high blood levels of folic acid - Vitamins & Supplements Message Board

Dawn3 · 09-17-2002, 02:14 PM

My sister has been told that her levels of folic acid are much too high, about four times higher than normal. She was questioned about her diet, but in fact she eats little of the foods mentioned as being high in folic acid, such as liver, green vegetables, oranges, etc. She doesn't take any supplements either. She is 55 years of age and stopped using HRT some months ago, but took black cohosh to help with hot flushes (flashes). She has been told she will have to follow a 'low acid' diet but hasn't been given details of this yet. I can find nothing about this on the Internet and wondered if anyone here could tell me why her levels of folic acid are so high and if this is in any way dangerous to her health.

Jay Tor · 09-18-2002, 08:35 AM

Folic acid is used in blood production, DNA synthesis and the regulation of nerve health. I'm assuming that an excess might push any of these reactions to dangerous levels.

The body generally works and stays healthy by balancing two opposing and equally important biochemical reactions - a process called dynamic equilibrium. If a reaction has gone too far in one direction, it may be due to an overdose situation, a failure in the system or organ that uses [metabolizes] or clears [removes] the compound, or an insufficiency/ lack of the opposing compound[s]*.

*This is similar to diabetes [insulin vs glucagon], Wilson's Disease [zinc vs copper] and other 'metabolic diseases'.

Sorry - haven't located any folic acid, folate or Vitamin B9 hypervitaminosis articles. Suggest you try the sci/med search engines [scirus or copernik2001].

Because this condition is very rare in humans, you might need to search for animal studies [incl. veterinary medicine] for a description of the biochem pathways involved.

Good luck,
Jay

Dawn3 · 09-19-2002, 02:15 PM

Jay

Thanks a lot for your reply. I'll try the search engines you mention, hopefully I'll find some info on this puzzling matter.

Dawn