23 and Me, MTHF*R!!

Haha, just kidding about the title.  MTHFR stands for methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase.

Disclaimer:  My research/paper was all on a newly discovered plant methylation gene (and epigenetics), so this is super interesting to me.


What is MTHFR?


To keep things highly simplified, this mutation means a reduced ability to methylate (add a carbon chunk to) B vitamins, most importantly to folic acid, to turn them into usable forms.  If you have it, you do much better if you take certain methylated/"active" forms of B vitamins... but you also have to avoid non-methylated forms so they don't block receptors.

• Stuff that generally has methylated/normal versions:  plants, meat, dairy

• Stuff that has non-methylated/synthetic versions of vitamins:  most multivitamins, and enriched products like cereals, bread, protein bars. 

My variant is A1298C... it is less studied, but the general consensus/research seems to be that it's related to cancers, fertility, cardiac issues, neurological problems, mood.

(Since an estimated 40-60% of the population have some variant, this is not rare.  Theoretically a lot of stress and aging starts to use up these B vitamins faster than your body can properly make them, so people tend to get symptoms later in life, if at all.)



A Little History


About 4 years ago, I found out there was a chance that I had an MTHFR mutation... but Kaiser won't test people for it even if they have some family history and symptoms.  After many early miscarriages, I was desperate enough to see what happened if I took the supplements for it.

The next morning after taking the vitamins, I was singing in the car on the way to work!!  I am NOT a singing-in-the-car-before-6am sort of person.  Energy and mood perked up significantly.  The next month, I got pregnant with Torin, it was practically a miracle.  Or... was this all just caused by leaving a high-stress situation?

In any case, now that I was pregnant, my RE told me to stop supplementing.  I didn't want to risk anything, so I cut down to just a prenatal with active forms.  I've been pregnant, nursing, or trying for kid #2 ever since then, so I never went back to the higher doses.  In fact, the prenatals were pretty expensive and 3 pills per day, so once I gave birth, I cut down to just 1 pill per day.  After all, I had no idea if I even really had the MTHFR mutation.  

Now that I know for sure that I do have MTHFR, it makes a ton of sense that the bigger doses of the active vitamins drastically improved my mood and energy.  It's time to test it out again, and see if it improves my fertility as well, since we are experiencing the same fertility issues as before.



The Plan!


In the last post, I mentioned going through alllllll that genetic data and devising a plan for the future.  I'll try it for a few months.  Anything with an asterisk is at least partially for MTHFR. 

Supplements:

1.  D3... that explains why a D deficiency keeps roaring back after treatment (doc has not wanted me to take higher doses long-term since it should "go away").
2.  Methylfolate*
3.  B12 (methylcobalamin)*, sublingual... for more than 1 gene
4.  B6 (P5P)*
5.  Vitamin C*
6.  Magnesium
7.  Baby aspirin (already on it for fertility, but need it life-long to mitigate risk for one mutation)

Lifestyle/Diet:

1.  Avoid caffeine (being a slow metabolizer is associated with higher miscarriage risk.. and shrinking boobs?!)
2.  Avoid alcohol* (until I feel balanced, as this depletes B vitamins) 
3.  Avoid any food that is "enriched*"
4.  Emphasize HIIT and balanced building of muscle, less focus on long cardio 
5.  Increase exercise in general (so hard to do when exhausted!)
6.  Increase meat consumption
7.  Increase vegetable (especially leafy greens*) consumption
8.  Reduce carbs overall, keep blood sugar stable throughout day
9.  Avoid high-sulfur foods... will tackle this one later, since the association is not strong, plus eggs and broccoli/cauliflower are extremely high on my "motivation to eat less bread" list.

In Summary, 


So... basically, just have a more paleo-ish diet and exercise more, and pump up the vitamins.  I always feel better that way, but maintaining the diet is so hard because PIZZA.  Sorry Boboli, but I need to find some un-enriched flour so that I can make my own dough.

Wait!!  The main take-away of today's post is that homemade pizza is still on the menu!!!

Today's post has been brought to you by:

Sitting On My Ass With A Sprained Ankle and Fantasizing About Pizza

23 and Me

The Good


23andMe kits were half off on Amazon Prime Day, so I grabbed 2 for my family.  I've been wanting to do it out of burning curiosity for a long time... after all, I'm a geneticist at heart (and education), and my only outlet for this in the last decade has been breeding dwarf shrimp!  It only took about 3 weeks for the results to come in, not 6 as expected.

All of the physical traits (eye color, hair color/curliness, finger/toe length, not being a deep sleeper, etc) ended up being true.  Well, except for weight, it says I am predisposed to weigh slightly less than average.  Heh heh.  Maybe I'll use that as extra motivation, after all, it's my destiny?

The ancestry results were pretty cool... there were a few surprises, and the ratios were different than I was expecting.  The biggest surprise was being mostly Irish, because after some talks with older family I'd been expecting German and Scandinavian to dominate.  Thinking back, I DID tell my husband on our honeymoon in Ireland that it felt like coming home!   ;)



The Weird


There were some really amusing/interesting mutations in that report, once I plugged it into Promethease.  A lot of stuff that I had no idea had been researched.

Here are a few!

1.  Mosquito bite reaction is the biggest.
2.  If I had HIV, I'd only have 60% of the normal viral load.  This is my least-used superpower.
3.  Highest amount of fast-twitch muscle fibers, so sprinting could be my cup of tea.  HAHA.
4.  My intra-cranial space is supposed to give me an extra 2tsp of brain.
5.  I need to wear deodorant because of the oil I produce.  (let's be honest, this was obvious)
6.  Several genes for bigger boobies.  Thanks, mom! 
7.  I have more Neanderthal genes than 87% of 23andMe customers, and one of these genes is for less back hair.  This may be my proudest moment. 

Woohoo!

The Vague


Most of the mutations are something negative like "1.2 times the risk of X" or positive like "0.8 times the risk of Y."  When the original risk for the general population is 10% or lower, that doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot.  There can be a cumulative affect though, so there's some stuff I'm going to pay attention to, and a lot of stuff I'm going to be grateful for.  And it's good motivation to live a healthier lifestyle! 

I'm not going to list the ones that give me greater/lower risks, since it falls into the category of too much medical info, not really something that one should put on a public blog. 



The Ugly Beautiful


So what to do with all this info?  

I'm currently going through all those SNPs in the 23andMe test and devising a regimen to try for a few months, something that mitigates some risk as I age and takes care of the obvious vitamin deficiencies. 

I already knew about some of the vitamin deficiencies because of blood tests, but I had thought they were short-lived and have only been half-heartedly/temporarily supplementing (out of a fear of over-supplementing whilst trying to be fertile), and then getting annoyed that they're not fixed. 

There will certainly be another post about the plan later!  You guys know how much I love plans. 

Trying out a Leesa mattress

Our "W" mattress is over a decade old, and while the first few years were fantastic, the last few years have been noticeably less comfortable.  Not super uncomfortable, really, but I haven't gotten a seriously satisfying night's sleep in 2 years despite the toddler's nighttime habits being pretty good... maybe it's partially a bed issue?  In any case, it was time for an upgrade!

We decided to try out a memory foam "bed in a box"... my husband did the research on different brands, and chose Leesa for the firmness level (compared to other brands) and excellent 100-day return policy. 

It took me 20 minutes to get the old mattress out and the new one in by myself whilst wrangling a toddler... much easier than I was expecting.  It's about 100lbs.

Squished flat, before removing the plastic.

It says it's good in an hour and great in a day... but I tested it out immediately after unwrapping the plastic and it's already more comfy than the old mattress!  Hooray!

Now it just needs to air out for a day or so... the fumes are pretty strong for someone with a sensitive nose, but that's why the plan is to spend the night tent-camping outside.  I wanted to have Torin test out the tent at home before we go camping with it soon anyway.  :)

Stand in the Corner

It's done!  It's in the house!

It took...

• 3 hours of sanding (way too much, to compensate for bad belt-sanding technique)
• 2 layers (3 in some spots) of white paint inside
• 4 experiments to find the best staining method for super thirsty wood when it was 90+ degrees
• 1 layer of wood conditioner outside
• 1 layer of walnut-colored stain outside
• 3 layers of polyacrylic outside
• 2 layers of polyacrylic inside
• 3 full WEEKS of wrestling with toddler for time to do a project*

The intended turtle corner.

Now what?

This is the wall where we were planning to put the aquarium, but now I'm not so sure it goes well there.  The problem is that it's going to need to be a few inches away from the wall, but then walking by the right side, the gap will be super visible.  I'll have to move some furniture around to see what looks best, but it's definitely staying on the tiled areas as an extra precaution against water damage.

Once we decide the final placement and put the tank on top, it's time to fill 'er up and see if she's still water-tight!  But that probably won't be able to happen until sunday.

Oh yeah, I still have to do the doors.  Maybe I can do that project while I wait for sunday.  


*Note:  These 3 weeks also included the deep-cleanings of the sump and tank.  They'd been used in saltwater, so they were encrusted with calcium deposits and coralline algae. 

Painted and Stained

I found the secret to staining ultra-thirsty wood... pre-stain conditioner.  It made ALL the difference.  Thank you internet, for solving my problem.

Yesterday I did another 2 layers of white ceiling paint on the inside, applied the conditioner, then stained the outside and touched up a few spots.  The stain is a little messier than it should have been, because for parts of it I was literally wiping the stain as fast as possible before it dried, while holding a toddler back with my bare foot.  Pretty sure it would have made for a great "funniest home videos" clip.  I managed to finish it without any cursing, mostly. 

Anyway, in the light of the next day, I'm happy enough with the results.  Am I actually letting go of perfectionism with this project??  YES.  It's my first wood refinishing project, plus every time I look at the imperfections I'll be reminded of a certain rambunctious 2.75-year-old.

I'm also loving the creamy white on the inside.  It's our leftover ceiling paint from (8 years ago??) when we moved in, so there were some chunks in it, but it was free!  Aquarium enthusiasts online were fans of a matte white interior, because it reflects and amplifies the sump's light.  I'll have a sump in there, just for breeding shrimp, but they and their plants will have a light.

Really amplifies the light!

Today's goal is to get about 3 layers of waterproofing onto the thing.  If I can get it finished by tonight, then my husband will still be around in the morning to help me move the stand and tank inside.  If not, then I will have to wait a whole week.

A half pint lasted me one layer on the outside and half a layer on the inside.  The wood was still quite thirsty even after the pre-stain and stain!  After seeing the results on the inside, I'm not entirely sure that it is meant to be used over ceiling paint.  And it tore up my sponge brush, and made tons of bubbles... I have no idea why the internet would say that a sponge brush is the best for smoothing out bubbles, it sucks!!  Eh, I'll just add it to the long list of mistakes I have made on the project so far.  Off to the hardware store again...

Sanding the Stand

Today's biggest accomplishment (besides not losing my mind with a potty-training toddler who peed 5 times on the floor for attention while I was cooking dinner) was finishing the sanding of the 75-gallon aquarium stand!

I did not take a real "before" photo... this is just from the night that my friend and I dropped it off in the back yard.   

Rest assured, the finish was awful on the front, it had to be removed.  Pardon the leftover landscaping trash.

A week ago when I started, I was not aware of the cardinal sin that is using a belt-sander across the wood grain.  Oops!  I probably spent 3 hours total using a combination of the belt sander, an orbital sander, and hand-sanding to get this thing naked and try to hide my belt-sander mistakes.

Progress... against the grain!  I remembered to toss in one of the doors for a color comparison... the door had only been very lightly sanded at this point, but you can see how the finish was peeling off.

 

But hey, now it looks pretty nice!  It'll have a bit of a "distressed" look to it, especially in the belt-sander gouges, but hopefully not too bad.

Oh wait, I still have to do the doors. 

I tested the stain on a part of the stand that won't be seen, and... did a catastrophically horrible job.  How do you "wipe away the excess stain" when there is no excess because the wood instantly soaked it all up?  I'll have to try again in the morning.  Stay tuned! 

An Aquarium Adventure

Something big happened, and it's shaking up all the aquarium plans!

A friend from my toddler playdate group knew that I was looking for something different for the turtle... maybe a small pond outside (but how to protect from raccoons?), or at least a stand to move his 55-gallon home off of the counter where it's been for a year.

She ended up finding me a 75-gallon reef-ready (has a megaflow overflow) tank and stand on craigslist for just $50!  AND she came all the way over to my town with her giant van to help me load it up and bring it home!!  She's seriously amazing.  I also purchased the guy's aqueon proflex sump model 4 for another $50.  It was all pretty dirty and encrusted with calcium and coralline algae from having been used as a saltwater system.

The sump is cleaned... except for the insides of those 2 impossible-to-reach tubes!

For comparison, the tank new would be about $300, and the new stand $350, and the sump $300-$550 (why??), plus piping for the sump's overflow/return.  So theoretically I paid $100 for $1000 worth of stuff, in exchange for being willing to re-silicone the tank, refinish the stand (it has no water damage though), and tolerate one scratch on the front glass.  I didn't know it at the time, but when I got home and researched the sump, it had been modified and was missing 2 parts.  Still happy with the deal!

So, I'm exchanging time and effort for a cheap tank and stand.  This was 2 weeks ago... obviously the problem here is finding time.  Potty training the toddler right now doesn't help much with free time, and then I also want to do everything involving fumes/dust while he's not around to breathe it in.  So far I've only managed to deep-clean the tank and sump, use the belt sander and orbital sander on the stand, and fantasize about which creatures are going where. 

Thank goodness that the tank and sump are still watertight... though the silicone looks a bit rough at the edges in some parts, it is still very much intact on the inside. 

I'm going to try to update the blog a little bit every day until the project is complete!

The Last Coffee, and the Last Braces

Tonight I put on my last set of invisalign-style braces!

It means wearing them for 2 months straight while I wait for the retainers to come in (they are basically the same thing), and then wearing retainers full-time for a year.  The catch is that when I drink coffee, it somehow sticks around and stains the top tray after about a week, and by week 2 it is definitely noticeable... by week 8 or 30 or 50 it would be disgusting.  And so, I must give up coffee.

The last coffee.  Of course, Torin had to add his special touch.  I had to reheat this cup 4 times and still finished it cold because toddler.

I am so very ready to be done with the "moving" part of braces. 

I'm done with wiggly teeth... considering that loose/missing top front teeth are my biggest paranoia, this has been a trying time!  Wiggly teeth are not calming, fun, or sexy.  Hahaha, I feel like that sums up my last year. 


There's still a year of wearing the aligners.

Wearing braces means having to hold my lips pinched closed strangely (I look snooty and bitchy) and talking with a light lisp and not being able to smile properly, it just makes the social anxiety worse.  I'm really looking forward to eating when I'm hungry instead of waiting until I'm starving and then overeating because I know it's another 6 hours until I take the braces off again.  OMGs it's going to be so awesome to be free of it eventually.



It's been worth it though. 

I have been getting almost no headaches, which I think is partially because I don't have to hold my jaw back a little strangely to get the teeth to fit together.  My teeth are so straight again! 

I gave up coffee for 4 years once (and caffeine for about 5.5-6 years?)... the absence definitely made my heart grow fonder.  I can only imagine that at the end of the year, I will go on a crazy coffee binge.  Put it in your calendars, and avoid me around the summer solstice of 2018!

In the meantime, there's always tea.  

An Average Night

Ever since my Fitbit started tracking sleep stages a little over 3 weeks ago, I've been noticing a MAJOR trend.

The Trends

This is the amount in each stage (Light is stages 1 & 2, Deep is 3&4) for last night, and when compared to my 30-day average, it is spot on!

For comparison, this is where the "benchmarks" are, where women my age experience their sleep state averages.

Light Sleep

I'm always at the top of the range for light sleep.  I would say that half of the time spent in light sleep I actually experience as awake, because I'm calmly laying there but I am fully aware of and remember all the sounds and random itches and joint soreness, and I'm turning/itching/stretching frequently in an attempt to get comfy.


Deep Sleep

I could use some serious improvements here.

If I'm getting half of what "they" say is the minimum for feeling rested the next day, and there is no other medical cause, maybe this is why I am so freaking exhausted.  1.6 hours is theoretically the minimum, and over the last month I have never exceeded 56 minutes (including when I had 8 hours of sleep in a night, which hadn't happened since November!!).

When scouring the internet for how to specifically improve deep sleep stages, a few things really popped out:

1. You get more deep sleep from 11pm-3am, and more REM from 3am-7am, no matter what your usual schedule looks like.  I typically can't fall asleep before 2am, and always feel like my best sleep is after 5 or 6am.
2. Medications/alcohol taken at bedtime can disrupt deep sleep.  I'm good with alcohol, but I do take all my allergy/asthma meds directly at bedtime to attempt to sleep through the buzzy brainfog they give me.  Maybe the buzzy part is hurting sleep!
3. Pain at night.  My hips and knots hurt significantly more at night.

The Plan of Attack

All right, so there are some obvious things I can attempt to improve.

1. Better sleep schedule.  If I'm more consistent with Torin's bedtime, and cut out my only hour of alone/husband time in the day, I could get into bed by 11 instead of midnight.  This would be improved as I fully train Torin to go to sleep by himself... but he just transitioned to a big-boy bed a week ago and I won't mess with what's working for another week or two. 
2. Switch up the medication schedule.  I'll try taking them at dinner instead of bedtime... but if there's no improvement, I'll switch to lunch or breakfast.  I'm already taking the bare minimum.
3. A better strengthening/stretching regimen.  Recovery after exercise has been taking me out of commission, because hypermobility sucks.  I think I need to swallow my pride and open up my yoga/pilates videos for pregnant ladies, since those ones are made for people with loose joints who are prone to injury.  And I definitely need to foam roll more.  I could also lose another 30lbs... still working on that one.

This post is mostly for my own records, my official sleep baseline before I start fiddling with it.  I'll let you know if anything works!

Life, uh, finds a way.

The entire west side of the property is under construction and the plants left behind (I did save a bunch) are not expected to survive.

This freesia has other ideas!

A bloom amidst the rubble.

We tried to get started on the project of changing the rotting retaining wall out ourselves, but eventually admitted that with Ryan's job schedule keeping him away plus my full-time toddler wrangling, we just weren't going to be able to tackle the project before summer.  Or even next summer.  Unfortunately the wall was falling down in too many places, and it had become a danger to toddlers. 

So we hired a landscaper!  

The company is in the process of...
- tearing down the wood retaining wall
- replacing retaining wall with large stone bricks
- paving the northwest corner
- adding LED lighting along the wall and paved area
- topping the retaining wall along the paved area to make a bench (this has been extended along the pool side too!)
- putting in a drip system
- redoing the retaining wall in the front yard, and giving us extra planting space
- putting a fence around the tangled mass of pool equipment
- digging out the area next to the west side of the house and putting in decomposed granite, leaving only the wine grape vines behind

It's going to be up to us to...
- sell the trailer (we decided that the extra backyard space is more important for this life stage)
- replant along the whole length of the west fence, front and back
- purchase a gas fire pit, for the paved area
- find outdoor furniture for the paved area
- find a decorative planter for the spot next to the pool equipment
- train the grape vines back up the side of the house again... we love the look, but tried to get them to grow on a trellis instead (to keep moisture away from the house) and it didn't work!  Instead, we will tear them down every 3 years to repaint the side of the house, as the previous owners did. 

Whew!  So much to do.  So much transformation.  So many backyard safety features.  So long, tax return. 

I can't wait to use the area this summer!

Green "Thumb"

It must be spring!

I have no idea where that oak leaf on the porch came from...

What better way to get back to blogging than to share the joy of discovering that my new nail polish perfectly matches the green growth of spring in sunlight?  I was just trying to find a color* that matched a skirt for a special event.

Bear with the paint job, it's been 5 or 6 years since I did anything besides buff my nails.  I don't even have nail polish remover in the house!


Where have I been?!

It's been a long time since I posted here.  I've just been drained for the past year.  Let's break it down.

• Lost the last 4 grandparents, so it feels like the Grim Reaper just swung his scythe and felled an entire generation at once... I feel older now.  It still doesn't seem quite real.  I'm glad Torin got to meet them all, but it's an especially weird punch to the gut that he won't grow up knowing my grandpa the outdoorsman.  I'm going to be the one teaching Torin to fish and find edible plants instead, but my knowledge is not nearly as vast and hands-on as grandpa's... I suppose that's the natural progression of things. 
• Torin and I were both alternately sick with colds/etc for 3 months straight, and it made me super aware of how hard and draining it is to single-mom it half the week.  I'm hyper-aware of it now, and have probably been needlessly bitchy... I'm a major introvert, and extracting time for myself has been like squeezing water from a stone. 
• Toddlerhood has been unbelievably awesome and time/energy-consuming, and I love watching Torin become his own person, but I'm also feeling a sense of loss because we're nearly finished weaning (for fertility reasons) even though we both really don't want to wean.  But if he wants a sibling, it's gotta happen soon.
• Braces have been an unending pain in the jaw, that affects everything from socializing (I still talk/smile weird and it makes me self-conscious) to eating (I get so little braces-free time that I stuff my face to keep from feeling like I'm starving) to romance (mouth pain and wiggly teeth are NOT sexy).  It should have been over by last month, but one tooth didn't move, and after a few months of telling the dentist that it wasn't moving and that it was very painful to wear braces that didn't fit, they finally admitted it didn't work.  So I'm basically starting almost from scratch with a new set.  I've already paid for the braces through them (and these revisions are "free," only paid for with time and frustration), so I can't leave this dentist... but will as soon as I can. 
• Self-improvement and house stuff and personal/craft projects have been totally abandoned in the meantime, and I've been feeling pretty unhealthy and uninspired. 

New stuff is around the corner!

But I want to share a TON of fun and inspiring stuff that's on the brink of happening... it's time for planting, the back yard is currently under some much-needed professional construction, the sun is coming out after the wettest winter I can remember... and yesterday was the last risk of frost in the garden!!  My plan for this season is to have much simpler, shorter posts, always with a photo, not worrying about having "quality" posts... lower expectations for myself, basically.

Perfection is the enemy of progress, right?


*Sally Hansen #369 Green Thumb