My 12 year old son is on the autism spectrum and has eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). He takes several medications to manage the symptoms of his autism and has a very limited diet due to his EoE. While he doesn’t necessarily have a diagnosis of anxiety or ADHD, his autism presents those symptoms due to issues with the executive functioning in his brain. His poor diet leaves him with low folate levels and low iron as well which on top of making him feel crummy sometimes, impacts his mood and mental state. Our neuropsychiatrist did a cheek swab DNA test on my son to assess how he metabolizes medications as well as identify genetic indicators to help us narrow down which medications will work best for him. We found that he poorly processes folate which in turn means he doesn’t absorb as much of his medications as he should. He already struggles with getting enough folate in his diet and to not absorb it properly only makes matters worse. She recommended we augment his diet/medications with an L- methylfolate supplement. It would in theory increase the effectiveness of his medications and ultimately reduce the dosage levels of his medications as it allows his body to better absorb the medications as well as improve his overall health. Originally we attempted to get this as a prescription but due to the nature of our prescription insurance they only allowed us to obtain it via mail. The doctor ordered twice and it never showed. For over a year my son took his medications without the supplement and we were always having to tweak the dosage or timing as he just wasn’t getting the duration of “coverage” from the meds as he should. Over the summer, we usually like to take a break from a lot of his medications (like ADHD meds). I remembered we were wanting to try this supplement and I know this type of supplement normally helps with energy, focus and mood. I ordered it at the beginning of summer and as we weaned my son off all but one medication, he remained stable and had little to no change in his disposition or functionality thanks to this pill. He takes one in the morning daily and he reports it helps him feel focused, less anxious or irritable, he is in a good mood, and isn’t groggy or feel fuzzy like some of his prescriptions make him feel. When he started 6th grade this past August, we decided to not put him on ADHD meds to help him focus on school because he was doing so well without it. We reduced the dosage of his anxiety meds and haven’t had to increase his mood stabilizer and kept it on the lowest dose to help with his anxiety and impulsivity which usually looks like ADHD in a school setting. Despite moving up to middle school with an increased course load and difficulty in material, he’s doing better this year than he ever has. He has high functioning autism and has a high IQ but has always struggled with focus and staying on task as he easily gets bored or distracted. Supplementing his medications with this is without a doubt a game changer. There are days where we have forgotten to give it to him and it isn’t super obvious but something is definitely off. It makes a difference; it fine tunes and increases the benefits we see from his medications. It also seems to help his overall health and he’s finally grown taller and gained weight thanks to being able to better absorb nutrients from his diet which has always been a struggle. It has worth every penny paying out of pocket for this supplement. It helps that Envitamin has a discount when you subscribe and I qualify for the 15% discount which makes a difference. I highly recommend this for anyone whose doctor has advised they supplement their diet with L-methyfolate.
