Folic Acid Can Be Effective for Those with MTHFR

Finest Nutrition 400 mcg folic acid and Nature Made Multi for Her — My former folic acid supplement and current multivitamin

Folic acid is effective and has been used safely for many years, and I’m someone who has been helped by it. I’ve never had problems with folic acid my entire life, even now, despite the fact that I’m compound heterozygous for the MTHFR variant (one copy each of C677T and A1298C). In fact, taking folic acid to correct a folate deficiency actually worked out very well for me.

A few months back, I wondered if folate deficiency might have been playing a part in the anemia I was experiencing. I had reason to suspect I had a folate deficiency because I already knew that I was compound heterozygous for MTHFR and because I would almost always boil my vegetables to cook them. In addition to changing how I cooked my food to minimize the loss of B vitamins, by boiling only when necessary and then following the package instructions, steaming and baking otherwise, I decided to try a folate supplement. I was actually afraid to try folic acid because of all I’d been reading, in spite of the fact I’ve used vitamins and products with folic acid all my life and never noticed issues. However, I was not feeling well, and folic acid was all I could find locally. I wanted to start on a supplement right away. I decided to take the plunge with a folic acid supplement and keep researching. The first day I took it, I could tell a huge difference in how I felt. Over the next week, I felt a lot better than I had in a long time. However, I then started feeling worse and wondered if I needed to balance it with other B vitamins. I found a B complex supplement with folic acid that actually had reasonable amounts of each B vitamin (none over 250% of the RDA) and took it for about three weeks. At that point, I was beginning to develop symptoms from the B complex supplement, so I decided to try 400 mcg of folic acid every other day instead of the B complex supplement. The acne I’d been experiencing began to clear finally, and I was feeling really good. I thought at this point my diet and supplements were truly balanced and that my anemia would resolve. Unfortunately, I’m still dealing with the anemia, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that the folic acid supplement had a hugely positive effect on how I felt and in other respects. My dermatologist was impressed by how much my acne had cleared and decided that I did not need to see him again for a year, a first in all the years I’d been seeing him. Also, my folate, B12, B6, and homocysteine levels were all found to be normal about a month after I’d started taking the 400 mcg folic acid supplement every other day. I’m now back to trying a multivitamin with iron along with extra calcium and magnesium in an effort to correct anemia and potentially other nutrient deficiencies. The multivitamin contains 600 mcg of folic acid. I’ve been taking the multivitamin for over a month now and have noticed no issues. I believe the issues that happened with my multivitamin and thyroid medication at the beginning of last year were due to the iron and vitamin E imbalance in my diet.

Many so-called MTHFR “experts” and bloggers will tell people with the variants that folic acid is harmful and to stay away from it. They encourage those with the variants to take some other form of folate supplement, like methylfolate or folinic acid. Some are, of course, helped by these supplements, but these may also come with their own side effects. Methylfolate can cause people to experience symptoms from overmethylation, for example. Ben Lynch, the foremost MTHFR “expert” even goes as far as to analogize folic acid to carbon monoxide in one of his videos. Who knew that carbon monoxide would be good for clearing acne? Also, comparing something that may not be suitable for some people to something that’s deadly for everyone is pretty outrageous in my opinion. In order to get information I could trust, I stayed away from the MTHFR sites and relied on Google Scholar to find studies on folic acid and how it may help or harm. The studies that pointed to the harm it could do said it’s harmful in high doses and out of balance with vitamin B12. The same can be said for just about every other nutritional supplement, that taking it in isolation and in high doses could cause harm. Also, in the studies I found concerning MTHFR, the supplement given to the participants was folic acid, and it was found to be effective. I didn’t see any studies mentioning any harm coming to someone given folic acid just because he or she has an MTHFR variant. In addition to the studies, these sites have good information on folic acid and methylfolate.

If you’ve found that you have any of the MTHFR variants through a genetic test like 23andMe or other means, talk to your doctor and do your own research to determine which folate supplement is right for you. Methylfolate or folinic acid may not be what you need at all, and folic acid may work just fine. Folic acid works just fine for me.

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