Folate Warning [Part 3] - "Fix" MTHFR
This email covers ...
- How to get all of your folate from food
- Some steps to ensure that you recycle folate well
- A simple "fix" for a defective MTHFR enzyme (without using folate)
In case you missed the previous two emails, I described the health symptoms and risks that can arise from getting too much folate from supplements, processed food (folic acid is added to processed grain flours), and even small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).
So if your folate is not so low that you need a supplement to raise it quickly, you might want to consider getting all of your folate from food and also make sure that you are recycling your folate well.
Your folate level and how well you recycle it could be described collectively as your
"folate status".
An optimal way to support your folate status (and the methylation cycle that depends on it) could include the following steps:
- Eat folate-rich foods like beef liver (the only source of methylated folate), legumes (especially lentils), asparagus, avocado, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, papaya, citrus fruit, and leafy greens.
- Test your blood folate level (and ideally all of your B vitamins) to see if you're getting enough from your diet.
- Test all of the genes in your folate cycle (about 5 genes), and ideally also in your methylation cycle (about 5 more genes), and nutrient transport genes, to spot which of your genes might need extra support to run the folate and methylation cycles and other biological processes that require nutrients that you might not absorb well.
The reason I recommend testing all of the genes in the folate cycle (not just MTHFR) is that multiple steps are involved in keeping folate methylated and "reduced" (having enough electrons).
There is also a step (an enzyme) in the methylation cycle that keeps B12 methylated and reduced.
The folate cycle, the B12 cycle, and the methylation cycle involve more than just the MTHFR gene/enzyme.
I repeatedly emphasize because to have good folate function and good methylation in the body, just focusing on MTHFR is often not enough.
Aside from the risks of just taking a lot of folate as a way of dealing with a defective MTHFR enzyme, that
just bypasses the MTHFR enzyme (and the other enzymes in the folate cycle) and even
potentially further downregulates MTHFR activity.
Rather than trying to bypass enzymes in the folate cycle and taking on the risks associated with overdoing folate, there is another option ...
... you can actually help the MTHFR enzyme work better
All you have to do is
ensure that you are getting enough vitamin B2 (riboflavin).
Vitamin B2
converts to the cofactor that the MTHFR enzyme needs to function.
A defect in the MTHFR enzyme reduces its affinity for its B2-based cofactor, but
if you supply more of MTHFR's cofactor, MTHFR works better.
So far, all of my clients have been quite deficient in B2, so it seems that B2 deficiency is prevalent in people with health challenges.
And one of the effects of B2 deficiency is to reduce the function of the MTHFR enzyme, even if you don't have a genetic defect in MTHFR.
Did you catch that?
If you are B2 deficient, your MTHFR enzyme might not be working well, even if you don't have any of the MTHFR genetic defects.
And if you do have a defective MTHFR, B2 deficiency will definiltely worsen your MTHFR function.
By the way, the B2-based cofactor for the MTHFR enzyme is flavin adenine dinucleotde (FAD), and FAD is also necessary for
many other important enzymes like glutathione reductase that
recycles oxidized glutathione and monamine oxidase that helps to
clear histamine (as well as neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine).
One of the subscribers to this newsletter told me that
she had a "major turn around in my GI issues" after she implemented my suggestion of taking B2.
Perhaps her gut started
clearing histamine in the gut faster, or more quickly
clearing excess serotonin in the gut (a mediator of inflammation in the gut) because clearing histamine or serotonin involves B2 / FAD as the cofactor for the monamine oxidase enzyme.
FAD is also essential for transporting electrons in mitochondrial energy production, especially electrons that come from metabolizing fat.
High-fat diets (e.g. keto) require more FAD to process the elecrons coming from fat, so it's somewhat common for people on ketogenic diets to become deficient in B2 / FAD if they are not aware that they may need to take extra B2.
Some people do not activate B2 very well, so if you can get it in the activated
riboflavin-5-phosphate (R5P) form, that might work better for you.
Unlike supplementing with folate, supplementing with riboflavin poses little or no health risk.
I have never seen any information about riboflavin toxicity, so it seems that no toxic dose of B2 has ever been identified.
To summarize ...
- Some of the richest food sources of folate include beef liver (the only source of methylated folate), legumes (especially lentils), asparagus, avocado, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, papaya, citrus fruit, and leafy greens.
- Test your blood folate level (and ideally all of your B vitamins) to see if you're getting enough from your diet.
- Test all of the genes in your folate cycle (about 5 genes), and ideally also in your methylation cycle (about 5 more genes), and nutrient transport genes, to spot which of your genes might need extra support to run the folate and methylation cycles and other biological processes that require nutrients that you might not absorb well.
- Don't just bypass MTHFR (and other enzymes) by supplementing with methylfolate when you can usually "fix" an MTHFR issue with B2 (riboflavin), best taken in its R5P form.
If you have any questions,
reply to this email with your question(s).
And if you got value from this email,
reply with the word "value".
Share this newsletter (and two free gifts) ... if you know anybody who would get value from these emails, send them to
this page to join this newsletter and receive two free gifts worth almost $200.
The next email will cover
how to find hidden clues in your Comprehensive Metabolic Panel,
And then we need to talk about
a few issues with B6 supplementation because somewhat like folate, B6 can be a
"double-edged sword", causing problems for some people if they take too much.
See 'ya in the next email
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)