In this video, I’m going a little deeper into vitamin B9, Folate (not Folic acid), hire it affects your whole body system, because B9 is a key regulator to more than 200 over enzymatic reactions.
Special thanks to Dr. Ben Lynch and his team members from Seeking Health,
and I’m very grateful for the permission to use these pathways for my explanations 🤓
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction & Disclaimer
00:23 Main functions of folate
01:20 Methylation Cycle
02:15 Folate vs Folic acid
03:20 Folate derivatives
05:09 Why folate is low?
05:59 Low SAMe
06:47 Other cause for low folate
07:42 Meds that reduce activity
08:40 Key regulators
09:02 Supporting pathways
09:28 Screenings
10:11 GI-MAP (stool test)
10:41 Organic Acid Test (urine)
11:12 Restore
11:37 How to supplement
13:04 Autonomic Nervous System
Disturbed Methylation chart
https://shorturl.at/IyBOR
• Click the link below to access more files
https://app.evercard.co/kellwx
Creating awareness by
* Understand how to feed your body through proper nutrition
* Eliminating food that’s not optimising our health
* Debunking the myths and understand the food science
Biography
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• One-on-one Pre-screening Discovery Session (via ZOOM)
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Free Guides/Tools:
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Disturbed Methylation chart
https://shorturl.at/IyBOR
Vitamin D – Estrogen – PEMT chart
https://l1nq.com/9rYrU
STRESS Flow Chart
https://shorturl.at/Mkfmr
CANDIDA ALBICANS self-screening
https://shorturl.at/w0ri3
Pulse Test for food sensitivity
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Parasite Self-screen
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☝🏻 Will update again when there’s new guides available
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In health and happiness
Kel Liew, FDNP
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MEDICAL DISCLAIMER:
The contents of this video is meant purely for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease or condition. It is not intended to substitute for the advice, treatment, and/or diagnosis of a qualified licensed professional.
Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioners may not make any medical diagnoses, claim, and/or substitute for your personal physician’s care. It is the role of the Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner to partner with the client to provide ongoing support and accountability with an opt-in model of self-care.
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In this video, I’m going to discuss
the main functions of folate, the differences between synthetic folic acids
and folate, and how someone’s folate level can be low due to an inadequate dietary intake or
medications. And if you stay till the last, I will give you some ways that you can
incorporate to support your system. The main functions of vitamin B9 folate
particularly in this active form is to support RNA and DNA synthesis. It is
extremely crucial for cell division and repair and is needed even more during
different stages of pregnancy and infancy. It also helps in the inter-conversions of amino
acids such as the metabolism of homocysteine, the productions of your nitric oxides and
neurotransmitters and also support the detoxification pathways. Folate also helps in the
formations and maturations of white blood cells, red blood cells platelets. Low levels of folate
usually cause anemia and if vitamin B12 is also deficient, it can further delay nuclear
maturations and impair DNA replication. This is also known as Megaloblastics Anemia
whereby the red blood cells is defect and grows abnormally huge causing a reduce in red blood
cells count and the most important function of folate is to support a Methylation Cycle. If we
move over to this pathway over here designed by Dr. Ben Lynch and his team members from Seeking
Health. We can see that folate especially this 5-methyfolate at the bottom over here can’t do it
alone along these junctions because it requires both methyl cobalamin and another co-factor
zinc. If the methylation is running smoothly, you ultimately methylate homocysteine and then proceed
further into the productions of your SAMe. Then SAMe is the primary methyl donor to a whole lot of
reactions catalyzed by methyl transferases and 80% of the SAMe is mainly used for the productions of
your phosphatidylcholine and creatine via the PEMT and GAMT enzyme. Therefore a slow methylation
cycle can definitely affect all downstream functions in our body. So when we switch to this
folate pathway, folic acids usually is consumed through our dietary intake or sometimes inside our
supplements and both folate and folic acid needs to get transported from this mucosal membrane
and reduced into the Dihydrofolate by these DHFR enzymes and it needs to be reduced again to
become the active form of folate known as THF, tetrahydrofolate and THF has various key
derivatives. It can either form 10-formyl THF via MTHFD1 enzyme which provide instructions
to make an enzyme called C1 THF synthesis. Okay, this particular enzyme is essential for the
conversions of other derivatives into 10-formyl THF, 5,10-methenyl THF and 5,10-methylene
tetrahydrofolate. And these derivatives has different jobs. I will briefly go through each
of them. 10-formyl tetrahydrofolate is advanced into purine synthesis which is the productions of
ATP and GTP. And ATP as we all know is our body’s energy currency. And GTP is the productions of BH4
the biopterin which is a precursor for making of neurotransmitters like your dopamine and serotonin
and also the productions of your nitric oxide. Then 5,10-methenyl tetrahydrofolate can be
converted back upwards 10 formyl tetrahydrofolate if the body requires to synthesize more
neurotransmitters or more energy via the purine synthesis or proceed downwards into 5,10-methylene
tetrahydrofolate to make more DNA. Then if we move on to the left over here we can see this folinic
acid usually known as a storage form of folate. It can be a precursor for this 5,10-methenyl
tetrahydrofolate and this folinic acid sometimes can be found in some supplements in those very
good supplements. Notice that the arrows shown over here are mostly pointing in both directions.
So depending on the priority the body needs it can switch in between different type of derivatives to
perform different jobs. Then the third derivative is 5,10-methylene tetrahydrofolate. From the
look of it, it has three different routes. It can either go left to make more DNA via this Thymidine
synthesis or go south for the productions of Methylfolate the most active form of folate which
we want at least 80% in our bloodstream or it can go right and convert back to tetrahydrofolate via
SHMT enzyme. So why someone’s folate level can be low? If we move up to the upstream over here.
So when someone consume a lot of folic acid it can greatly slow down this DHFR gene and when that
happen there will be lesser derivatives available to perform those essential function which I
mentioned earlier and run this whole Methylation Cycle. The folic acid also slows down this folate
absorptions simply by oversaturating folate receptor sites. And since these protein receptors
has a higher affinity to bind to folic acid. When there’s too much folio acids, they can now flood
your system and block the folate which we want for conversion. And preferentially we want our
bloodstream to have at least 80% as Methylfolate. And if you have very little Methylfolate it can
slow down everything down streams affecting your SAMe productions meaning that you will slow down
more than 200 over functions which includes the productions of a phosphatidylcholine your
creatine your stress hormones our energy our ATP and also neurotransmitters like dopamine
serotonin stress hormones like your epinephrine and epi norepinephrine and SAMe also support the
metabolism of our estrogen, our brain chemicals, our histamine and many more. Basically, SAMe is
the precursor of all these methyl -transferases enzyme. And this chart is being created by me
a few weeks ago. It can be downloaded in the description box below. Folate level can also
be low due to several reasons. It could be due to inadequate dietary folate intake or it could
be due to low stomach acid which is very common when someone has acid reflux or other underlying
issues that leads to a decrease in their stomach acid level. For example, someone with H pylori
bacteria left untreated can constantly neutralize stomach acids and reduce the pH levels. Folate
can also be greatly reduced when someone who is vegan or vegetarian because they consume a lot of
vegetables such as your kale and spinach or maybe even someone who consume a lot of nuts and seeds
or drink a lot of coffee and tea which contains tannins. All these anti-nutrients can actually
inhibit absorptions of crucial nutrients all your minerals and vitamins. Drugs and medication can
also further slow down your folate pathway. They can actually reduce the activity of your enzyme.
As you can see from here, the common medications can sometimes be your usual painkillers like
your aspirin your non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like your ibuprofen or antacids if someone
suffering from acid reflux. Patient who is taking cancer treatment medications methotrexate is also
a huge problem and they should stop taking getting additional synthetic folic acids in their diet to
further slow down the activity. Even supplements nowadays has inferior ingredients. You have to
check the ingredient listings and go through their nutritional facts label. You do not want to
have folic acid or this synthetic form of vitamin B12 cyanocobalamin. Vitamin B12 and B9 is a key
methylation regulator at this point. Insufficient in either of these vitamins will hinder
r-methylation of homocysteine and as you can see over here any oxidative stress heavy metals
or inflammations can add on to the load to make it spin even slower. So in order to support your
folate pathway first you have to remove or reduce these environmental toxicants and wrong food.
I’m not saying that you have to do everything as listed here in day one. Do it in a continuum. You
will slowly gain the knowledge and awareness over time. Then when you know the right directions to
take you stay within a course of recovery and/or optimisations. There are certain tests which I
find pretty essential because you want to rule out certain things like H pylori bacteria which
can affect your stomach acid to break down your food and to facilitate digestions. If the early
stages of digestion is not functioning then you have to correct it first because it’s like for
example if you have a factory and if you are producing computers the first line of production
is to make all your memory chips and if there’s a problem making all these memory chips you won’t
get your computer completed. There’s also certain bad bugs inside our gut which can compete the
nutrients that our body needs to perform and help to keep the pathway spinning. These are the tests
like the GI MAP which you can check for parasitic pathogens. Bacteria yeasts parasites as you can
seen see over here. There’s also useful markers like this which can indicate how well you are
digesting and the immune function status. Then you can decide if you want to go through your
primary care provider to treat them or maybe if you want to go for holistic approach by using all
these drug-free supplements. Another test which is very useful and is one of my favorite is this
organic acid test. This allow the practitioners to review the metabolites that our body produced
as a byproduct and we can tell a deeper story how all these enzymatic activities are behaving.
The organic acid test also helps to check the levels of vitamins and minerals inside our body
and we certainly do not want insufficiency or excess which can cause toxicity. So once you have
done the remove and reduce protocols then you can slowly introduce the supports also known as the
restore. First you have to change definitely have to change your diet. Go for quality over quantity
meaning more nutrient dense food. If you can go organic that’s the best because you do not want
all these pesticides and herbicides on your food. supplements only when needed. And remember, you
can’t out supplements your nutrition. And also use a Pulse method instead because the suggested
dose is usually based on general populations which may not be a good fit for you. And what we want to
do is more like individualized medicine which is based on your physique, your activity level, your
current conditions and your past medical history. Then slowly titrate your supplements and do
micro-dosing if there’s a need. You can just take a quarter or half a capsule or tablet and slowly
work your way up. Stop the supplements when it’s not needed anymore. Meaning that when you feel
the best, you do not need as much anymore. Then you when you encounter new symptoms or side
effects, you can actually back down. If you consume too much of one minerals can affect the
other minerals because the body needs all these nutrients in the homeostasis. If you want you
can actually refer to this Mulder’s Chart over here. You may need extra nutrients when you are
more stressed like going for a major meeting or presentation or if your student undergoing a final
examinations and if you’re going for a holiday a vacation just pause your supplements I don’t
think you will feel very stressed when you’re going for a holiday so basically when you’re more
stressed you are in this sympathetic nervous state then you definitely require more nutrients to
support your path pathway to give all these co factors for the productions of your stress
hormones. Then when you are in a relaxed mode, parasympathetic nervous state, you require
less nutrients. Okay, we have come to the end of this video. In the upcoming video, I will
go through various symptoms which most people experienced and relate it through Strategene
pathways and charts. If you have not watched the video on how an anti-nutrients can affect
minerals and vitamins deficiency, do click here.
