of measurement is still pmol/L then 735 = 996pg/ml. An extract from the book, "Could it be B12?" by Sally M. Pacholok says:

"We believe that the 'normal' serum B12 threshold needs to be raised from 200 pg/ml to at least 450 pg/ml because deficiencies begin to appear in the cerebrospinal fluid below 550".

"For brain and nervous system health and prevention of disease in older adults, serum B12 levels should be maintained near or above 1000 pg/ml."

So there's no need to stop your B12, you could go onto a maintenance dose.