folic acid cycle

[Shannon]

I'm having trouble finding a good description of the folic acid cycle. I'm wanting to know what forms of folic acid/folate are best to counter the effects of the two common MTHFR mutations. It seems clear that 5-MTHF (food source folate) is best for the 677 mutation. It's less intuitive to me that that would be the best source for the 1298 mutation (in order to maximize BH4 production), but that's the only advice I can find.

Can anyone find a clear explanation?

[Amy]

Shannon I really want to be a part of this. You are just moving to fast for me! Don't slow down, I'm just going to try to catch up.
I will see what I can find, but absolutely no promises.

Amy (mammo2sammo)

[Shannon]

no worries, I'm just posting here in hopes of randomly getting a good link so I don't have to go search it out myself. I'm playing the balancing game of figuring it out, teaching it, and not neglecting my family in the process. Though I've given myself permission to ignore them if that's what it takes to solve the whole riddle :)

[Shannon]

There are many forms of folate in foods, but the principle ones are 5-methyl THF and 10-formyl THF. THF is tetrahydrofolate. 5-MTHF is not very stable, especially with cooking (I don't know about the other form). That's why most supplements are folic acid. 10-formyl THF is folinic acid.

[url=http://www.autismcoach.com/Folinic%20Acid.htm]from here[/url]

"Folinic acid, also known as 5-formyl tetrahydrofolate, is one active form in a group of vitamins known as folates. In contrast to folic acid, a synthetic form of folate, folinic acid is one of the forms of folate found naturally in foods. In the body folinic acid may be converted into any of the other active forms of folate."

It seems that folate (5 MTHF) is used for the methyl cycle, and is used to regenerate BH4.

Folic acid is converted to folinic acid, which is then converted to folate. Folinic acid is used in purine and DNA metabolism.

Now I'm guessing: It seems like with the 677C>T mutation, folic acid would give you an excess of folinic acid and not enough folate. With the 1298A>C mutation, you'd have a deficiency of folinic acid because it would get converted to folate, but couldn't be converted back. With both mutations, you'd just be really slow to convert between them?

[Shannon]

chart of folate pathways:
http://seqcore.brcf.med.umich.edu/mcb500/folmetov.html

[Pat Robinson]

tons of references here: http://heal-thyself.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mthfr-1

general info here: http://heal-thyself.ning.com/forum/topics/mthfr-c677t-folate

more extensive lay explanation: http://heal-thyself.ning.com/profiles/blogs/folate-vs-folic-acid

great tutorial (video) about homocysteine: http://heal-thyself.ning.com/video/homocysteine-1

The Basics: http://www.detoxpuzzle.com/mthfr.php

chart of folate pathways: http://heal-thyself.ning.com/group/nutritionbiochemistry/forum/topics/folic-acid-cycle

food sources: http://heal-thyself.ning.com/forum/topics/folate-1

[kinshealth]

Have you read here?

http://mthfr.net/author/drben/