How is it that such an essential vitamin could go overlooked and underappreciated?! Well, that essential vitamin is Vitamin B9, also known as Folate. Not to be confused with folic acid, folate makes several of your life-preserving processes possible. However, folate cannot carry out those processes without first being converted into its active form.

Folic Acid vs Folate

Folic acid is not found in nature. Instead, it is found in B-vitamin supplements and certain fortified foods, like bread and cereal. On the other hand, folate is found in nature in dark green vegetables, meat, eggs, and some other foods. A small amount of folate is also made in your intestines. Nevertheless, both folic acid and folate require conversion before your body can use them.

Folate helps preserve your quality of life

Folate makes all of the following processes possible:

• DNA synthesis for adequate cellular function
• Carbon metabolism and methylation for activating other body functions
• Amino acid metabolism for producing brain signals and hormones
• Red blood cell, white blood cell, and platelet production for nutrition and immunity
• Detoxification for eliminating toxins from your body

MTHF—the active form of Folate

Before folate can achieve any of the functions mentioned above it must first be converted into its active form called methyltetrahydrofolate, or MTHF. At the same time, MTHF carries out those functions by way of a process called methylation. Methylation simply serves as a 'switch' within your body to turn some cellular activities on and other activities off. So, without proper methylation, your body can easily develop chronic disease.

Want to learn more about Folate?

Ideally, folate, folic acid, and MTHF all reach the primary goal of methylation. Although, several factors influence just how effective methylation can be. For more information on folate or methylation, just ‘Ask a Naturopath’ here at Mr Vitamins.