Yasko's simplified protocol summary and question about her supplements.

[EMilo]

My quick question is: has anybody started a methylation protocol by buying Yasko's supplements off the Holistic Heal website? Any problems? Are they generally considered good? @Patrick* , I'm looking at you!

It's taken me months to wrap my brain around the protocol and I want to get this show on the road without spending another month researching alternative sources of supplements.

Also, in case this will help anybody, I read Yasko's Roadmap and put it into a bulletpoint format that my brain could understand (with a few extras tid bits from my research and focusing on my mutations). Here's the framework:

1. Change the diet and heal the gut:
   • Paleo/AIP diet
   • 4R Gut Program
   • Test for ammonia and homocysteine.
   • Kill candida (if you have it).
2. Address CBS mutation:
   • Reduce dietary protein, low-sulfur/thiol diet. Test urine sulfur with strips.
   • Yucca supplement with meals (sprinkled on meat?).
   • Charcoal/magnesium flushes.
3. Get your glutamate and Gaba levels in balance with basic support supplements (add a new one every 3 or 4 days):
   • Be Calm Spray (with lithium) helps excess glutamate.
   • Resveratrol Spray balances glutamate and helps pain.
   • All in One Vitamin (1-3 capsules)
   • CoQ10 Spray
   • Special Digestive Enzymes (SDE). Take 1 with dinner or large meal of the day.
   • Amino Assist Spray (1-2 sprays)
   • Ultimate B Complex (1 capsule)
4. Short Cut Support
   • Be Calm Spray
   • All in One Vitamin
   • Phospholipid complex: PS/PE/PC gel cap + SAMe (IF tolerated) or soy-free PS + PC (Seriphos)
   • Vita Organ
   • Daily DHA + a few drops Methylation Support RNA (the latter is expensive and some controversy over efficacy).
   • TMG (?)
5. Lithium levels. Make sure lithium is in balance before adding B12. Get hair metal analysis and/or blood test for lithium, plus urine essential element test (UEE). If low, supplement with:
   • Be Calm Spray
   • All in One Vitamin
   • low dose lithium orotate
6. Long route support (once lithium is balanced):
   • Add B12 first. For COMT V158M +/- and VDR Taq +/+: All 3 types (HydroxyB12, AdenosylB12, MethylB12) with less MethylB12.
   • Folate. MethylMate B (or equivalent source of 5 Methyl THF, preferably liquid), start with 1 drop or 1 dilute drop.
   • MethylMate A (or equivalent source of low dose folinic acid, nucleotides, lactoferrin, bipoterin, phospholipids (perhaps soy-free PS + PC)). 1 capsule.
7. Extra supplements:
   • Vitamin D spray for VDR Taq
   • Seromood for MAO A R297R
   • AHCY/SHMT caps with meals for AHCYs
   • MethylMate A caps and MethylMate B drops and B12 for COMTs and MTRR A66G
   • VitaOrgan and ACAT/BHMT caps with meals for BHMTs
   • Black Bear Spray and low dose MTR/MTRR/SUOX caps and * CBS RNA for CBS A360A
     • *Because of CBS, taurine levels may rise once methylation is working. Get a urine amino acid test (UAA) to check taurine and use CBS RNA ONLY as needed to keep taurine in balance (below 50th percentile).

 

[minkeygirl]

I can't comment on much of that but I don't think you are supposed to start until you deal with your CBS mutations. My doc has me on molybdenum 100-300 mcg for 4 months to take care of them before we start anything else.

 

[EMilo]

@minkeygirl , FOUR months?! Does that mean you won't even get to folate and B12 for.. what? 6 months? A year?

 

[minkeygirl]

If you look at comments from others here who are more knowledgeable then I am, they all say you have to get the CBS mutations taken care of before you start methylation. That's the point I'm making.

If I have to wait 3 or 4 months to get it right then that's a small price to pay. And there are a lot of other things to try in the interim so it's not a big deal.

 

[EMilo]

@minkeygirl, do you know how to tell when you've adequately dealt with your CBS mutation? Are you trying other supplements during this 4-month period? Just curious, I'm still trying to work this all out.

 

[minkeygirl]

I am completely clueless on how to do the methylation, which is why I'm letting my doctor deal with it. I'm not sure how she will know when my CBS mutation is under control (for lack of a better word). It was originally going to be 3 months. Maybe some things I told her made her decide to go longer.

I am taking Methyl B infusion although I'm going to ask her about Hydroxy B out of curiosity. I do take other supplements but none specifically for methylation.

 

[EMilo]

Thank you, that's helpful.

 

[minkeygirl]

You're welcome. I have an appt. March 21. I'll let you know what happens (If I remember) LOL

 

[EMilo]

Ok, for CBS mutation, besides my above notes (low-animal protein/sulfur, Yucca, charcoal), here a see the other recommended things I found:

Multi-vitamin- low B6
Multi-minerals
Molybdenum
Boron
Vitamin E succinate (if not in multi)
Hydroxy B12
Gaba
Possibly- CoQ10, carnitine, ribose.

 

[minkeygirl]

She did not have me change my diet or take anything else for them. Just the molybdenum. It seems to me that all you'll spend your days doing is choking down pills. Just an observation.

 

[EMilo]

Very true! I decided to go with these three supplements from iherb. I'm not thrilled with the extra ingredients in the liquid molybdenum (alcohol, for example), but I like how low you can start with the liquid versus the capsules. Yasko's liquid molybdenum doesn't have alcohol, but does have benzoate, which I'm also trying to stay away from because of histamine issues. It's a toss up. What brand do you take, @minkeygirl ?

 

[minkeygirl]

I buy most of my new supplements from www.pureformulas.com.

Great prices, Free shipping, no tax, and free returns even if something is opened. Use TAKE10 and get 10% off. Can't beat it. Other perks too.

I'm using I think it's called Kirkland capsules 100 mcg. I never had a problem with them. I did not look to see what else was in them. I just wanted to get going on it.

But they carry Nutricology and most everything that iHerb does.

Minks

 

[EMilo]

Thank you, I am so happy to know this. Free returns is huge. I went with iherb this time because they had 2-day shipping and I want to get going. But I'm very happy you told me about the other.

 

[minkeygirl]

I'm in So Cal and sometimes get my stuff in 2 days. They use priority a lot.

Amazon is another good source if you know you can take something. Some things are the cheapest I've found.

Also with pureformulas you accrue points that translate to money off. They are my favorite these days.

 

[EMilo]

I actually just emailed iherb and asked them if I could cancel my order! I think I'd like to try that same molybdenum you're on.

 

[minkeygirl]

You cam cancel it yourself. Go to your account. Look for the order and you should be able to cancel unless it shipped.

@EMilo Don't order until tomorrow. I might have a promo code you can use that is better than 10% off. I'll look in the morning.

 

[minkeygirl]

Hi,

Ok I looked. I don't have any other promo codes besides the TAKE10 but I do have a referral code (who knew)
RFARCX. I'm not sure what happens with that, if you get an extra discount or what I might get.

I did just see I have about $20 from ordering which means I can get a huge discount off my next order. Nice!

Minks

 

[Patrick*]

Hi Elizabeth, sorry it has taken me so long to respond to this. I haven't checked in to PR in a while.

Basically, my entire experience so far with Yasko's program has been laid out on my blog under the "Nutragenomics" tab. While I have made definite and noticeable improvements since starting the protocol just about this time last year, I do have doubts about whether all of these supplements are really necessary and whether and to what extent they have contributed to my improvements.

I have little doubt that the "core" supplements are useful if you have genetic polymorphisms for methylation defects, i.e. B12, methylfolate, and some of the others that are also in Rich VanK's protocol. I also believe that PS Complex has been great for reducing brain fog.

But it's when you get into the other "peripheral supplements" (my term) that I'm less sure. I don't take any of the so-called RNA supplements, as those are incredibly expensive and (I think) completely ineffective.

This year I'm going to start slowly cutting down on some of the peripheral supplements and see if my improvements hold. I'm going to submit one or two more of Yasko's UAA or UEE urine test and compare to prior tests to see if taking the supplements that she recommended after the first set of results have really resulted in improvements in those same categories on retesting. I think this will go a long way toward sniffing out how much of her protocol is legit and how much is BS.

Honestly, I go back and forth between full commitment and major skepticism. It's been an expensive and time consuming experiment but I have improved so....

 

[Patrick*]

P.S. My philosophy was to take the long view. I think it took me 6 or 8 months before I had addressed CBS and implemented the shortcut. I just figured if I'm going to do this, I want to do it right he first time and not have any second guesses later.

 

[veronica_corningstone]

I treated my homozygous CBS 360 before doing any testing by taking 50-100mg molybdenum and a capsule of yucca. I thought it helped. When I did test two months later, sulfur was in a good range, but the hair test showed that it had been high in the previous months, ammonia was good, and taurine was a little high. I did a couple of drops of the CBS RNA for a few months, retested, and saw that taurine was down into the good range but ammonia was now low, so I stopped the yucca. Others have pointed out that there may be nothing to the CBS 360 snps. I found mine a little expressed, but very easy to handle.

You might want to get a little gaba, valerian, pycnogenol, and grapeseed extract in and on-hand, so you'll have more to go to during times of detox when glutamate rises. I am a chronic insomniac and any little change screws up my sleep, so these have been very handy for me, in addition to the other gaba/glutamate supports you listed.

The amount of Bs in the Ultimate B plus the All-in-one were too much for me (presuming B1, B2, or B3 based on Freddd's advice, but haven't experimented to figure it out) and pushed my potassium needs too much. I cut down to 1/2 Ultimate B and all was good.

Speaking of potassium, you'll want to have some of this on hand and be watching for low potassium symptoms.

You don't have carnitine specifically listed yet, although there is a blend of carnitine-tartrate, fumarate, and ALCAR in the CoQ10 spray, which is a nice way to start slowly with carnitine. I think most people on Yasko's program end up on some version of carnitine. If you do testing through her, she'll recommend it if she thinks it's appropriate.

For the shortcut, I was taking a little bit of TMG and Yasko recommended I drop it. But I have homozygous BHMT8, which is an upregulation...I do not take the methylation RNA.

I buy a lot of supplements from Yasko's site and have been happy with them.

Good luck!