where to get the best/cheapest 'folinic acid' - tetrahydrofolate

Hi Caitlin,

is this not a prescription only drug?

Hi Caitlin, you don't need 5MTHF or folinic acid,  folic acid supplements are sufficient. It is a media beet up to try to get you to buy the more expensive product. Similarly you don't need P5P or R5P vitamin B6 or B2 are sufficient. The alternative products are once again an attempt to make you buy the more expensive, and not more effective supplement.

I am happy to explain the lack of logic in use the folinic acid if you want. Furthermore, clinical trials have shown that the expensive derivatives are no more effective, UNLESS, you are taking methotrxate, which I presume you are not. Save your money. You would be better taking standard multivitamins twice per day. Whichever form of folate you use, you do need to make sure that you are supplementing with B12 (preferably methyl and adenosyl) and riboflavin.

Hi Caitlin, If your mitochondrial function is low, I would be very suspicious that you were also low in vitamin B2. In Europe they have an EGRA that can look at that. From memory B2 is also involved as a co-factor for NADH synthesis. Also your metabolic profile will tell you. Do you know if you were "marginally" low on iron and ferritin. They are also an indicator. Also you said before you were marginally B12 deficient. You need adenosyl B12 for active mitochondrial function. The cross-over point between Krebb's cycle and the electron transport chain requires FAD (from vitamin B2/riboflavin) so if you are low in riboflavin the activity of this will be low and show up as poor mitochondrial function.

If you are taking hydroxocobalamin your serum will of course show as being high in B12, but it is hydroxocobalamin, NOT methyl or adenosyl cobalamin. It does show you that your doctor may actually have injected it though, which is about all that the test is useful for. The test does NOT tell you if you have converted the inactive pro-vitamin form of hydroxocobalamin to the two active forms of the vitamin methyl B12 and adenosyl B12. It also doesn't tell you if the material is bound to transcobalamin II, which it has to be for uptake into the cells..

Hi Catilin, sorry I must have missed it somewhere, you elude to ME/CFS/FM, is that what you have? Have you had all the genetic tests 23andme and biochemistry tests done? For the moment I will assume that you have ME/CFS/FM possibly complicated with PA. What I have heard is that some people are having great success with higher dose vitamin B2 - 5 - 20 mg day, plus topical adenosyl/methyl B12. I can tell you who to contact if you are interested. 

Caitlin, probably the best that I can do is to put the email address of a guy who has been looking at the genetics and metabolic profile of people with CFS and you can discuss it with him. He knows lots more than me about the CFS/ME bit. He may be able to suggest tests that you can have done, or analyse what you have had already. It is probably better than having to bear your sole on a public web-site, if you know what I mean. If it is OK with you, just let me know and I will put the email address in your personal mail box. He is currently doing it as a free service. They (I don't know who they are), but they don't like to have email addresses displayed on the blog.

HI Caitlin, the address is in your email box.

Do you know how you got CMF/FM, was it after some sort of prolonged infection, which seems to be the reason for CFS? I am not sure that I understand the difference between CFS and FM, although I think that sub-clinical hypothyroidism is associated with FM. Good luck. 

Hi Caitlin, looking into it, it looks to me as if they are probably definitely different, particularly the difference between FM and CFS. Hashimoto's or at least pre-Hashimotos appears to be well correlated with FM, but I don't know that such a correlation exists for CFS.

Very interesting about your infection. mmmmm. Sorry to pry, but would you say that at the time you were rushing about that you were having lost of dairy products in your diet, or did the "avoid cholesterol" diets rule?