B vitamins

[annette12]

Hi everyone. Can anyone recommend a good B Complex that contains B1 and b6?. Any ones I've seen dont contain these 2.

I also take folate and don't want something that contains extra folic acid.

Thanks

[humanbean]

You could stop taking the folate and take this instead :

shop.thorne.com/basic-b-com...

It contains methylfolate, not folic acid. All the B vitamins it includes are in their active forms, which is better for you than the usual synthetic B vitamins. Thiamine is another name for vitamin B1, by the way.

I've read good reviews for this product too, but never tried it personally :

pureencapsulations.com/prod...

[Marz in reply to humanbean]

I notice the second link is a Merck product - ummm ! Big Pharma sneaking in on the supplement world

[humanbean in reply to Marz]

This worries me. If Big Pharma is moving in on supplements, what are the chances that good ones will start getting thin on the ground, costs will go up, and bottle sizes will reduce?

[Hidden]

Here's a B complex without folate or B12 in it, designed for people with the MTHFR gene defect who are already supplementing individual levels of those two vitamins. They're the only company I know who has it - the founder is researcher for the MTHFR gene. I buy their kids multi for my toddler son. seekinghealth.com/b-minus-1...

[Marz in reply to Hidden]

Where did you have the Gene test ? Are you in the UK ? I have his Newsletters but have not followed up on testing. Maybe a PM is appropriate.

Thank you...

[Brownlow in reply to Marz]

I got my whole DNA mapped by 23andme.com which of course includes MTHFR. You can get just the MTHFR gene test done at a few private labs in the UK but it costs about the same. It's much better to get the whole picture rather than just MTHFR in isolation. Cost me £125 but I might have paid extra for shipping, can't recall.

There is an avalanche of data to wade through and I need answers fast so rather than analysing by myself I realised I needed to consult someone to help me interpret the data and point me in the right direction in terms of how to correct matters. At first I thought I'd have to call someone in the US where they are well ahead of the UK on this but I found someone UK based and I will be talking to her on Friday. That's another expense but I think it will be really worth it.

[Marz in reply to Brownlow]

Thank you for your helpful reply. Hope things go well with your discussion on Friday. I agree the expense is worth it I'm sure....

[Hidden in reply to Marz]

I haven't had the money to have my son tested properly yet, as to which specific mthfr gene defect he's got. Although when I do, I'll go through 23andme.com as well, and then find a site that will interpret it all. I'm actually in New Zealand now, but lived in the UK for 10 years, hence the reason I know of and like this forum.

My son's always had health issues since birth, but before Christmas, he was also showing signs of what I recognised as a B12 deficiency (as I have been supplementing for a deficiency myself on the back of loads of research and my own test results).

My new GP agreed to do a set of blood tests on him, and strangely enough he came out with elevated serum B12 and folate levels, low/normal ferritin and indicators of anaemia in his total blood count.

mthfr.net is a wealth of information, and it was there and other websites that explained about methylation pathways, and how high serum levels can also mean deficiency in active B12 and folate. Given that B12 doesn't have any established upper limits, my GP supported me with trialing my son on small amounts of methyl B12 as she didn't have any other suggestions. Sure enough, he showed huge improvements the day I would give him a little, and now I've got a healthy and happy 2.5 year old little boy. He's on the kids' multi I mentioned above, being the only one I could find as a chewable AND with folate in it, not folic acid, and I give him methyl B12 a couple of times a week.

Not an exact science, but quite safe and it's working for him. When I have the money, and can coax him to provide enough saliva for me, I'll get him tested properly, so we know exactly which defect we're dealing with, and the implications for his own children one day. I suspect its come down his father's line, given the extreme health issues throughout his family, although I may have a variation of the gene defect myself.