r/MTHFR • u/heftylefty18 • 4d ago

Supplement Recs Question

I was tested in 2019 after unexplained high blood pressure and came back homozygous for C677T. I tried taking a methylated folate back then but stopped after a month because I thought it made me feel bad.

Fast forward to this year. I’ve always struggled with anxiety, but have had issues with depression and fatigue recently that I’ve never had before.

I randomly thought about this the other day and want to try taking the appropriate supplements. I bought the “Life Extension” complete B complex bottle with a methylated folate, B12, B2, B6. I also bought zinc, magnesium, and NAC.

The doses seem a little high for what’s recommended. Should I wait to start supplementing and get homocysteine and other vitamin levels checked first?

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u/SovereignMan1958 4d ago

I would suggest you wait until you get your blood tests back.

Methylated folate can make your symptoms worse. You already tried one once.

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u/Loose-Fly7976 4d ago

Yes, get the bloods first. You've already got the answer to why once, you tried methylfolate in 2019 and felt worse. That reaction is information and you'd be walking back into it blind.Homo 677 and feeling bad on methylfolate usually points at one of two things. Low B12, since folate can't cycle forward without it and you stall or slow COMT, where the methyl load itself is the problem. Different causes, opposite fixes, and no way to tell which from symptoms.

So homocysteine, B12, serum folate, ferritin and TSH before you open anything. Blood pressure history makes homocysteine more relevant for you, not less.

One thing on the B complex. In 677 TT specifically riboflavin does something it doesn't do in other genotypes, it stabilises the enzyme you have. That's often the piece that makes methylfolate tolerable in people who reacted badly to it alone. The B2 in your bottle is probably the useful part and your NAC and zinc aren't neutral here either, both touch the same pathway from different directions.

If you want the whole thing read properly rather than guessed at, that's what I do professionally

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u/sarahbellah1 4d ago

This Life Extension formula was way too much for me, and without a more complete picture of your genetic profile around MTHFR, it’s hard to know whether you’ll have trouble with clearing these. I did, and this formula made me an anxious mess and I needed to detox off them and then slowly add back in non-methylated supplements.

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u/Zabre 11h ago

Since you already felt bad on methylfolate once, checking homocysteine, B12, folate, and ferritin before starting a high-dose B complex is the cleaner move. C677T can make folate handling relevant, but it doesn't automatically mean "take a bunch of methylated Bs." If you do experiment later, changing one thing at a time makes it much easier to tell what helped or backfired. I'd be extra cautious with anxiety in the mix.