Folate and folic acid are not the same thing. This is important for everyone to understand – but especially for those who are testing positive for HPV and are at risk of cervical cancer. 

The reason I say this is because there are so many research studies connecting the dots between folate deficiency and increased risk of cervical cancer. These studies have been coming out for over two decades, and I’ll share some in the references.

One study showed that for every 1 mcg of folate in a person’s diet, there is a 1% decrease risk cervical cancer! That’s amazing! 

I believe this should be the first thing your doctor tells you about when they inform you that you’re testing positive for HPV: to make sure you’re getting enough folate. Unfortunately, it’s still not well known and not discussed in the doctor’s office, which is why I’m so glad you’re finding this video.

Folate and Folic Acid: What’s the Difference?

Let’s understand the difference because a lot of times, the term folate is used interchangeably with the term folic acid, as if they’re the same thing. 

This happens even in research studies, where they might be testing folate in the blood and giving folic acid supplements, talking about them as if it’s the same thing. However, folate and folic acid are not exactly the same.

Folate is the form that you find in your food. We can get folate, which is also known as vitamin B9, from food sources. When it’s in the folic acid form, it’s a synthetic, human-made version of this nutrient. 

Folic acid is in an inactive form, so when you take something that contains folic acid, it gets absorbed into the body, and the body has to convert it into folate. It requires extra steps to get to folate. Folate is the form that is present in nature and that our bodies can use because it’s already in an active form.

Let’s understand this a little bit more. Where can we find folate in our foods? Actually, quite a lot of foods contain some folate. I always encourage you, if you’re wondering how much folate is in any food, to just Google it (how much folate in X). 

Certainly, animal proteins like meat and poultry, and even fish, as well as dairy products, contain folate. Also, a lot of different fruits and vegetables have folate, especially vegetables that are green in color like spinach, broccoli, asparagus. Even basil has folate in it.

Causes of Folate Deficiency

We can get folate from our diet; however, a lot of times, it becomes deficient for multiple reasons. One is if someone’s following a plant-based diet. In that case, even if they are eating vegetables, they’re not getting folate from animal protein, fish, or eggs.

Eggs also contain folate, as do grains. If you’re avoiding those, you’re not going to be getting as much folate. Yes, you can get it from your vegetables, but it’s not going to be as much. 

It’s very common when someone’s following a completely plant-based diet that they end up deficient in folate. I want you to become aware of that so you really pay attention, and you may require a supplement containing folate in order to get enough if you’re following a plant-based diet.

Also, folate is depleted by birth control pills. If you’ve been taking a birth control pill or even potentially a hormonal IUD, it could be causing a depletion in folate as well as other nutrients. If you’ve been on the birth control pill for any period of time, then likely you need more folate. 

Alcohol also depletes folate, so if you’ve been drinking alcohol on a regular basis, it’s quite likely that you need more folate.

Checking Your Supplements for Folate

Some of you might be saying, “Well, I’m taking a multivitamin or I’m taking a B complex.” So you might be getting some folate in there. I encourage each and every one of you to go grab your bottle of multivitamin or prenatal or B complex and look right now for the folate in the ingredient list on the bottle. This is exactly where you’re going to be able to see what I’m referring to, where sometimes the words are used interchangeably.

What we want to see on your multi or your prenatal or B complex is the term folate or methylfolate. Methylfolate is the active form of folate. Sometimes you have to look where it says B9 on the ingredient list. Does it say folate or folic acid? It might even be in parentheses. If it says folic acid at any point along the way, you know that it’s the inactive form.

The Importance of Active Folate

Yes, the research has shown that folic acid has been helpful for preventing cervical cancer. My point is, you might as well take the active form because if the inactive form can prevent cervical cancer, the active form is going to prevent cervical cancer even better. In my mind, I’d rather direct you to take the active form of folate because it increases the likelihood of effectiveness.

You can easily access active folate. There are many multivitamins, prenatals, and even separate folate supplements that contain methylfolate or active folate instead of folic acid. If your practitioner mentioned folic acid to you, I would still say we need to automatically translate that into folate and make sure that your supplements contain folate.

MTHFR and Folate Metabolism

What’s important to understand about folate is that the process where humans turn folic acid into folate requires an enzyme called MTHFR. 

MTHFR has been in the spotlight for a number of years because have found that 40 to 50% of us, including me as an example, have at least one or two gene variations related to the enzyme MTHFR.

When you have at least one or two gene variations of MTHFR, it can potentially decrease your ability to turn folic acid into folate. This is even another reason why it’s better to choose folate instead of folic acid. 

Whether you know you have that gene variation or not, there’s a 40 to 50% likelihood that you do. So it’s better to just choose folate because that is the detour around that gene variation.

Dosage of Folate for HPV and Cervical Cancer Prevention

The question then becomes, how much folate do you need? 

Yes, we can make sure you have enough in your diet. We can make sure that you have folate in your multivitamin and/or your B complex or prenatal vitamin. Those are the beginning steps. However, if you’re testing positive for HPV, and certainly if you have abnormal cells on your cervix (let’s say CIN 1, CIN 2, CIN 3), then we need to be thinking about higher doses of folate.

In fact, the clinical dosing of folate related to dysplasia or abnormal cells in the cervix tends to be in the dosage range of 5 to 10 milligrams per day. When you look at your multivitamin, you’re going to see that it probably has about 800 micrograms in a daily dose, which is great for daily functioning and even for the very minimum for prenatal use of folate. 

But when you have HPV and you’re trying to prevent cervical cancer, we’re talking about going from 800 micrograms to even 5000 micrograms, and in some cases 10,000 micrograms of folate per day.

The Role of Folate in the Body

Folate works together with other aspects of our bodies. Folate works in what’s called the methylation cycle, which is where all the B vitamins come together. Folate comes together with B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, and B12, and they work together to do what’s called methylation. 

This process makes a substance called SAM or S-adenosylmethionine, and SAM does all kinds of good stuff throughout our bodies, including helping to make healthy new cells.

This is why folate is so important for preventing cervical cancer. The folate helps our body make SAM, which helps our body make healthy new cells, even if the HPV virus is there. The HPV virus is trying to come into the cells and cause abnormal cells, but the folate and SAM are helping to prevent that HPV from causing abnormal cells. 

That SAM also protects our DNA, helps with detoxification in the liver, and so much more. It helps with making neurotransmitters and breaking down neurotransmitters.

When we’re under stress as humans, which is most of the time, our bodies burn through even more of our vitamins, especially folate and SAM. I believe this is part of the reason why when women are under a lot more stress, they become more susceptible to HPV. 

The stress is causing them to use up their B vitamins, deplete the SAM, and their cells become vulnerable to the HPV virus. This is one of the reasons – there are many other reasons why stress makes us susceptible to HPV – but this is one that’s really important and one that you can start doing something about right away today.

Testing for Folate Levels

So, how do we know if we’re getting enough folate? Most practitioners are not measuring folate, and to make matters worse, when your practitioner orders folate in a serum blood test, it’s not very accurate. 

If you look at your blood results and it says folate, most times it shows high, especially if you’re taking a multivitamin, because it’s measuring the folate in your blood. That’s not really what we want to know – we want to know how the folate is doing in your cells, how your body is taking in the folate and using it to protect you from this virus.

Another issue with that blood test is that when they measure folate in the blood, even though it says folate, they’re actually measuring folate and folic acid. So it’s not just measuring your folate levels, it’s measuring folate and folic acid, and so it’s like a combination of the two. 

Again, it’s not the best test for folate in the blood because there are so many confounding factors. It doesn’t really give us adequate information, and oftentimes it will show elevated even if the person still needs more folate.

Homocysteine: A Better Indicator

What we need to measure is called homocysteine. This is a test that can be done at regular labs. It’s a regular blood draw, but most practitioners don’t know to order it, so you have to ask. 

You have to say, “I want to know my homocysteine level.” It should be optimally at about 7, let’s say between 6 and 8 is optimal. That means your B vitamins, including the folate, are being used optimally to make SAM and be used in your cells to protect you.

If you’re at about 7, perfect – you’re at a good dose. Now, if you have abnormal cells on the cervix, we might still give a little bit higher dose until those abnormal cells resolve, and then when the abnormal cells are gone, we’ll bring you back down to a maintenance dose of methylfolate to help protect you going forward.

If your homocysteine is too high, above let’s say 8, or too low, below 6, then we’re going to need to take more action. We’re going to need to figure out why that’s happening. Sometimes it might just be that you need more folate, but there are other factors involved. It could mean that you also need either more or less B12. It might be that you have toxicity happening in your body or inflammation that could be disrupting your body’s ability to use folate in an efficient way. So we need to investigate further.

Next Steps: Choose Folate

In summary, take folate, not folic acid, no matter what your gene status or whether you know your genes or not. Just choose folate instead of folic acid. I actually believe that all multivitamins and B complexes should contain folate, not folic acid. So take the extra steps to identify and take one that has the active form of folate so you can get the most benefit.

When you get your blood work, make sure to check homocysteine, not folate, to find out if you’re at a good dose. If you have HPV and abnormal cells, you may actually need a higher dose of folate for a period of time to help your body protect you from HPV and get your body to make healthy cells on your cervix using all this super duper active folate.

At the same time, really pay attention to your diet and notice how much folate you’re getting, of course amongst all of your other nutrients. Pay particular attention to make sure you’re getting adequate folate to help keep your cells healthy.

If you want to get started with a high quality folate supplement you can check out my Methyl Folate Support here. It provides 5 mg (8,500 mcg DFE) of natural, biologically active folate, essential for cell division and growth and for proper homocysteine metabolism.

If you want to learn how to get rid of HPV I encourage you to sign up for my Heal HPV Kickstart Program or my Say Goodbye to HPV Program. It’s a great way for you to access my protocol, products, doses, stress recovery, and dietary support from online. You’ll also get access to order testing and vaginal suppositories. I’d love to teach you how to heal and protect yourself from HPV. 

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I will also be hosting a FREE Heal HPV Workshop soon where you can learn all about my protocol and why thousands of women have been successful at clearing HPV from their lives for good when following it. You can save your spot here.

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To learn more about my approach to healing using my Stress Recovery Protocol which involves optimizing cortisol and adrenaline levels to heal the adrenals, as well as neurotransmitters, using nutrients, herbs and C.A.R.E.™ – my proprietary program to support clean eating, adequate sleep, stress recovery and exercise – I encourage you to read all about it in my latest book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

You can also go to doctordoni.com or hpv.doctordoni.com. There, you’ll find lots of resources and stories from women I’ve worked with. You can see that this approach really works, and it can work for you too. Or You can set up a one-on-one appointment here.

Remember, your health is in your hands. By making informed choices about your diet and lifestyle, you can significantly impact your health and well-being. Thank you for joining me today on How Humans Heal and please subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode. I look forward to seeing you then.

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