Folate for Chronically Ill People
What you should know about folic acid in your multivitamin.
Folic acid is a common supplement we see in stores and is often recommended for pregnancy and different health concerns. However, when we take drugstore folic acid, either as a standalone or in a multivitamin, we are not doing ourselves any favors. Folic acid is an oxidized form and must be converted by the body to the reduced form of folate. The body doesn’t know what to do with the synthetic form and you could be blocking your cell’s receptor sites from breaking it down into the body’s natural occurring form of folate, scientifically known as 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (or 5-MTHF for short):
folate → dihydrofolate → tetrahydrofolate → methylene tetrahydrofolate → 5-methyltetrahydrofolate
It may seem a little technical, but having a practitioner who understands this conversion, not to mention if client/person can properly make the conversion, is crucial. Some folks are unable to make the conversion because they have a specific genetic mutation, more technically known as a single nucleotide polymorphism, or SNP (pronounced “snip”).
In the very simplest genetics explanation, we know that every living person received a unique DNA makeup from his or her parents. One half of our DNA came from our mom and one half came from our dad. Along the DNA strand are alleles, which means one member of a pair. Alleles will be either negative (-) or positive (+), and if we received two positive alleles (+/+) on the SNP known as C677T, then we have the most severe mutation and a decreased ability to convert folate to 5-MTHF.
About 40 percent of the population, myself included, has a mutation on this SNP (C677T) [1]. And while a person could have zero symptoms at all, they could also have increased homocysteine (an amino acid that can cause heart disease when present in large quantities), progressive neurological disorders, cancer, or pro-inflammatory immune reaction resulting in hundreds of disorders. Moreover, folate is essential for vitamin B12 metabolism as well as in the functioning of the central nervous system and the immune system, creating an impaired ability to detox.
We have had these mutations on our SNPs since the beginning of man, however, we live in a very toxic world and the body’s ability to rid itself of the toxins we encounter daily is crucial for health and wellbeing. Consider the facts of toxins in our immediate world for one minute:
- Nearly 80,000 new synthetic chemicals have been released into the environment [2].
- Hundreds of different pesticides are used on the food we eat.
- Roughly 287 known harmful substances can be found in most blood samples [3].
- The average home contains 3 -10 gallons of hazardous materials [4].
- In the U.S. alone, over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used every year [5].
- There are at least 5,000 chemical ingredients in cosmetics [6].
- Prescription medications are now showing up in our water supply [7]. And, to add insult to injury, certain medications referred to as “drug muggers” actually steal Vitamin B9/Folate from the body [8].
These staggering toxicity exposure statics, coupled with the fact that over a third of the world’s population lacks the ability to adequately convert Folate to 5 MTHF, have set us up for a perfect storm for increased chance of major illness.
Discovering if you have a SNP mutation is easy. It also arms you with the knowledge of what you need to do to get and stay healthy in our ever-increasing world of toxicity. I offer a 20-minute Health Discovery Session
for $49 to help you find the right course of action to take charge of your health today.
https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/10953/mthfr-gene-mutation
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18991917
https://www.ewg.org/research/body-burden-pollution-newborns/detailed-findings
https://bouldercolorado.gov/sustainability/hazardous-materials-management-facility-hmmf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2946087/
https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/why-this-matters-cosmetics-and-your-health/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/pharmaceuticals-in-the-water/
https://www.marconews.com/story/life/2018/05/28/ask-pharmacist-pain-killers-and-drug-mugging/642229002/
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