Dr. Benjamin Lynch ND, MTHFR and methylation expert, is interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.
How Methylfolate can make you Feel Worse and even Cause Anxiety, and What to do about it
- Methylfolate and the MTHFR polymorphism
- Anxiety and other side effects of too much methylfolate
- How to prevent methylfolate side-effects
- How to determine how much methylfolate to take
Here are some snippets from our interview (Dr Lynch actually closed with these wise words) :
Just because you have MTHFR doesn’t mean you’re screwed!
Don’t look at MTHFR as a bad thing
It just means you have to do things differently
Be proactive and don’t be scared about it
At the start of our interview he said this:
Anxiety can be relieved by methylfolate but it can also be made worse
Here are some snippets from Dr. Lynch’s excellent article: Methylfolate Side Effects
Methylfolate is a remarkable nutrient yet it can create significant side effects.
Those who have MTHFR mutations (especially the C677T MTHFR mutation) learn that methylfolate is critical to take. The issue is methylfolate can cause more harm than good if not started at the right time or tapered up slowly in amount.
There appear to be three types of responses to methylfolate:
FIRST: A person who can jump on methylfolate and feel absolutely wonderful. The only down side they experience is why didn’t they know about methylfolate before?!
SECOND: A person starts methylfolate has an amazingly incredible week where they are happy, interacting and alert. Then the second week comes and they switch to wanting to hide in a room by themselves or literally throw dishes across the room out of anger. Or they may become bed ridden from muscle aches, intense headaches or joint pain.
THIRD: A person takes a small amount of methylfolate and feels all the methylfolate side effects right out the gate.
The above blog also lists the Methylfolate Side Effects:
- irritability
- insomnia
- sore muscles
- achy joints
- acne
- rash
- severe anxiety
- palpitations
- nausea
- headaches
- migraines
I encourage you to read the whole blog that Dr Lynch has written (Methylfolate Side Effects)
And here is the related blog on Preventing Methylfolate Side Effects. I’ve included some snippets here but please read the whole article too
ALREADY TAKING METHYLFOLATE AND FEEL GREAT?
Excellent! However, it may be a ‘honeymoon’ period and in a few days or weeks, side effects may appear.
Discuss this article with your doctor and make appropriate changes to your protocol.
Just think of a bell-shaped curve.
Before you started taking methylfolate, you felt terrible. You began taking it and started to feel good. Day after day goes by and you continue to improve. In time if the above things are not corrected, you will begin to slide down the other side of the bell-shaped curve.
My whole point of this article is to prevent this from happening!
My goal is to keep you feel amazing!
I’ve seen it happen way too much – caused by me, caused by other doctors and caused by over-excited people feeling amazing and pushing their system too hard with methylfolate. Methylfolate is powerful.
This last statement by Dr. Lynch is why I invited him to speak on this summit on this topic!
This is the Dr. Carl Pfeiffer and Dr Bill Walsh histapenia/histadelia blog post that I referred to in our discussion. You can either read the discussion in the comments or read this new blog post I created: Methylation and anxiety: histadelia and histapenia.
Here is information about the first annual Seeking Health Educational Institute Conference, SHEI Con 15 (an event for health professionals).
Dr Lynch and a team of world-renowned physicians will be presenting absolutely new clinically-relevant information that has never been seen before ANYWHERE.
The main topics of SHEI Con 15 are centered around where physicians must look to recover their patient’s heath at the core.
Mitochondria: Function, Dysfunction, Connections to Pathologies, Identification and Restoration
Cell Membranes: Function, Dysfunction, Connections to Pathologies, Identification and Restoration
If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here: www.theAnxietySummit.com
Missed this interview or can’t listen live? Or want this and the other great interviews for your learning library? Purchase the MP3s or MP3s + transcripts and listen when it suits you.
You can find your purchasing options here: Anxiety Summit Season 1, Anxiety Summit Season 2, and Anxiety Summit Season 3.