Effects of Methylfolate in combination with other nutrients

I took methylfolate along with other nutrients for fine tuning the benefits of methylfolate.

	L-methylfolate 7.5 mg/day (3.25 mg in morning and 3.25 mg in night) + Pyridoxine HCl 10 mg/day (5 mg in morning and 5 mg in night) + methylcobalamin 500 microgram/day (500 microgram in morning)	L-methylfolate 7.5 mg/day (3.25 mg in morning and 3.25 mg in night) + one capsule of Supradyn recharge in morning + methylcobalamin 500 microgram/day (500 microgram in morning) + Pyridoxine HCl 5 mg in night	L-methylfolate 7.5 mg/day (3.25 mg in morning and 3.25 mg in night) + one capsule of Supradyn recharge in morning + methylcobalamin 500 microgram/day (250 microgram in morning and 250 microgram in night)	L-methylfolate 7.5 mg/day (3.25 mg in morning and 3.25 mg in night) + one tablet of zincovit in morning + methylcobalamin 500 microgram/day (250 microgram in morning and 250 microgram in night) + one tablet of Calcium & Magnesium Plus (Elemental calcium 275.9 mg + elemental magnesium 125 mg + elemenatl manganese 1.5 mg + elemental zinc 300 microgram + Vitamin D3 100 IU)
Effects on anxiety	No anxiety	No anxiety	No anxiety	No anxiety
Effects on depression	No depressive feelings	No depressive feelings	No depressive feelings	No depressive feelings
Effects on stuttering and voice	Mild stuttering. Can make a fluent conversatioatin. No effect on loudness of voice	Less stuttering. Can make a fluent conversation. Good loudness of voice	Less stuttering. Can make a fluent conversation. Good loudness of voice	Less stuttering. Can make a somewhat fluent conversation. moderate loudness of voice
Effects on motivation	Slightly reduced Motivation	Reduced Motivation	Average motivation;. If methylcobalamin dose in increased, it produces less motivation and lethargic effects similar to that of fluoxetine. If methylfolate dose is increased, it creates increased motivation and restlessness.	Average motivation
Effects on concentration	Slightly reduced concentration throughout the day	Reduced concentration throughout the day	Slightly reduced concentration throughout the day	Average concentration
Effects on memory	Good	Good	Good
Effects on mental fog and clarity of thinking	Slightly reduced clarity of thinking	Reduced clarity of thinking	Nil to Slightly reduced clarity of thinking
Effects on telephonic conversation	Mild stuttering	Mild stuttering	Less stuttering and good speech
Effects on affection and social life	Neutral	Reduced affection towards family	Neutral
Effects on sleep	Not excessive sleepiness. Able to get up early in morning	Excessive sleepiness. Not able to get up early in morning, Uncontrollable sleeping after lunch in evening	Neutral
Effects on libido and sex	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	seems to increase libido...gives good spontaneous erections...able to get strong erection after massaging for masturbation (this effect was better observed with medimix soap/chandrika soap). The soap is used for bathing only and not during the time of masturbation.
Effects on eye vision	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral
Effects on driving	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral
Effects on body temperature and sweating	Slightly increased sweating	Slightly increased sweating	Reduced body temperature and sweating
Other effects	Slight bad taste in mouth, mild skins rashes like an allergic reaction (red skin eruptions appear in line)	Slight bad taste in mouth, mild skins rashes like an allergic reaction (red skin eruptions appear in line)	No bad taste in mouth. No skin allergies. (If the tablets are taken after food)
Diet during these time	Oats porridge in morning and night; lunch – rice with 200 g of chicken or fish with 200 g vegetables	Oats porridge in morning and night; lunch – rice with 200 g of chicken or fish with 200 g vegetables	Oats porridge in morning and night; lunch – rice with 200 g of chicken or fish with 200 g vegetables

Effects of methylfolate

I took 5 mg of folic acid per day (2.5 mg in morning and 2.5 in night). I felt more energetic and motivated. So, I have started experimenting with methylfolate.

	L-methylfolate 7.5 mg/day (3.25 mg in morning and 3.25 mg in night) + one zincovit tablet  in morning + one Magcalzinc tablet in night (Elemental calcium 250 mg + Elemental magnesium 125 mg + elemental zinc 3 mg)	L-methylfolate 7.5 mg/day (3.25 mg in morning and 3.25 mg in night) + one zincovit tablet  in morning	L-methylfolate 7.5 mg/day (3.25 mg in morning and 3.25 mg in night)	L-methylfolate 7.5 mg/day (3.25 mg in morning and 3.25 mg in night) + one capsule of fluoxetine in night
Effects on anxiety	No anxiety	No anxiety	No anxiety	No anxiety
Effects on depression	No depressive feelings	No depressive feelings	No depressive feelings	No depressive feelings
Effects on stuttering and voice	Moderate stuttering was there. Cannot make a fluent conversation. Reduced loudness of voice	Moderate stuttering was there. Cannot make a fluent conversation. Reduced loudness of voice	Moderate to severe stuttering was there. Cannot make a fluent conversation or presentation. Reduced loudness of voice	Much reduced stuttering. Can make a good presentation and conversation. Good loudness of voice
Effects on motivation	Good motivation	Good motivation	Good motivation	Reduced motivation and increased lethargy
Effects on concentration	Good concentration throughout the day	Good concentration throughout the day	Good concentration on tasks in morning. Low concentration in afternoons. Then, concentration increases after 7 pm.	Reduced concentration
Effects on memory	Good	Good	Good	Good
Effects on mental fog and clarity of thinking	Good	Good	Good	Reduced clarity of thinking
Effects on telephonic conversation	Moderate stuttering	Moderate stuttering	Moderate stuttering	Reduced stuttering
Effects on affection and social life	Longing for love from family members but no interest in social life	Longing for love from family members but no interest in social life	Longing for love from family members but no interest in social life	Reduced affection towards family but increased participation in social gatherings probably due to less stuttering
Effects on sleep	No excessive sleepiness. Able to get up early in morning	No excessive sleepiness. Able to get up early in morning	Not much of excessive sleepiness. But, heavy uncontrollable sleepy feeling after taking lunch.	Increased sleepiness. Cannot get up easily in morning.
Effects on libido and sex	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral to less
Effects on eye vision	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral
Effects on driving	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral
Effects on body temperature and sweating	No ‘heated body’ feeling and no increased sweating	No ‘heated body’ feeling and no increased sweating	No ‘heated body’ feeling and no increased sweating	Increased sweating
Other effects	Moderate right hand wrist pain and forearm pain was there due to excessive computer mouse usage, bad taste in mouth, mild skins rashes like an allergic reaction (red skin eruptions appear in line)	Mild right hand wrist pain and forearm pain was there due to excessive computer mouse usage, bad taste in mouth, mild skins rashes like an allergic reaction (red skin eruptions appear in line)	No hand pain or wrist pain, bad taste in mouth, bad breath, mild skins rashes like an allergic reaction (red skin eruptions appear in line)	Slight bad breath, mild skins rashes like an allergic reaction (red skin eruptions appear in line)
Diet during these time	Oats porridge in morning and night; lunch – rice with 200 g of chicken or fish with 200 g vegetables	Oats porridge in morning and night; lunch – rice with 200 g of chicken or fish with 200 g vegetables	Oats porridge in morning and night; lunch – rice with 200 g of chicken or fish with 200 g vegetables	Oats porridge in morning and night; lunch – rice with 200 g of chicken or fish with 200 g vegetables

Reasons of blurred vision and profuse sweating

After taking sertraline, I am getting blurred vision frequently. Sometimes cannot read the fine print and labels on the shopping items. Also cannot work long time seeing the laptop monitor. Also, I get muscle fasciculation or muscle twitch on my eyelids and sometimes on muscles around the eye.

From Wikipedia, I got the following information.

The iris contains two sets of muscles:

• a radial group for enlargement of the pupil (dilator pupillae)

• a circular group set to decrease pupil size on contraction (sphincter pupillae).

The muscles regulate the amount of light entering the eye. The sphincter pupillae is stimulated through muscarinic receptors by the parasympathetic nervous system. The dilator pupillae is stimulated through noradrenergic receptors by the sympathetic nervous system.

Alterations are produced by muscarinic antagonism in two muscles: inhibition of iris sphincter muscle causes mydriasis, while relaxation of ciliary muscle produces ciclopegia.

It may be possible that, sertraline might have decreased acetylcholine in the eye muscles possibly due to its increased dopaminergic activity. However, I did not observe this effect with bupropion. So, the another possibility is that sertraline might have decreased noradrenaline which might have caused the imbalance in eye accommodation. I also feel less sweating with sertraline which I did not observe with fluoxetine or bupropion. Hence, in my case, profuse sweating might be the due to increased noradrenaline levels and blurred vision is probably due to decreased noradrenaline levels. Further research is required on this.

Update on 6 October 2015:

Effect of folic acid and methylcobalamin

During the last few months, I was having blurred vision after lunch and even after mild exercises. I was not able to read fine print and medicine labels for most of the time. I was not able to see computer monitor for long time and work. I took folic acid 1.25 mg and methylcobalamin 250 microgram and vitamin C 500 mg for few days. This combination almost cured my blurred vision. Now, I am able to read fine print (but not very fine print in the medicine labels), see computer monitor for long time and work. No blurred vision. It appears that I may have some fault in the absorption or processing of folic acid or cobalamin. I need to explore it further. After taking methylcobalamin, my finger pain also reduced very much suggesting the fault in processing of cobalamin.

Effect of Sertraline

After stopping fluoxetine, even though I felt more energetic and less depressed, I felt more irritability and gasping for breath which affected my lecturing ability.

So, I checked with a doctor about this. The doctor prescribed sertraline 50 mg once daily along with asenapine 5 mg (sub lingual once daily) and olanzapine 10 mg once daily.

I started with sertraline first at the night time after dinner before going to bed. Initially for the few days, I felt good mood and energetic. So, I added asenapine 5 mg. I felt dizziness, slurred speech, heavy discomfort and internal unrest. So the next day, I stopped asenapine. I did not start with olanzapine because I was afraid  of extrapyramidal side effects, possible weight gain and risk of diabetes.

So, I decided to continue only with sertraline 50 mg once daily at the night. After 3-4 days, diarrhea occurred. Everyday, two times. Especially, after waking up in the morning, severe urgency to defecate occurred with unable to control feeling. However, this was not like normal diarrhea and somewhat different.  The diarrhea was difficult to tolerate especially during the working hours in the office. And also, some feelings of compulsory activity (eyesight following the lines of an object, eyesight following a symmetrical lines in an object) and internal unrest occurred.

So, I decided to reduce the dose to half tablet (~25 mg) and change the timing to morning. So, for the last two weeks, I took the half tablet in the morning. No diarrhea occurred the next day and no more diarrhea. And the compulsory feelings and internal unrest also got reduced much. However, after one week, sluggishness and slowness of mind happened. I was unable to motivate myself to do the things which I had planned earlier. I also had stomach bloating and sleep debt. I felt there is something wrong with the food I am taking. I used to take coffee with milk powder and sugar (3 cups of coffee per day, morning before breakfast, after lunch and in the evening around 7.30 pm). So, I decided to stop the milk powder. The next day, I felt more energetic, more clear minded, less stuttering during the lecture. I think, the milk peptides from the milk powder may increase the GABA levels and might have caused this. I need to check this for few more weeks.

Overall, the effect of sertraline can be summarized as follows:

	Sertraline 50 mg	Sertraline 25 mg
Effects on anxiety	Reduced general anxiety and reduced anxiety of stuttering	Reduced general anxiety and reduced anxiety of stuttering
Effects on depression	No low mood at all; very bright mood	No low mood but some lethargy is there
Effects on stuttering and voice	Mild stuttering; reduced loudness of voice; Unable to make a good lecture	Very mild stuttering; Able to deliver a good lecture; moderate loudness of voice < that achieved with fluoxetine
Effects on motivation	Good motivation	Reduced motivation with milk powder in coffee. After stopping the milk powder, the motivation seems to be slowly onsetting.
Effects on telephonic conversation	Vocal blocks happened, unable to ask questions	less vocal blocks and fairly smooth conversation
Effects on affection and social life	Very good affection towards the wife and children	Average affection towards wife and children. Seems to be improving after stopping the milk powder.
Effects on sleep	Slightly increased sleep duration; but after waking up felt energetic and motivated to engage in works	Slept for more hours; sleep debt occurred; not refreshing after waking up; seems to be improving after stopping the milk powder.
Effects on libido and sex	Increased libido and erections; no premature ejaculations	Decreased libido
Effects on eye vision	Blurred vision occurred especially when taking multivitamins Supradyn recharge	Not much blurred vision; seems to be improving after stopping the milk powder.
Effects on driving	Apparently no effect	Apparently no effect
Effects on body temperature and sweating	Felt less heat in the body; felt cold; Significantly reduced sweating	No feelings of coldness in the body; Significantly reduced sweating
Other effects	Internal unrest; Diarrhea	No diarrhea; no internal unrest

I need to monitor the motivation levels and quality of sleep after stopping the milk powder.

Update on 31/12/2012

Eyelid Twitching

After I stop the milk powder, my energy level increased and motivation levels became normal. However, my stuttering was there on and off. So, I tried, L-methylfolate 7.5 mg tablet in the night. After few days itself, my mood flattened. After two weeks, I developed eyelid twitching. Both my eyelids started twitching involuntarily. This twitching occurred during the wakeful period. During sleeping, it did not occur. It was really embarrassing while talking to others. During the twitching, the upper eyelid moved horizontally. Sometimes, lower eyelid also twitched horizontally. Then, I stopped taking sertraline and L-methylfolate. The eyelid twitching gradually reduced in another two weeks. I realized that it is the effect of L-methylfolate when combined with the sertraline and possibly due to the increased dopamine at the basal ganglia which controls the eyelid movement. During this time, I took Ginkgo Biloba extract and omega 3. After another two weeks, the twitching stopped completely. No more involuntary twitching happened.

Composition of Proviton Multivitamin capsules (with ginseng)

Composition of Proviton Multivitamin capsules:
 

Composition: Each softgel capsule contains		% USRDA
Ginseng IDB         Highly concentrated and standardised (by HPLC) Ginseng Extract IDB (made from the main roots of genuine Panax Ginseng C.A. Meyer)	50 mg
Vitamin A	5000iu	100
Vitamin D	400iu	100
Vitamin E	15iu	50
Thiamine HCI (B1)	12 mg	800
Riboflavin (B2)	5 mg	294
Pyridoxine HCI (B6)	5 mg	250
Cyanocobalamin (B12)	15 mcg	250
Ascorbic Acid	30 mg	50
Folic Acid	1.3 mg	325
Nicotinamide	25 mg	125
Biotin	0.06 mg	20
Calcium	40 mg	4
Copper	0.1 mg	5
Inositol	7.5 mg
Iodine	0.05 mg	33
Iron	5 mg	28
Lecithin	50 mg
LysineHCI	0.3 mg
Magnesium	2 mg	1
Manganese	0.33 mg	8
Phosphorus	18.5 mg	2
Potassium	5 mg
Zinc	0.9 mg	6

Potential advantages of Proviton Capsules: 

• Low vitamin E content (may not cause nonstutterable pause while speaking)
• Low copper levels (may not affect GABA/Dopamine system)
• Moderate amounts of Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) (may not increase serotonin and dopamine excessively)

Potential disadvantages of Proviton Capsules:

• Contains high amount of folic acid (may increase stuttering)

Effect of Vitamin E

I took Vitamin E (250 IU; d-alpha-tocopherol 167.5 mg) in the morning for few days. I experienced severe headache for almost the whole day. However, I observed one strange effect. If I take vitamin E together with a boiled egg, then I did not get any headache.

Positive effects:

• Reduced anxiety
• Able to work continuously with focus and concentration without getting much tiredness and it was helpful for writing articles at one stretch.

Negative effects: 

• Stuttering was mild. However, mild vocal blocks were there during the conversation. The speech was easy to start but after talking for 10-15 minutes, suddenly I was stuck with a vocal block in which I was unable to produce any sound from my throat. I could not even stutter. This vocal block was similar to the one I observed with DL-phenylalanine.
• Severe headache on right side of my head (indicating dopamine deficiency)

This vocal block might be probably due to the low level of dopamine. There is a research paper supporting this hypothesis.

Lazzarini M, Salum C, Del Bel EA.

Combined treatment of ascorbic acid or alpha-tocopherol with dopamine receptor antagonist or nitric oxide synthase inhibitor potentiates cataleptic effect in mice.

Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2005 Aug;181(1):71-9. Epub 2005 Oct 15.