Folic Acid and Levothyroxine

[pussycatwillow]

My son has been prescribed Folic Acid. Does this interact with Levothyroxine or can it be taken together.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

pussycatwillow

As with all supplements/medication, take 2 hours away from Levo.

[Marz]

A mistake to take Folic Acid if B12 Deficiency has not been ruled out ...

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Essential to test vitamin D, folate, B12 and ferritin

Come back with new post once you get results

[pussycatwillow in reply to SlowDragon]

Hi SlowDragon

B12 600 (180 - 1100)

Folate 2.2 (3.00 - 13.00)

Vit D 48 (20.00 - 300.00) April 2019

GP not really interested in B12 and Vit D!

TSH 0.32 (0.30 - 5.0)

T4 19.6 (10.3 - 24.5)

T3 not done!

[galathea in reply to pussycatwillow]

Be aware that folic acid doesnt suit everyone. Its a man made substance that the body has to convert. The culprit for this inability to use folic acid is often the MTHFR gene. Much better idea to take methyl folate instead. That works for everyone. It took me a couple if months to get my folate levels up to 18 from being below range, but it was great. All the tiredness vanished as did a couple of stones of fat!

[LivingWithHT in reply to galathea]

If you don’t mind sharing, how much folate per day did you find was optimal for you? I am asking because I have recently started taking folate to improve my levels, too, and I just want different people’s opinions as a guideline to compare.

[galathea in reply to LivingWithHT]

I take 400 mcg a day ... i use jarrow and its just one capsule.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to pussycatwillow]

Does he have Hashimoto’s? Diagnosed by high thyroid antibodies

Vitamin D

GP will only prescribe to bring levels to 50nmol.

ouh.nhs.uk/osteoporosis/use...

But improving to around 80nmol or 100nmol may be better

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/218...

vitamindsociety.org/pdf/Vit...

Once Improve level, may need on going maintenance dose to keep it there.

Test twice yearly via vitamindtest.org.uk

Vitamin D mouth spray by Better You is very effective as it avoids poor gut function. There’s a version made that also contains vitamin K2 Mk7

It’s trial and error what dose we need, with hashimoto’s we frequently need higher dose than average

Government recommends everyone supplement October to April

gov.uk/government/news/phe-...

Also read up on importance of magnesium and vitamin K2 Mk7 supplements when taking vitamins

betterbones.com/bone-nutrit...

medicalnewstoday.com/articl...

livescience.com/61866-magne...

sciencedaily.com/releases/2...

Bone pain

easy-immune-health.com/pain...

naturalnews.com/038286_magn...

Vitamin K2 mk7

betterbones.com/bone-nutrit...

healthline.com/nutrition/vi...

B12 on the low side.

Folate clearly deficient

Many people find folate is better than folic acid

Supplementing a good quality daily vitamin B complex, one with folate in not folic acid may be beneficial.

chriskresser.com/folate-vs-...

B vitamins best taken in the morning after breakfast

Igennus Super B complex are nice small tablets. Often only need one tablet per day, not two. Certainly only start with one tablet per day after breakfast. Retesting levels in 6-8 weeks

Or Thorne Basic B or jarrow B-right are other options that contain folate, but both are large capsules

If you are taking vitamin B complex, or any supplements containing biotin, remember to stop these 7 days before any blood tests, as biotin can falsely affect test results

endo.confex.com/endo/2016en...

endocrinenews.endocrine.org...

Suggest you work on improving vitamin levels and then do FULL thyroid and vitamin testing privately

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and before eating or drinking anything other than water .

Last dose of Levothyroxine 24 hours prior to blood test. (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw).

This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)

[pussycatwillow in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you.

[LivingWithHT]

Good news, BetterYou has now come out with an oral spray version of Folate (methyl-folate) which is better than folic acid and more quickly absorbed. You might want to check that out.

[Lora7again in reply to LivingWithHT]

I have just ordered some to see if it suits me better than the tablets which made me feel awful.