What to Expect When You're Starting Methylfolate

If you’ve already:

• Taken folic acid out of your diet

• Added in natural folate

• Started a multivitamin or B complex without folate or B12 

And you’re tolerating these changes well, then you’re at the point where you might consider adding some extra 5-LMTHF. We talked about it in a whole post here. As a quick recap, you can expect one of three big reactions.

1. This is the miracle of miracles.

2. This started really great and went south.

3. This is a nightmare.

No matter which of those big reactions you fall under, there can still be a bit of an adjustment when you're starting. I couldn't describe my adjustment reaction to you in any way other than to say that my brain felt "weird." It wasn't awful, it was just not normal. If it is awful, then stop dosing and read the above post to find out your immediate steps. Here, I want to talk about longer-term expectations and what you might see.

Good Days and Bad Days

As you continue for longer periods on your MTHFR journey, the good days and bad days smooth out and things get a lot more regular and predictable. In the beginning, though, your body is still struggling out of its own personal sand pit and so you're a little more susceptible to ups and downs. This is normal and expected and gets so much better over time. Just be gentle with yourself and on days when you're feeling a little yucky, add in some great self-care. That could be scheduling a little nap or some outdoor time, it could be a hot bath or taking 5 minutes to meditate. It could be sitting and staring at a wall for 15 minutes, unplugging, or even watching funny videos during a break to get your dose of laughter. Just be extra gentle with yourself and take some extra care. Your body is working hard and some days it needs extra love and support.

Detox Symptoms

One of the biggest processes that is happening with appropriate methylation support is detoxification. This is great news and we want it to happen, but if detox is happening too quickly, then it can feel crappy. Like, really crappy. Detoxing too quickly looks like:

• brain fog

• headaches

• nausea

• irritability

• general yuckiness

• usually it reminds you a lot of a hangover.

This means you’re pushing your body to detoxify, but it’s getting stuck somewhere.  Here is what you should do:

1. Decrease your dose or take a break from any methylated supplements or methylfolate that you're taking. Your body needs a break for a minute.

2. Rest more

3. Get extra water and some good mineral support (like adding a bit of Himalayan pink salt, lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar to your water).

4. Do some gentle detox. This could be:

   1. Sweating in a sauna, hot car, hot bath, or wherever else you can sweat.

   2. Hot bath with Epsom salts (for the sweat, and the magnesium)

   3. Castor oil pack

   4. Boosting your fiber intake

   5. Taking something to bind to toxins like bentonite clay (food grade), activated charcoal (also food grade), or spirulina.

   6. 24 - 36 hours of fasting.

   
   

As an MTHFR mutant, gentle detox is going to be part of your life, so it really helps to familiarize yourself with your body's toxic signals. My first one is always irritability - it's a sure sign that I'm pushing too hard.

Learn Your Boundaries

I feel like one of the biggest and most important factors to really taking care of your body as an MTHFR mutant, is to learn to understand your body's tolerances and limits. None of us like the word "limits" it implies that we aren't superhuman, that we have to stop some time or take breaks. It *almost* sounds like a weakness. We have got to change that idea, and fast. Understanding and listening to your body if it is approaching a threshold helps you to avoid the big fallout times, the horrible days, the emotional days, the exhausted days (or weeks), the brain-foggy-can't-focus days. Believe me, without those, your potential skyrockets and it's like you're launched to the next level of life as a human, both personally and in your professional or creative life. This is a lot like learning the subtle language of your body so that you can stop problems before they start.

The best way I know of to start this process is to use a symptom tracker - maybe even daily. Rank symptoms and also traits from 1 - 10 every day and after a while, patterns will pop out at you. Like I said above, if my irritability starts to rise I know to add in some extra detox. If I don't do that, then I can expect 2 - 3 days of headaches, irritability, brain fog, and general misery. Believe me - it's better to just make time for that hot bath and convert those to good days.

Likewise, if I start feeling my stress-levels ratchet up, or my level of work-obsession rise, then for me that is a signal that I need more methylfolate, more antioxidants, and more exercise. A couple of days of that will right the balance and put everything into perspective again.

My signals are probably going to be different from your signals, but by using a symptom tracker you will start to see those repeating patterns and can use them to develop coping strategies to keep most days as good days.