The good news is that the effects of the MTHFR mutation are relatively easy to fix. What you need to be taking is extra folic acid (shoot for 800 mcg per day), TMG (500 mg to 1 gram per day), and methyl B12 (at 1 mg per day). For someone without DS, you can also add B6. TMG and M-B12 are both available from the Life Extension Foundation and from International Nutrition.
Many mention Folapro which is generally available.
http://www.vitacost.com/Metagenics-FolaPro-60-Tablets
http://www.iherb.com/Metagenics-FolaPro-120-Tablets/20940?at=0
Metagenics, FolaPro, 120 Tablets
SRP: $32.25
Our price: $32.25
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Description
* Genetic Potential Through Nutrition
* 5-MTHF - Body-Ready Folate
* L-5-Methyl Tetrahydrofolate
* Dietary Supplement
* Vegetarian
FolaPro features the active form of folate called L-5-methyl tetrahydrofolate as Metafolin. Unlike folic acid, this active form of folate requires no additional metabolic steps to be utilized by the body, making it a preferred choice for many individuals. Folate is an essential nutrient for many body processes, including hormone metabolism, DNA synthesis, homocysteine metabolism, and nervous system function.
Suggested Use
Take one tablet daily or as directed by your healthcare practitioner.
Supplement Facts
Serving Size: 1 Tablet
Servings per Container: 120
Amount Per Serving % Daily Value
Folate (as L-5-methyl tetrahydrofolate†) 800 mcg 200%
Overlooked blood test could be the key to your good health
If you’re serious about good health and longevity, or if you have any chance at all of becoming pregnant, there’s an inexpensive but critically important blood test that’s too often overlooked. Although it’s simple, quick, and easy to do, many clinical laboratories don’t do it because there’s “no demand.”
It’s called the “neutrophilic hypersegmentation index.” It is a mouthful to say, but for decades it has been—and still is—the best test of your personal folate status. Not how your folate level compares with other peoples’, but how optimal your own level is.
To do that, the neutrophilic hypersegmentation index (NHI) determines what percentage of your neutrophils—a type of white blood cell—were supplied with an optimal amount of folate while they were growing and maturing. Of course, optimal is 100 percent. But before we get into how to boost your own score, it’s important to know some of the scientific background that explains why this test is so important.
When neutrophils are “born” and “incubate” in bone marrow, their chromosomes—DNA—arrange themselves into five segments. A final step in neutrophil DNA maturation is re-arrangement of those five segments into three. Normal folate metabolism is a key to this final step. Very shortly after the five-to-three segment DNA re-arrangement, the fully mature neutrophil is released from the bone marrow into the bloodstream, where it lives out its months-long life doing its job—one very important part of which is defending our bodies against germs.
But if there isn’t enough folate, the neutrophil’s DNA stays in five (instead of three) segments. When the neutrophil is needed, it’s released into the bloodstream anyway, where it’s called a hypersegmented (too many segments) neutrophil. Fortunately, a hypersegmented neutrophil can still fight germs as well as a “regular,” three-segmented neutrophil.
Planning a family? Why you MUST have this test
After a blood sample is drawn, a technician with a microscope can easily see and count the number of DNA segments in each neutrophil. The “hypersegmentation index” is the percentage of five-segment neutrophils counted in a total of one hundred neutrophils.
Neutrophils, other circulating blood cells, and the cells that line our gastrointestinal tracts are the most rapidly dividing cells in our bodies. So if there’s a shortage of any of the three key nutrients for keeping cell division normal—folate, vitamin B12, and/or zinc—these rapidly dividing cells are likely to show the effects first. So the “neutrophilic segmentation index” actually tells us whether the most rapidly dividing cells in our bodies have enough folate. If these cells do, then it’s very likely that every cell in our bodies has enough folate.
One of the saddest test reports I’ve had to share with anyone was an NHI of 47 percent reported for a woman who was already pregnant. As you may have expected, her baby was born with a birth defect.
Every woman who has any chance at all of becoming pregnant should have this test done! If it’s abnormal, and she’s planning on a pregnancy soon, she should take a series of folinic acid injections (see above “Where to get it: Naturally-occurring folate in supplements”. ) right away, preferably with the methylcobalamin form of vitamin B12, so there’s enough folate (and B12) immediately available for any newly conceived infant.
Why the rush? Well, the most common birth defect—neural tube defect—occurs on days 27–29 after conception, before many women are even certain that they are pregnant.
For the rest of us (as well as newly-folinic-acid-injected potential moms) an abnormal NHI means you need to take a closer look at your diet and make some necessary adjustments—most notably adding in more sources of folate, particularly green vegetables, beans, peas, brewer’s yeast, and (organic only!) liver. A folinic acid or methylfolate supplement is important, too, at least until the test normalizes.
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