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.
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:
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!!!
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:
- 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").
- Methylfolate*
- B12 (methylcobalamin)*, sublingual... for more than 1 gene
- B6 (P5P)*
- Vitamin C*
- Magnesium
- Baby aspirin (already on it for fertility, but need it life-long to mitigate risk for one mutation)
- Avoid caffeine (being a slow metabolizer is associated with higher miscarriage risk.. and shrinking boobs?!)
- Avoid alcohol* (until I feel balanced, as this depletes B vitamins)
- Avoid any food that is "enriched*"
- Emphasize HIIT and balanced building of muscle, less focus on long cardio
- Increase exercise in general (so hard to do when exhausted!)
- Increase meat consumption
- Increase vegetable (especially leafy greens*) consumption
- Reduce carbs overall, keep blood sugar stable throughout day
- 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
