Learner1
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You're exactly right!One thing this has shown me is the power of boosting methylation.
Methylation is involved in almost every bodily biochemical reaction, and occurs billions of times every second in our cells, managing or contributing to a wide range of crucial bodily functions, including:
Detoxification
Immune function
Maintaining DNA
Energy production
Mood balancing
Controlling inflammation
Sound familiar? It helps our bodies respond to environmental stressors, to detoxify, and to adapt and rebuild. Lowered methylation function contributes to diseases, including:
ME/CFS
Cardiovascular Disease
Cancer
Diabetes
Allergies, immune system, and digestive problems
Neurological conditions
Mood and psychiatric disorders
Miscarriages, fertility, and problems in pregnancy
Aging
That’s why optimizing methylation contributes to health improvement, and reducing symptoms.
Exactly. And not just super detox mode, super mode of helping allergies, immune function, neurological function, etc.It seems to put your body in super detox mode but like an engine it's going to use up available fuel the faster it's pushed.
If you speed up parts occur, you have to speed all of it in a balanced approach. You also need to get rid of the waste products and ensure things that need recycling, like glutathione, methionine, and homocysteine are getting recycled.
We were fortunate to have an expert doctor fix my child's methylation over time. She returned to high level sports training and competition, and over a 2 year period, he ramped up her methylation to meet her body's increased demands during the sports season, then slowed it down when out of season. Watching that process taught me a lot about how the cofactors work together and how to manipulate methylation.
Exactly. There are tools today where you can get a decent idea of how your methylation genes are likely to express themselves. We've used them and found the theories to work.I really don't see any other way than this type of testing to avoid the pitfalls. Since everyone is different the deficiencies will vary from person to person. Maybe one day by use of test data tied in with genetics information a table/database might be formed to allow someone to input their raw genetics and will tell them what they are likely to become deficient in when boosting methylation.
But, environmental factors, like infections, diet, toxicity, etc. can impact how the genes express themselves. "Your mileage may vary."
Testing periodically, like every 9-12 months, is wise. Every test has a theme and you can see where bottlenecks are occurring and how to unblock them and where the subsequent bottlenecks are likely to occur too head them off.
My family tends to need huge amounts of B6 in the form of P5P - it shows up again and again. The genetics don't necessarily shout it out (or maybe we're not looking at the right genes) but B6 is used in methylation and hemoglobin and sphingolipid production. You can likely see why not having enough can contribute to ME/CFS.
So, even though the "daily value" of B6 is about 1.5mg, and toxicity has been reported in some people at 200mg, my body seems to drink up 350mg a day and fall apart without that much. If I didn't test, I never would have learned about it. And deficiency shows up in bottlenecks all through the test.
Balance is the key. You have to get the entire process, with all its cofactors, working from end to end. Once you have it under control, you can ramp it up or down to cope with stresses your body encounters.In my experience when these deficiencies hit it's pretty devastating if you don't know what's going on. For me recently I was only taking 800mcg of MB12 and 400mcg of MFolate for a few weeks. I took extra potassium, which has helped me before, and tried extra MB12 (to address possible methyltrap) but I never suspected Zinc. Once methylation has left you deficient in something IMO you're going to find that you're very sensitive to SMP supplements.
It seems keeping things in balance is the trick here. But without testing and unless you know the "feeling" of each deficiency (I got pretty good at knowing the flavor of potassium deficiency) then testing is the way to go (assuming it does job identifying deficiencies.)
And, it has to be what works for you, your genes, your toxic load and other cell dangers.
So many people try one or two nutrients, like folate or B12, and start to experience symptoms as they are doing too much to start, missing cofactors, or inadvertently mobilizing toxins they aren't ready to get rid of and just reabsorb.
This is why people say it didn't work for them, they can't tolerate methylating supplements, and they quit. Its extremely unfortunate, as it is impossible to be well without having properly functioning methylation. And worse, it can lead to cancer and mental illness.
Vexing, but worth figuring out.