an apology and an explanation

[the_siobhan]

First of all I apologize for worrying people.

I'm ok, really. I'm just - upset. And I really really hate crying in front of people. And it occurred to me to be rather wry about the fact that I never used to cry when bad things happened to me because I was so numb all the time I didn't feel much. So now that I'm (comparatively) mentally healthy I'm all over the place with the tears and I hate it.

I guess it's not something that translates well in a short LJ post, and I'm sorry for doing that to you.

Long story short, the stomach thing is driving me nuts, I have Axel pointing out to me that I have been getting more frequent and more debilitating migraines lately, I'm starting to get a little concerned about the fact that have been dizzy every day for the past three weeks - and then today I got told I have advanced periodontal disease and I'm going to lose all my teeth.

And that was just my last fucking spoon.

Comments

Folic Acid

[theevilchemist.livejournal.com]

"but looking up folic acid overdose comes up with nothing."

That's 'cuse there really is no reported toxicity of folic acid. It's water soluble and not very stable. I've read homocysteine studies giving 8mg/day (10x the USRDA)[1] of Folic acid to people for 6month with no adverse side-effects. The UL of 1000mcg/day is mainly because high folate can mask the symptoms of B12 deficiency.

Here's an abstract from a study done on a 5mg folate/5mL:

A double blind study was designed to determine the effects of folate mouthwash (MW) on established gingivitis in non-pregnant adults. 60 subjects who had >20 teeth, visible gingival inflammation around >6 teeth, no complicated medical history, currently not receiving periodontal treatment or medication, and not wearing dentures, were randomly assigned to control or experimental groups. Full mouth assessment included plaque scores, gingival colour changes, bleeding tendency around every tooth and experience of disease and local factors. Subjects used 5 ml of MW twice daily for 4 weeks, rinsing for 1 min before expectorating. Experimental MW contained 5 mg folate per 5 ml. The control group used a placebo MW. A detailed 3-day diet record was kept by each subject. The oral examination was repeated after 4 weeks. Initially, groups were similar except that the experimental group exhibited more bleeding sites at the outset, but after 4 weeks, the experimental group showed a significant decrease in mean number of colour change sites (from 70.17 ±12.89 to 56.62 ±17.42) and in bleeding sites (from 48.59 ±24.28 to 29.28 ±19.64) compared with control group (colour: from 66.93±15.27 to 66.20± 18.83; bleeding: from 36.93±16.96 to 39.47± 16.67)p<0.001. Dietary analysis showed that few subjects ate >200,μg folate daily. However, the level of dietary folate did not correlate with changes in inflammation in experimental subjects, r=0.097. Folate MW appears to have an influence on gingival health through local rather than systemic influence.

Siobhan, I can lend you my university account if you want to browse around the literature for more info. If you come across one that the university doesn't carry, you can send me the reference and I can get the PDF from work.
jv

jv

Re: Folic Acid

[theevilchemist.livejournal.com]

Leafy greens are loaded with folate, especially spinach. If you have a juicer, you can juice a crap load of anything that' s green and swish that around your mouth. My favorite juicing greens are green peppers, Pok Choi, Rapini, and spinach. Romaine Lettuce also has a crapload of folate.

Vitamins A, C, & K which are also in abundance in leafy greens are also known anti-inflammatories.

Intrestingly enough, I just finished reading a paper on the emission of Volatile Sulfuric Compounds from the mouths of healthy people and people with periodontal disease. The emission levels of methyl mercaptan (pathogenic compound) from the mouth of people with periodontal disease was 5x higher than control and the tongue coating was 4x as thick.

Folic Acid and B12 are intrinsically involved in sulfur metabolism, particularly in the breakdown/rearrangement of sulfur linkages. This jives with the Folic Acid reduction of periodontal disease symptoms if it does so by breaking down methyl mercaptan. Swishing around some B12 lipospray wouldn't hurt either I suppose. Brushing the tongue to reomove the tongue coating seems very important too.
jv

Re: Folic Acid

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

All info filed and appreciated.

I love the greens, so that's not bad news at all - are they strictly effective when used topically, or would increasing them in my diet also be helpful?

Re: Folic Acid

[theevilchemist.livejournal.com]

"I love the greens, so that's not bad news at all - are they strictly effective when used topically

the studies I've read (like yesterday) all deal with topical folate and that dietary folate in the subjects was insignificant. IOW, there wasn't enough dietary folate differences between intervention and control groups to make any reasonable conclusions.

jv

Re: Folic Acid

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Gotcha. Still, I'm going to go with the "can't hurt" strategy and up my dietary intake while I'm at it.