Children's Health #2 – Folate in Pregnancy
Today you will discover:
What is folate and why is it important for a healthy pregnancy
Why you should think twice before supplementing it
How nature controls your folate levels based on your environment
How you can ensure folate is not an issue in your pregnancy
Let’s begin!
Having a baby is already a big shift in you and your family’s life, why does it need to be so complicated? Infertility is on the rise and supplemental folate is being suggested for mothers in most pregnancies. Miscarriages, stillbirths and C-sections are happening far too often. What is stopping the baby from developing normally and what is the underlying cause?
Our modern world is filled with wireless radiation and artificially lit environments wherever we go. Fetal development is a very delicate and refined process which is interrupted by biologic stressors. But today, we are not going to focus on how to ensure adequate folate levels are present in the mother so the pregnancy can run as smoothly as possible. Remember, the process is very complicated, but if left to her own devices, nature seems to find a way to allow this to happen. After all, we have all successfully been birthed and are somewhat healthy.
Let’s begin with Folate and Folic Acid
Folate is a photosynthetic chemical and it links dark skin to folate protection.
Vitamin B9 (Folate) was first extracted from spinach leaves in 1941.
The term folate comes from the same root as foliage: green and leafy.
Folate is a constituent part of CoQ10 and is regulated by sunlight, melanin pigment, oxygen tensions, season and dietary intake.
Folates are vital: They accept carbon atoms and pass them on as needed as the fundamental basis for proper methylation. This implies that during summer months folate levels should be expected to be at their lowest levels NATURALLY.
Vitamin B12 and folate allow brain myelination to take place as our brains grow. This is very important during pregnancy as the fetus grows. Mothers must have adequate amounts in their system. Remember: Vitamin B12 and folate are also human photoreactors! Vitamin B12 and folate levels are usually low because glucose metabolism is being up-regulated, because the Urea and TCA cycles are being destroyed by deuterium leaking in to clog them up. Uncoupling Protein 2 (UCP2) in the mitochondria is also a heme protein and when the chromophores are destroyed by the free retinol/Vitamin A it lets deuterium into the matrix also. Cytochrome C oxidase within the mitochondria has 4 heme proteins in it to be able to make water. This functionality is destroyed so fast in a Blue Lit/Technologic world destroying the production of water which normally restores the function of metabolic balance of the Krebs/TCA Cycle and the Urea Cycle. The voltage of the mitochondria then drops, and the ratio of NADH-to-Oxygen drops massively. Tri-methyl glycine, TMG, converts homocysteine to methionine in the liver, whereas folate-dependent de-methylation of homocysteine takes place in all cells. (Cite: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9054796/).
People with poor solar exposure have poor folate levels and poor B12 levels. Therefore, diabetes is linked to blue light toxicity in the eye and skin and real lack of sunlight exposure. Strong light and TMG strongly reduces plasma homocysteine in subjects with low serum folate, and has a weaker effect when folate is high, whereas Vitamin B6 has little or no effect on plasma homocysteine levels.
But what if you have SNP's or methylation gene issues when it comes to healthy levels of folate or B12?
SNP's are usually a result of the body’s ability to adapt to a change in your local environment. This helps to optimize mitochondrial heteroplasmy. Extreme equatorial sunlight is well known to reduce folate in tissues. Normally this will reduce the amount of RBC’s (red blood cells) in equatorial humans because we need folate to maintain them. RBC’s contain both porphyrins and haemoglobin. Both of these absorb UV light. When the body absorbs a great deal of UV light, venous oxygen saturation rises, so not as much oxygen carrying capacity from haemoglobin is needed. Oxygen levels are ideal temperature sensors for a quantum biologist. More sunlight = More oxygen so you don’t need as many RBC’s.
The environment dictates how mitochondria work and SNP’s are fine tuners for the local environment you are inhabiting. Today, humans move to places where their genome is not naturally adapted to. If you have a SNP, you likely are one of those people.
SNP’s can cause disease when we live where we are not designed to live. These genes are designed by our maternal mitochondrial DNA lineage!
How many hours per day should children be outdoors?
This study shows us that children should be outdoors for 4-6 hours every day in order to experience normal growth and development opportunities. This is becoming significantly more important now that they are spending more time indoors than ever before. https://www.1000hoursoutside.com/blog/children-should-be-outside-for-4-6-hours-everyday?fbclid=IwAR2KFLk9sUDBhQkAQyz7wHFg-NOR3UqknWE_5bWYgpf4vaO0wJE9tD8-QfU
Should you supplement any form of folate?
Here’s what most MD’s and geneticists will tell you:
Folate is a B vitamin that must be activated (methylated) to be used by our bodies. This activation is done by an enzyme (protein) named MTHFR (methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase). All of us have this enzyme. If MTHFR is working properly, it activates 100% of folic acid. This is the dominant form. Half of all people have a combination of MTHFR that does not completely activate folic acid. These two forms are called heterozygous and homozygous. If you are heterozygous, you activate folate at 60-70% efficiency. If you are homozygous you only activate 10% of folic acid. There are two main types of MTHFR that we check for, MTHFR C677T and MTHFR A1298C.
So, what if you cannot activate folic acid well and your body cannot use the folic acid you get in your diet or through supplements? We are now learning that many medical conditions are helped by adding activated methylfolate.
Conditions helped:
1. Depression, Anxiety, ADD, Autism and Dementia: Methylfolate helps make up three of our four main neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine/noradrenaline). It also helps with peripheral neuropathy, even in people with diabetes.
2. Peripheral Vascular Disease: Methylfolate helps in nitric oxide formation which relaxes blood vessels.
3. Uric Acid Metabolism (Gout): Methylfolate is connected to the normal metabolism of uric acid.
4. Detoxifications: Methylfolate can eventually influence downstream formation of compounds that help clear toxins.
5. Lowering Homocysteine: Methylfolate is required to metabolize and decrease homocysteine levels.
6. DNA Repair (decreases cancer risk): Methylfolate helps provide methyl groups for DNA repair and eventually decreases the risk of abnormal DNA and cancer.
7. Miscarriage Frequency: Methylfolate is integral for maintaining pregnancy.
8. Neural Tube Defect in Newborns: Methylfolate can help prevent these defects by adequate B12 and Methylfolate levels.
But... Is supplementing folate really a good idea? Not from a foundational health standpoint…
Folate is often given to pregnant women to prevent spinal dysraphism’s today. The incidence of these conditions has dropped but too much folate/folic acid causes cognitive haze and sleep difficulty.
In general, it does not appear that even large amounts of folic acid taken orally are acutely toxic in adults. However, given the fundamental role of folate levels in synthesizing nucleotides (including RNA and DNA) and in methylation reactions as a methyl donor, high levels may have inadvertent implications for proper methylation of DNA during times of rapid cell division, such as in prenatal development.
In North America, (CAN/USA) folic acid was added to all grains in 1996.
The idea that adding folic acid to the food supply might have unintended consequences has been speculated as early as 2005, and specifically speculated to be relevant for the increase in autism in 2011.
The Centres for Disease Control Vaccine Safety Datalink data set compared children with autism to control children on several variables. Many people who think the link of vaccines to autism might be shocked to find out that folic acid supplementation during gestation is associated with a serious increased risk for autism. This effect remains even when health-seeking behaviours and other variables are controlled. Autism, asthma, allergy, ectopy, eczema, diabetes T1D, T2D, and MODY, auto-immunity, and spinal abnormalities have their lowest incidence is lowest in equatorial environments and it appears now we know why this is the case.https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_re…/2019-02/uom-rds020119.php
An early review of potential problems with mass folic acid supplementation of the food supply was undertaken by Lucock and Yates. Here, they noted that a drastic increase in folates could lead to a selection for the previously rare MTHFR genetic substitution of T for C at area 677 (MTHFR C677T), and that if folic acid is supplemented at doses above 400 mcg that unmetabolized folic acid will circulate in the blood supply at a level largely consistent with the excess dose. In 2005, Lucock and Yates noted that high levels of folic acid in the blood does not generally occur as a result of ingesting natural folates and that “no work has been done so far to evaluate the biological and genetic consequences of excess long-term exposure” to these circulating folic acids. After that review, there were two separate findings of unexpected increases in asthma and breathing problems associated with folic acid use.
• https://www.nature.com/articles/nrg1558
It now appears clear that excessive methyl donor transfer has epigenetic effects in humans. This work dovetailed with another review questioning the wisdom of mass folic acid supplementation published in 1996. Smith et al. pointed out that by supplementing the food supply; hundreds of thousands of persons are exposed to greatly increased levels of folic acid. These authors noted that prior research had shown that expectant mothers with low vitamin B-12 (vegans/vegetarians) AND high levels of folic acid were associated with offspring having an unexpected increased risk for insulin resistance and disease associated with this condition.
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4638127/
Troen et al. found that some women past childbearing age subjected to high folic acid supplementation may be at risk for reduced immune system functioning causing inflammatory autoimmune conditions to spike.
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2790187/
These days most people are eating food that humans have engineered or altered in some way. This throws off the normal variation of the natural folate cycle during seasons. Today, people in developed countries are getting MASSIVE amounts of folates in the form of folic acid. Folates are now being ingested in three ways: as natural folates from food, as synthetic folic acid added to processed grains and synthetic vitamin supplements.
As a result of the supplementation, the circulating level of unmetabolized folic acid, as well as total folates, has greatly increased over the past generation, probably to levels largely unprecedented in human history.
REDOX over SUPPLEMENTATION
If that wasn’t enough to make you think twice about messing around with nature’s wisdom within our cells…when adding folate supplements to the system, independently of food, the endogenous glutathione synthesis becomes dysfunctional. Your requirement for glutathione may greatly increase. Glutathione is a powerful natural antioxidant in your body.
Redox refers to the electrical potential of the mitochondria in your cells. The electrical charge difference between Cytochrome 1 (NAD/NADH couple) and the ATPase at the other end of the mitochondrial membrane is normally between -200mv and -400mv. You can support your glutathione by improving your redox/energy state and by eating foods which build it, including methionine and cysteine. Do this before supplementing with folate. If there is low glutathione, and folate is given, the folate can cause a problem with liver detoxification, leading to inflammation. Therefore, many people have negative reactions to folate supplementation, even when they have MTHFR and folate deficiency.
Folate is also loaded with hydrogen that must be deuterium depleted to work in methylation pathways for dopamine, glutathione, and DNA/RNA. Do you trust that the supplemental methyl-folate which your doctor gives you is deuterium depleted...? I wouldn't…
Folate is best eaten in whole foods and regulated by your solar redox. Foods high in folate include, egg yolks, brussel sprouts, broccoli, beef liver, asparagus, seafood, blackberries and spinach
Solution: SUNLIGHT and HIGH REDOX
Sunlight reduces all these folate supplementation risks. The sun lowers folate within foods and in our blood in the summertime. this natural process occurs because we have less need in summer for folate. Folate is destroyed by strong sunlight with both UVA and UVB light. The body protects against too much folate loss by tanning your skin. Dark skin protects folate stores in our bodies, but there is now proof that folate levels are designed to be low when the solar radiation is strong in the local environment.
When one does not live and eat with their local environment, a mismatch of folate in the body will arise. Same goes for people of colour living away from the equator as their dark skin will protect the folate from the weak sun and lead to excessive levels of folate.
Folate is a story of living where you are designed and reproducing when you are designed. Once you find an environment and diet which is optimised for you, your levels will balance and work as they should.
Connect with nature every day, your body will tell you which environment it is optimised for. If you cannot get pregnant, you may be mismatched to your environment. Or you may not be living with nature in your environment. If you are having miscarriages, there may be something in your environment communicating to the baby that it’s not time to emerge, the world is too unsafe for survival. Look around you, the problem is not within you, it’s within your environment.
Extra Bonus!
Now because I can’t help myself, and I know you are craving more knowledge, here is a little more about pregnancy, to help you have a very healthy baby and be aware of changes to your body.
Pro Tip for Mum’s: It is also a great benefit to practice cold adaption or cold thermogenesis (CT) before you get pregnant so that you clear toxins out of your system. It also sensitizes your body to optimally use folate in chemical reactions which work well in the cold.
Also eat large amounts of DHA to ensure baby develops a healthy brain. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21540999
Normal Pregnancy Changes
Circulating blood volume increases
Haematocrit drops because the body is water loaded
Progesterone increase to retain more water in the system
Evolution makes your body water loaded when pregnant because the water is what gives the baby life.
Mother and Baby during Pregnancy
The mother’s blood contains hormones and growth factors which represent the environment the mother lives in. Her blood also includes all the toxins she is exposed to and her heteroplasmy rate in the mitochondria. Her blood also contains metabolites related to the emotions she is feeling regularly. This is all communicated to the baby via the placenta. A great deal of information is communicated to the offspring. The fetus is being set up to live in the environment the mother is experiencing during pregnancy.
If there is a great deal of stress in the mothers environment, the baby will be communicated this information and begin to increase development in the muscular skeletal part of the body plan. Additionally, the baby will develop a larger hind brain and a smaller fore-brain.