too much folic acid

Did you ask the nurse to
Did you ask the nurse to find out from the dr what that meant? If you don't get an answer from them tomorrow, I would call back and find out what's what. Hugs, Lili

In case the dr.'s office is closed
Dear DeeDee,

Just in case the doctor's office is closed and you didn't reach him about your high folic acid count, I did a little digging on the internet. Did you know that you can plug in any blood test and get a dozen or so sites that will explain what the test was for and what the results mean? Here's what I found:

High levels of folic acid in the blood may mean that you eat a diet rich in folic acid, take vitamins, or take folic acid pills. Consuming more folic acid than the body needs does not cause problems.
High folic acid levels can also mean a vitamin B12 deficiency. Body cells need vitamin B12 to use folic acid. Therefore, if vitamin B12 levels are very low, folic acid cannot be used by the cells, and high levels of it may build up in the blood. However, a folic acid test is not a reliable way to test for a vitamin B12 deficiency.

Okay, so all of that looks like you may be eating a lot more folic acid than needed, but it sounds like that isn't much of a problem. The doctor could check your vitamin B12 level to make sure it is doing okay. I would explore it if I were you, especially if you have been feeling kinda' washed out and tired alot. Vitamin B12 deficiency can set in and cause fatigue that napping doesn't fix. I din't know what unit your blood test used, but I also found this in the same article:


Folate in liquid portion (plasma) of blood

Adult 2–20 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL)
4–45 nanomoles per liter (nmol/L) (SI units)

Children 5–21 ng/mL
11–47 nmol/L


Folate in red blood cells

Adult 140–628 ng/mL
317–1422 nmol/L (SI units)

Children More than 160 ng/mL
More than 362 nmol/L

This info was in a table but the table didn't copy. If you have a 24 and 20 is still normal, then you may be just a bit over the line. Doctors don't start fretting over one slightly abnormal blood test result usually. When several (think 5 or more) results are wildly out of kilter in an ominous pattern, they worry. One weird test, they may just register it and move on unless it fits with some weird symptom like fatigue that they are trying to explore. Of course, that depends on what test result is abnormal. In med school they are taught to look for patterns and for particular tests that mean bad news.

You can usually get a printout of the blood test results with all the proper units, normal range standards, and starred tests of what fell outside of the normal range from the hospital that did the blood test. I keep mine in a 3 ring binder along with any other reports from all those lovely tests the doctors order. It saves me several needle pokes a year to be able to show various doctors what I just had. It establishes a baseline for them in case something changes. And best of all, if I get curious about what it means when some level is too high or too low, I have all the information I need to call a medically knowledgeable friend or look it up on the internet. Good luck!

C. Abbott