Posted by rina on February 7, 2007, at 17:21:27
In reply to lamictal / folate, posted by christmas on February 7, 2007, at 15:42:32
> > are you saying its important to take a folate supplement if you take Lamictal?
>
> I guess I'm posing a question for the group.
>
> Folate is needed for monoamine synthesis (serotonin,etc) so I wondered how much Lamictal's "dihydrofolate reductase inhibition" could be sabotaging Lamictal's efficacy.
>
> according to the Lamictal PDR:
>
> "lamotrigine was shown to be an inhibitor of
> dihydrofolate reductase.....Reduced concentrations
> (of folate) were partially returned to normal
> when supplemented with folinic acid."
>
> The dihydrofolate reductase helps to "activate"
> the folate to l-methyfolate. So personally I would
> think that supplementing with a l-methlyfolate supplement bypasses the problem.
>
> I'm a bit confused by the PDRs assertion that
> supplementing with more folate would help. The bottleneck is the lack of the compound (dihydofolate reductase) that converts the folate
> to l-methylfolate.
>
> JamesForgive me for being a little slow today.(having an ADD day) Are you saying that we should take folic acid as a supplement or folate? Is there a difference? I've never heard of folate. If so, how many mg are sufficient in your opinion?
poster:rina
thread:730804
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070207/msgs/730888.html