Maarten Maartensz on the Vitamin B12 Methylation Protocol for CFS

Maarten Maartensz is collecting some resources on the Vitamin B12 Methylation Protocol for CFS.

Here are three of his most recent posts on this topic (I guess more will follow over time):

1. Here about his mB12 protocol
2. Here a bit more on the the mB12-protocol
3. And here video from Dr. Rich van Konynenburg

Well, the last time I followed a protocol (cpnhelp's Vitamin D and N-Acetylcysteine NAC) I got worse – so I am a bit hesitant to try any "protocol" at the moment.

And firstly, I need to understand WHAT and how much I should take under this protocol. There are so many B-vitamins (and related compounds) that it is a bit difficult to keep an overview on what exactly to take. There seems to be a lot of fine tuning involved and considering that I feel sometimes better and sometimes worse it is easy to fool oneself. And there seem to be different "schools of thought", which worries me a bit, that there a people "fine tuning" a protocol that does little or no good.

The second thing is I want to understand WHY. I want to know the rationale behind it all, I want to understand the mechanisms, I want to understand the metabolism pathways, I want to see (at least) partial evidence, objective measurable values. As far as I know, the mechanisms behind the "methylation block" are purely speculative – the protocol may (or may not) help, for a few or some (or even most) of the ME/CFS patients, but I call quack BS on the putative mechanisms. Without a proper test that can distinguish ME/CFS patients without methylation blockage from ME/CFS patients with methylation blockage – and subsequential test whether the methylation protocol helps this subgroup! – I am a bit worried about this "one size fits all" approach.

PS: He made a new version of his collection of ME/CFS resources, were he tries to exclude pseudo-science (like XMRV), for which I applaud him. Personally, as I consider all currently proposed disease mechanisms for ME/CFS to be – regardless who proposed them – as either pure unsubstantiated speculations, unscientific delusions or even fraudulent falsehoods, I would either label the bits about mechanisms (like mitochondria or methylation blockage) as speculative hypothesis, or move them to a separate document.