The Folate Experiment

My mother has gotten senile. So when she recently told me about how she thought she had some sort of genetic folate absorption problem. Then things went downhill...

My mother has gotten senile. So when she recently told me about how she thought she had some sort of genetic folate absorption problem, it was a little short on details, and she hasn't seen the physician who diagnosed her for decades. But she has been supplementing with folic acid for years, and attributes it to a big improvement in her health.

Well, it's a bit problematic. But when she told me back in my early 20s that she had a problem eating wheat—something she doesn't remember at all now—I should have listened.

Solgar Folate 1,333 MCG DFE (Metafolin® 800 mcg) 

So, I figured I'd give it a shot. Supplementing with folate (the natural form,don't supplement with folic acid) seemed pretty harmless, so I bought thebrand Chris Kresser recommends, and proceeded.

I noticed some benefits (mainly concerning anxiety) right away. That was kind of what I was looking for, and it was in the list of symptoms that my mother had mentioned. I noticed that if I didn't take it, the anxiety returned, so I set a reminder in my calendar to take it, 

I also recommended it to my daughter, who has had some pretty severe anxiety issues over the years, which the "health professionals" have been useless at treating.

One of the symptoms of folate deficiency is supposedly canker/mouth sores. I suffered from these as a child, and my daughter does too.

I didn't notice anything after the initial changes, but kept taking the pills.

My daughter reported that if she stopped taking the pills, she got a canker sore. Interesting. She also reports that her anxiety/depression is entirely gone. Well, that's what my mother had reported, and was why I suggested my daughter try it.

She's also been battling over-fat, and, contemporaneously with the folate, has made major gains in that area. Correlation isn't causation, but it's interesting.

So all this sounds good, so far.

My diet is pretty boring, and stable. The last big change was a small one, when I moved to Idaho and started eating a bit more beef and potatoes. Nothing major.

So about five weeks ago I had two unusual health issues. The first was what I at first thought was a pulled muscle in my lower back. I never get pulled muscles in my back, not since the combination of barefoot running, fixing my diet, and not sitting all day.

And I've never had a pulled muscle like this. It was like being stabbed, and hurt so bad I couldn't roll over in bed, my wife had to push or pull me.

And it took weeks to heal. It still hurts a bit, almost 5 weeks later. Very unusual, since fixing my diet relatively major injuries don't hurt much, and heal quickly.

The second was what I at first thought was a canker sore. Since deficiency and overdose for some nutrients can result in similar symptoms, I immediately stopped taking the folate.

Mouth sore (Before)

I wound up with not only a major sore in the back of my jaw, but when it finally healed up a bit, I had a new tooth!

No, it wasn't a new tooth. It was a bone spur.

But while these are typically the result of a dental procedure that leaves a shard of bone in the gum, this is more likely due to the body's attempt to heal the sore. The sore left me with a divot in the jaw bone, and I suspect that the calcium redistributed itself into the spur.

Bone spur (After)

Either one of these wouldn't have been too remarkable, although they were each unique in my experience. The fact that they both happened soon after starting the folate supplementation makes me think that they are a result of that. (What changed?)

The sore had left me with pretty clear signs of infection, including swollen glands. Unfortunately, the bone protruding from my jaw prevented the thing from healing, and also hurt like blazes if I talked for any length of time, like I did the other day. It also kept getting reinfected. Not good.

So I consulted a dentist, which is where these photos came in. My father-in-law is a dentist, as it happens, and my wife was briefly his dental assistant and is now a nurse. But he's back in Connecticut, so we sent him these pictures.

He ruled out a canker sore, and cancer (thanks to an autocorrect of 'canker'), but was mystified. He's 80, and still practicing, so if he's never seen it...

So today I gave up and made an appointment with a local dentist to have it removed. Luckily a few hours later my lunch of leftover beef shank broke the thing off, and the usual seed-oil-free recovery took over. The inflammation and infection are almost totally gone a few hours later (now) and I expect it will be fully healed up tomorrow.

Lessons

I suspect that the injury in my mouth and in my back were both the result of folate overdose. The fact that they occurred around the same time and lasted for the same period, and both seemed to involve a breakdown in bone/connective tissue is too much of a coincidence for me to think that they are not related.

There is information on folate deficiency, but none on folate overdose. They do note that it's unlikely unless you are supplementing.

So don't supplement unless you need it. I did get some benefit from this, and so did my daughter, so it wasn't a mistake, necessarily.

But my mistake was setting that calendar reminder. Just like when I was taking cod liver oil years ago, when I was getting a benefit from it, I craved it. Unfortunately with the reminder I was just robotically taking it each day.

My daughter is taking it when she remembered to. I think that's a smarter approach.

I have warned her of what I experienced, but she also seems to be getting a lot more benefit from it than I did. So she's going to continue taking it.

I don't blame Chris Kresser or the supplement company for this at all. This was my experiment, and I have no reason to think that the supplement was bad, I confirmed what Chris recommended before buying it, and if you think you are in need of a folate supplement, I would recommend that one. I have had good luck with Kresser's recommendations in the past, and still consider him to be an authoritative source.

I just took too much of it. Luckily it didn't do me permanent harm or cost any money... But it could have.

I don't at the moment know if I'll take it again, I guess I'll see if the symptoms come back. But the reminder is deleted!

Original post April 13, 2022.