• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

everywomanover29

Food, Mood and Women's Health – Be your healthiest, look and feel great!

  • Blog
  • About
  • Services
  • Store
  • Resources
  • Testimonials
  • Media
  • The Book
  • Contact

Ben Lynch

Dr. Mark Hyman’s Broken Brain 2: mold toxicity, the heart-brain connection, genetics, inspiration and more

April 1, 2019 By Trudy Scott 6 Comments

Dr. Mark Hyman has done it again with a powerful all-new online docuseries called Broken Brain 2: The Body-Mind Connection as a follow-up to his very popular earlier online docuseries. Some of the big topics that are covered mycotoxins and mold toxicity, the heart-brain connection, the role of genetics and your environment and of course diet and lifestyle.

In the first episode, Dr. Hyman shares his own and very recent personal story with mold toxicity,  how it damaged his brain and how he recovered:

My mold toxicity started off as a cough I just couldn’t kick. After seeing several doctors (something even a doctor has to do sometimes!) I was advised that it could be mold. My house was the prime suspect and my hunch was right, and so began the process of healing my body and gutting my home. I was at one point so sick I couldn’t get out of bed; my mind and body felt like they were failing me and I was desperate to feel like myself again.

In a later episode, Dr. Hyman also shares how the connection between the heart and brain is a great example of the body’s interconnectedness at work:

People often think the brain is the one sending signals to the heart, instructing it to pump blood throughout the body. But there is much more to the story. The heart actually sends MORE signals to the brain than the other way around. The rhythm of the heart is extremely influential—it can signal a state of calm or one of stress, which the nervous system and brain register and share with the rest of the body.

That means your emotional and physical experiences all tie back to the rhythm of the heart. When we’re in a chronic state of stress, that disordered heart rate becomes our norm, and the amygdala gets familiar with it; the brain actually gets comfortable with it and sees it as our baseline.

For this reason, heart rate variability, or HRV, can be used as a dynamic tool to reset our heart-brain connection. We want to strive for a state of coherence—a smooth wave pattern in heart rate variability over time. This coherence is a reflection of a balance between the parasympathetic or relaxation nervous system and our sympathetic nervous system, which is the fight or flight system.

Coherence is the natural state of feeling good and it sends the most beneficial signals to the brain; it actually means we are able to send more information through the vagus nerve to the brain and when we’re in this state frequently it sets a new baseline, one that keeps the body relaxed, enhances cognition, and keeps our physiology balanced.

The powerful evidence behind the heart-brain connection has given birth to a concept called HeartMath, a methodology that assesses HRV and encourages self-regulation practices to promote heart-brain coherence for optimal health.

Dr Hyman and the experts will be doing a deep dive into HeartMath and the importance of the heart-brain connection in Broken Brain 2: The Body-Mind Connection. 

Here are some gems and inspiration from a few of the 70 health experts you can expect to learn from in the docuseries.

Dr. Chris Kresser on mitochondrial dysfunction and chronic disease….

Dr. Ben Lynch on our genes and the environment …

And some inspiration from Dr. Ann Shippy during her discussion on mold toxicity and brain health …

I am privileged and honored to have a very small cameo section in the docuseries!

Here is some of my advice to find something you love to do and have fun…

And my closing words of wisdom about hope and finding your unique root cause …

» Click here to Reserve your SPOT to see Broken Brain 2

In Broken Brain 2, you’ll hear from me and leading health experts AND hear inspiring stories from recovering patients. You’ll discover:

  • Unique ways to protect your brain from the multitude of toxins inside your home…
  • The odd way in which your heart rhythm can shape your brain function…
  • Easy methods to heal yourself from destructive beliefs and traumas that impact your mind and body…
  • How to use your personal genetics to improve your brain and overall health…
  • The little-known link between your brain health and your eyes, teeth, and gums…
  • A simple morning routine for more success and better brain health…
  • And much, much more…

In Broken Brain 2, you’ll learn all about the functional medicine approaches available for overcoming a variety of toxic environmental exposures, including mold, as well as how to heal from toxic beliefs, support the heart-brain connection, understand immunity in the brain, and so much more.

Over the course of 8 full-length episodes, you’ll learn cutting-edge strategies to help you heal your own mind, brain, and body. Here are all 8 episodes and when they will air:

  1. April 3: Dr. Hyman’s Story: The Power of the Body-Mind Connection
  2. April 4: Protecting Your Brain from a Toxic World
  3. April 5: Rising Above and Healing from Toxic Beliefs and Trauma
  4. April 6: The Secrets Behind the Heart-Brain Connection
  5. April 7: Cooling the Fire Within: The Immune-Brain Connection
  6. April 8: How to Personalize Your Diet and Understand Your Genetics
  7. April 9: Optimizing Your Brain Health and Innovative Therapies
  8. April 10: The Step-by-Step Brain Reset

» Click here to register for Broken Brain 2

This was truly a “labor of love” for Dr. Hyman and all of us participants and we hope you’ll join.

Please help us spread the word by sharing this with your friends and loved ones who may benefit from this information.

Let us know if you can relate to any of this and feel free to post your questions here.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Ben Lynch, Broken Brain 2, Dr. Ann Shippy, Dr. Mark Hyman, functional medicine, genes, heart, Heartmath, mold toxicity

EMFs and how to help your electrosensitive clients/patients

February 28, 2018 By Trudy Scott 26 Comments

Our exposure to “Electrosmog” from cell phones, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, smart meters and cell phone towers is increasing steadily and we can’t deny it anymore — electromagnetic fields (EMFs) — are making people sick. EMF exposure is now thought to be just as important as exposure to pesticides, mold, heavy metals or any other kind of environmental toxin:

  • Magda Havas from Trent University: up to 33% of the population has “mild to moderate symptoms” of electro sensitivity
  • Dietrich Klinghardt, health pioneer and Medical Director at the Sophia Health Institute: “patients suffering from chronic illness will likely never heal unless you reduce their exposure to Electrosmog.”

This paper published in 2016, Microwave frequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) produce widespread neuropsychiatric effects including depression reports that

the mechanism of action of microwave EMFs, the role of the VGCCs [voltage-gated calcium channels] in the brain, the impact of non-thermal EMFs on the brain, extensive epidemiological studies performed over the past 50 years, and five criteria testing for causality, all collectively show that various non-thermal microwave EMF exposures produce diverse neuropsychiatric effects.

Among the more commonly reported changes are sleep disturbance/insomnia, headache, depression/depressive symptoms, fatigue/tiredness, dysesthesia, concentration/attention dysfunction, memory changes, dizziness, irritability, loss of appetite/body weight, restlessness/anxiety, nausea, skin burning/tingling/dermographism and EEG changes.

My friend and investigative health journalist Nicolas Pineault is the author of “The Non-Tinfoil Guide to EMFs” (my Amazon link) and an expert on EMFs. He is the creator of  Electrosmog Rx, an EMF Course for Health Practitioners, now available as an evergreen version.

In February I announced the live version and I know a number of you jumped right in and did the training with me! What an amazing course it was!

Here is my official testimonial:

This is the most intellectually-stimulating course I’ve done in a long time! Nick’s expertise is exceptional, the research expansive (and quite mind-blowing!), the practical solutions excellent and the Facebook community invaluable!  The knowledge I’ve gained is going to be a game-changer for every single one of my clients. I HIGHLY recommend this course!

I was limited by word count and could have shared much more! Nick invited me to be part of the beta group and I actually said this to him: “I’ve read your book and it’s brilliant – I’m not sure I really need to do a course too” Boy was I wrong!

This training focuses on the clinical side of EMFs as an environmental factor contributing to ill health (including widespread neuropsychiatric effects) and includes critical information on what to ask your patients/clients to assess if they’re being over-exposed, how EMFs could disrupt the protocols you’re giving them, how to help them mitigate the effects of EMFs and how to make them more resilient to the effects.

If you want to learn latest evidence-based, cutting-edge, credible information on how Electrosmog exposure affects your patients/clients, how to prevent EMF-related symptoms and illness, and how to support those clients/patients who have symptoms, then I recommend this course.

The course includes all replays (audio, video, transcripts) of each of the 5 webinars, the 5 bonus interviews, access to the private members-only Facebook group packed with cutting-edge discussions, and several bonus cheat sheets that have been added based on group feedback.

EMF Basics

  • The EMF spectrum
  • 4 types of EMFs linked with ill health
  • Common sources of EMFs your patients/clients are probably exposed to
  • Are there “safe” levels of EMFs?

EMF Science

  • How EMFs affect every cell in the body
  • The NO/ONOO- cycle
  • Synergies between EMFs, inflammation, environmental toxins and excessive NMDA activity
  • Review of the strongest evidence available

EMF Symptomatology

  • What to ask your patients/clients to assess their exposure
  • Common EMF-related symptoms
  • What to look for on labs
  • How to properly diagnose electro hypersensitivity (EHS)

EMF Mitigation

  • Evidence-based ways to reduce exposure in and out the home
  • Using EMF-blocking clothes
  • The lowdown on grounding

EMF Resilience

  • Diet interventions and supplements which support the NRF2 pathway
  • Supplements to heal electrosensitivity

He has also interviewed and collaborated with some of the best minds in healing including Dr. Klinghardt, Dr. Joseph Mercola, Dr. Ben Lynch and many more and the course offers these interviews as a bonus. Here is what I learned from his interview with Dr. Klinghart:

After applying a few evidence-based solutions to reduce exposure to this new environmental toxin, Klinghardt sees patients with chronic diseases such as Lyme, ALS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, MS, autism and fibromyalgia heal faster — making every single supplement or protocol he sends their way more effective.

We also learned about EMF mitigation efforts for autism/ASD and autoimmune disease:

  • a simple and yet effective approach recommended by Dr. Toril Jelter and Cindy Sage: no baby monitors, no cordless phones, no Wi-Fi and switch off the bedroom circuit breaker at night. They report that over 80% of children with autism/ASD saw noticeable improvement in as little as two weeks.
  • One of the most compelling studies I learned about is the study by Trevor Marshall, MD and Trudy Heil, RN: Electrosmog and autoimmune disease. In this study, 90% of the participants – all with an autoimmune diagnosis of either arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, sjogrens or celiac disease – reported improved symptoms as a result of wearing silver-threaded EMF protective caps.

And based on what I learned in the course, I’m speculating (and extrapolating from some of the research) that EMF overload may play a role in chronic anxiety, insomnia, benzodiazepine issues, SIBO, high cortisol and dietary oxalate issues in some susceptible individuals. I blog in great detail about this here: Wi-Fi is an important threat to human health

 

You can watch his Mindshare presentation here:

 

Nick shares this wisdom

If you’ve never seen a patient or client whose health is being affected by EMFs, it’s very likely that you’ve missed it.

Here is some of the wisdom you can expect to learn in the course:

  • EMFs reduce the number of cells in the hippocampus
  • EMFs increase cortisol levels
  • EMFs affect the production of GABA
  • EMFs can increase blood pressure
  • EMFs increase markers of inflammation (TGF-Beta 1, MMP-9 and copper), disrupting hormone and neurotransmitter production

UPDATE March 1, 2018 – You can learn more and get on the waiting list for Electrosmog RX here. (the 100 seats sold out in 3 days and he’s opening up another 100 seats in the next few days)

UPDATE March 7, 2018 –  Another 200 seats have been added today and are now available for purchase. He is limiting the number so he can address all questions from participants. If you signed up prior to today you should have seen an email from Nick about this.  You can also use this link to purchase: Electrosmog RX 

UPDATE April 30, 2018: Updates to the blog with additional research and information for the launch of the evergreen digital version of the Electrosmog Rx program created by investigative health journalist Nicolas Pineault.

Feel free to post questions in the comments.

Filed Under: EMFs, Events Tagged With: Ben Lynch, dietrich klinghardt, electrosmog, EMF, joseph mercola, nicolas pineault

GI MAP stool testing: DNA and antibiotic resistance genes

January 21, 2018 By Trudy Scott 3 Comments

Dr. Ben Lynch interviews Dr. David Brady’s on the Dirty Genes Summit (Jan 22 through Jan 29) and they cover stool testing and antibiotic resistance genes.

The section on antibiotic resistance genes is part of the discussion about the stool testing that Dr. Brady recommends: the GI Map test by Diagnostic Solutions Lab, a PCR/DNA test he helped to develop.

Before they get to the antibiotic resistance genes discussion, Dr. Brady shares more about this 2-year old test and why he has found it superior to other stool testing, sharing that it’s more comprehensive than what the gastroenterologist would do, plus the fact that other functional stool tests rely on culture technologies which has the limitation that you can only test bugs that you can grow. He shares that:

More than 95% of bugs in the gut can’t be grown on a petri dish. They are anaerobes or they are very difficult to culture.

He also discusses the process of testing for sensitivities to herbs (in some of the other stool tests) i.e. what herb will kill what bug, sharing that this is a flawed method:

While dropping specific prescriptive antibiotics on a culture has been methodically worked out to correlate with a certain dose of that antibiotic orally, it’s never been done for herbs and volatile oils.

Dr. Brady does discuss one other major advantage of the GI MAP test:

We look for antibiotic resistance genes, both phenotype and genotype of the microbiotia and looking through the genetic signatures of antibiotic resistance. So if you’re going to use a prescriptive antibiotic, we can tell you if the microbiotia of the patient harbors the genes for resistance to sulfonamide or fluoroquinolones or some others.

I see great value in this beyond finding a solution for addressing the pathogens. This is because we know antibiotics have side-effects and some like the fluroquinolones can actually cause anxiety, depression, insomnia, panic attacks, clouded thinking, depersonalization, suicidal thoughts, psychosis, nightmares, and impaired memory. We cover this in detail in the Anxiety Summit interview with Lisa Bloomquist, fluoroquinolone toxicity patient advocate: Antibiotic Induced Anxiety – How Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics Induce Psychiatric Illness Symptoms

When it comes to genetics work and testing, dr. Brady endorses Dr. Peter D’Adamo, Opus23 and Dr. Ben Lynch, recognizing the importance of science and looking at the clinical presentation of the patient rather than individual SNPs.  I would have loved hearing some examples of what he means by this.  

All in all, this is a fascinating interview and well worth listening to!

Register for the Dirty Genes Summit here – to hear this entire interview and learn from Dr. Ben Lynch and the other experts he interviews.

Hope you can join in!

Please post questions and comments below.

Filed Under: Events, Gene polymorphisms, Testing Tagged With: antibiotic resistance genes, anxiety, Ben Lynch, David Brady, depression, Dirty Genes, fluroquinolones, GI MAP

Histamine issues: IBS, fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, depression, migraines

January 11, 2018 By Trudy Scott 10 Comments

Dr. Ben Lynch is hosting the Dirty Genes Summit Jan 22-39 and he shares this about you and your genes:

You are not a victim of circumstance… born with bad genes, destined to die of whatever your family tree has genetically bequeathed you.

The way your genes express is unique – and it can change throughout your life. 

Knowing how to create that change is vitally important and you’ll see how clear this is in his wonderful histamine interview with Yasmina Ykelenstam of Healing Histamine.

I love the bucket analogy where Yasmina shares about histamine and inflammation:

Imagine the body as a giant bucket and there is only so much inflammation you can put into it before our inflammation causing behaviors that you can fill it up with before you spill over symptoms. So let’s say you fill it with a few high histamine foods; then you feel it up with stress; then you fill it up to being exposed to animal hair (dander); then pollen season starts; and woah, we’re right, right, right at the top; and then we eat an apple which is not high histamine, it doesn’t cause inflammation, in fact, it’s anti-inflammatory; and suddenly we spill over because the active digestion itself is an inflammatory process.

We blame the poor little apple and not the hamburger we ate the week ago that started the inflammation bucket filling up. We don’t blame the puppy because we love the doggy so much. We certainly don’t blame our stress because we don’t want to take too hard a look at our lives and how difficult it would be for us to make changes, steps to take real steps to handle our stress and to start meditating or to remove stressful processes from our life because that’s just too much for us to handle

She shares how you can combat some of this by adding foods with

anti-properties: anti-histamine and anti-inflammatory properties…I just stopped eating the wrong high histamine foods, the processed ones, the sugary ones, the ones that added nothing to my life beyond the two seconds in my mouth.

Dr. Lynch asks Yasmina to list symptoms she experienced in this midst of her histamine issues (many of which are commonly seen in individuals with histamine issues)

IBS, which is mostly loose stools or being totally bound up so you can’t go to the bathroom for 8 days and they tend to go back and forth… severe swelling of the stomach – what I call basketball stomach… At my worse, it was projectile vomiting and constant nausea, and constant until it went away… chronic migraines. I once had migraines every day for six months before they went away. Common symptoms include dizziness, brain fog, low blood pressure, feeling dizzy when you stand up… really, inability to think straight is a really, really big one. It’s kind of like somebody almost puts a wet blanket over your brain. It tends to happen after you eat.

She also shares how fatigue after eating is often an issue. And how intolerance to alcohol is a factor, specifically red wine:

Most people do better with tequila, vodka, rum and gin, although alcohol paralyzes the thiamine oxidase, histamine degrading enzyme.

There is also a mental health impact from histamine issues – histamine is a neurotransmitter – and Yasmina shares how this may impact you:

…it affects dopamine, GABA, serotonin, and it can make us depressed. It can also make us manic as I discovered in my teens. It can mimic the symptoms of bipolar disorder and also schizophrenia. There’s been a few interesting studies where certain types of antihistamines that are not available on the market were able to reverse schizophrenia symptoms better than antipsychotic medications.

Anxiety is also a very, very big histamine symptom and whenever I see somebody who has a histamine problem, they do tend to be quite stressed out and kind of the chicken or the egg, which came first. But definitely histamine causes more stress and anxiety and that again is in the medical research.

This statement about symptoms rotating was new to me and may be new to you too:

It has to be consistent and then it goes away and then it comes back again. That’s what’s really confusing about histamine because: 1. It mimics many disorders, and 2. The symptoms rotate

All in all, this is a fascinating interview and well worth listening to!

Join the summit and you will learn that your genes can be turned off or on and this event will teach:

  • How Do Your Genes Impact You?
  • How to Clean Your Genes With Food
  • About Your Genes and Your Mental Health
  • How to Alter Your Genetic Expression
  • The Building Blocks of Healthy Families (and generations!)
  • An Understanding of How Your Genes Work
  • Genetic Testing and How to Clean Up Your Genes for the Long Term

Register for the Dirty Genes Summit here – to hear this entire interview and learn from Dr. Ben Lynch and the other experts he interviews.

Hope you can join!

Filed Under: Anxiety, Events, Histamine Tagged With: anxiety, Ben Lynch, dirty genes summit, histamine, IBS, Yasmina Ykelenstam

Methylation and anxiety: histadelia and histapenia

May 13, 2015 By Trudy Scott 61 Comments

carl pfeiffer nutrition and mental illness

In preparing for the Anxiety Summit I put out a call for questions for my methylfolate interview with Dr. Ben Lynch: How Methylfolate can make you Feel Worse and even Cause Anxiety, and What to do about it  This question was posted on my blog and since it’s a big topic I feel it deserves a separate blog post

This is the question that Paula posted:

If my understanding is correct, William Walsh of the Walsh Research Institute explains that folates of any kind (methylfolate, folic acid, etc) will cause there to be less serotonin activity at the synapse because folates promote the expression of the SERT enzyme which increases serotonin reuptake. He warns that those who are undermethylators should not take folate if they have cognitive/mood issues, as it will make their anxiety or depression worse. Since those with the MTHFR gene defect are likely undermethylators, his advice contradicts Dr Lynch’s advice regarding the use of folate. Could you ask Dr Lynch if he has any opinion regarding this?

Dr. Walsh has treated over 30,000 patients with mental health problems and has one of the largest lab chemistry data bases in the world. It would be great to see the top doctors collaborating on the methylation cycle as it seems to be a large piece of the puzzle for so many people. Maybe a methylation summit? It’s such a complicated and confusing subject and there seems to be some contradictory information out there.

This was my response:

These are excellent questions you bring up!

The terminology can be confusing so I will recap my understanding here:

Undermethylators/high histamine/histadelia = folate not good
Overmethylators or low folate/low histamine/histapenia = folate helps symptoms

This is from the work of Carl Pfeiffer (his book “Nutrition and Mental Illness” is excellent) and is also written about in Joan Matthews Larson’s wonderful book “Depression-Free Naturally” and Eva Edelman’s “Natural Healing for Schizophrenia.”

As you’re aware Dr. Walsh uses this terminology too. His book is “Nutrient Power.” Here is a snippet from a powerpoint of his called The Role of Epigenetics in Mental Health 

Undermethylated mental patients are intolerant to folic acid, but most overmethylated mental patients improve after folic acid supplements.

Folic Acid generates acetylase enzymes that alter histones, promoting expression of SERT and DAT transporter proteins. SERT and DAT enhance reuptake at serotonin and dopamine synapses…. thus reducing NT activity.

For undermethylators, the harmful impact of folic acid at NT synapses greatly exceeds the benefits of normalizing methylation.

So there is a place for methylfolate. I don’t know anything about SERT and DAT transporter proteins so can’t comment on that aspect, but look forward to learning more.

You say “Since those with the MTHFR gene defect are likely undermethylators.” I don’t know that this is a true statement. I would love to see a source for this? It’s certainly not the case with me – I have the MTHFR 1298C defect and have low histamine/histapenia/overmethylation (using the Carl Pfeiffer terminology).

As far as I’m aware Dr Walsh does NOT feel the MTHFR defects play a role in all of this. I hope to learn more and interview him on a future Anxiety Summit.

I have not seen Dr. Lynch write about histapenia and histadelia or the work of Carl Pfeiffer, although some recent comments in this blog  refer to Walsh and Dr. Lynch says he’ll check it out.

Dr. Lynch is not a big fan of the terms overmethylation and undermethylation. And when he talks about overmethylation and undermethylation I think he is referring to the methylation process being more effective/speeding up and being less effective/slowing down within a few days of adding methylfolate supplements.

So I feel we have some terminology differences AND some differences of opinions.

Both Dr. Walsh and Dr. Lynch see amazing results with their patients/clients but I agree with you – I’d love to clear up some of the confusion. I’m going send this question and my answer to Dr. Lynch for our interview next Friday. Since he may need to do some additional prep/research, we may have to do a deeper dive into this question on a future summit. Hopefully he’ll be able to add something to the discussion this time.

I did also interview Yamsina (www.thelowhistaminechef.com) for this summit and she too was not familiar with the work of Carl Pfeiffer so it’s exciting that we can all learn from each other and advance the field.

Finally, this is not all bad because it gets us thinking and asking questions and digging deeper.

Paula then has this follow-up question:

The following quote from this link gave me the impression that the MTHFR mutation usually caused undermethylation, but farther down it also references where Dr Walsh says it’s possible to have MTHFR and not be undermethylated.

In your opinion, do people fall into either an overmethylated or undermethylated status or can you be an undermethylator in certain areas of the methylation cycle and an overmethylator in other areas of the cycle? If someone has some traits of an undermethylator and some traits of an overmethylator, what would you recommend?

Dr. Walsh: Based on my massive chemistry database, about 22% of the population is undermethylated and 8% overmethylated. These are inborn tendencies that usually persist throughout life. Undermethylation usually results from single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that weaken MTHFR or other enzymes in the methylation cycle. Overmethylation is generally caused by enzyme weaknesses (SNPs) in the SAMe utilization pathways.

What are your thoughts on using genetic testing, such as “23 and Me” to create an individual methylation roadmap/treatment plan.

Dr. Walsh: Genetic testing is quite inexpensive, highly accurate, reliable, and will certainly grow in importance in future years. These tests can already identify predispositions for many disorders such as breast cancer and Alzheimer’s and may soon obsolete the need for pap smears. However the reliability of genetic testing for assessing methylation is quite limited at present.

Identifying SNP weaknesses in MTHFR and other methylation-cycle enzymes does not necessarily mean that individual is undermethylated. There is a “tug-of-war” competition between enzyme SNPs that weaken methylation and SNPs in the SAMe utilization pathway that can produce overmethylation.

I believe you’re right Trudy in saying this is not all bad because it gets everyone thinking and digging deeper. I think both Dr Lynch and Dr Walsh bring invaluable information to the discussion, each adding something that can further illuminate how this complicated process works. Thanks again to you for providing us an opportunity to ask questions.

And this is my response:

This is a perfect summary of Dr Walsh’s approach – thank you!

This part is interesting: “Undermethylation usually results from single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that weaken MTHFR or other enzymes in the methylation cycle. Overmethylation is generally caused by enzyme weaknesses (SNPs) in the SAMe utilization pathways.” I’d love to know which ones… and then he says “However the reliability of genetic testing for assessing methylation is quite limited at present”

His percentages are also interesting and I would challenge this saying it’s very likely based on the people he has worked with: 22% of the population is undermethylated (high histamine) and 8% overmethylated (low histamine).

When I worked with Julia Ross we saw way more low histamine and that is likely because we worked with more women who seem to be prone to low histamine.

This is also what Carl Pfeiffer found: “These are inborn tendencies that usually persist throughout life” and was my understanding until I started learning from Dr Lynch 2 years ago. Now I’m confused too!

Here is a nice post by Chris Kresser: Methylation – What it is and why should you care. I’m going to paraphrase some of it. He says yes do the 23and me testing but: “genetics do not always predict functional methylation capacity”…”I really believe that we need to be testing both”… “There are different ways to test functional methylation capacity. Doctor’s Data has a methylation panel blood test. Health Diagnostics and Research Institute has a Methylation Pathways Panel that’s good and I tend to use in my practice. Genova has a Complete Hormones profile that, among other things, looks at the ability to convert proliferative estrogen metabolites into less proliferative metabolites, and those conversions are methylation dependent. So if you see poor conversion happening there, that’s a methylation issue. The urine organics acids profile from Genova has some methylation markers, active folate and B12 deficiency. And then a urine amino acids profile can be helpful to look at taurine levels and levels of other metabolites in the methylation cycle.”

This above blog has comments about Dr. Walsh and Dr. Lynch too so they are worth a read.

Of course Dr. Lynch supports the fact that just because you have a defect it doesn’t mean you are affected by it so the additional functional testing makes total sense. And he recommends this additional testing too.

I feel it’s time to mesh the old research and prior work Carl Pfeiffer did, the work Dr. Walsh is doing, Dr. Lynch’s work and the new methylation research. And the wisdom from other practitioners like Chris Kresser and people like you who are digging and reading and asking questions

We clearly all have lots to learn!  I know I don’t have the answers! This topic has been front and center in my mind for awhile so it’s good to get it down in writing here (so thanks Paula, for asking this question!)

I encourage you to listen in to my interview with Dr. Lynch. We talk about this and acknowledge that we all have gaps and that getting together to talk about all this would be an excellent idea!

And finally, please share if you have had your histamine levels tested (whole blood histamine)?  Low or high? and have you found results with the Pfeiffer protocol?

I have tested mine and have low histamine/histapenia and absolutely do benefit from the low histamine protocol.

Filed Under: Anxiety and panic, MTHFR, The Anxiety Summit 3 Tagged With: anxiety, Ben Lynch, Bill Walsh, Carl Pfeiffer, histadelia, histapenia, the anxiety summit, Trudy Scott

The Anxiety Summit – Anxiety: Biochemical and genetic predispositions

November 11, 2014 By Trudy Scott 52 Comments

Dr. Benjamin Lynch, ND Researcher/writer/speaker on MTHFR and methylation defects, was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Anxiety: Biochemical and genetic predispositions – COMT, GAD & MAOA                                                                                         

  • MTHFR, methylation, SAMe and anxiety (and other health effects)
  • Good forms of folate
  • How too much folate can raise norepinephrine and cause anxiety
  • COMT genetic polymorphisms and anxiety: estrogens, xenoestrogens and sulfur
  • MAOA genetic polymorphisms and anxiety: tyramines and histamine
  • GAD genetic polymorphisms and anxiety: MSG, glutamates and GABA
  • How to test for and interpret these genetic polymorphisms?
  • Three top recommendations to reduce anxiety

Here are a few snippets from our interview:

MTHFR helps produce the body’s most active form of folate. So when you eat your uncooked leafy greens or your steamed leafy greens, you are getting ample amounts of methylfolate, which is great. But if you’re eating your dried cereal, your energy bars, your energy drinks or taking your prenatal vitamins and you think you’re doing a great thing and all of these things have this synthetic folic acid, then that is a big problem, because folic acid is absolutely synthetic and that folic acid has to be transformed into the most active form of folate, which is methylfolate because that’s what your body uses. It doesn’t use folic acid. You think folic acid is actually useful for things like neural tube defects, but it’s not; it actually has to be transformed. And so MTHFR contributes the last most important step for that to happen.

Methylfolate, along with vitamin B12, and the protein that you eat help make one of the most important compounds called SAMe. So when you eat your protein and your methylfolate levels are adequate, then you are able to make your neurotransmitters. And if you are unable to make neurotransmitters or eliminate them, you’re going to have symptoms of anxiety, depression, bipolar disorders, schizophrenic episodes, manic episodes, and so on.

The GAD enzyme helps get rid of glutamate and turns that into our docile calming GABA neurotransmitter. It needs magnesium and vitamin B6 to function.

One gene that’s very common in the population that’s also kind of messed up is COMT. COMT is a gene which does multiple, multiple things, but one of which is helps break down dopamine. The other one, it helps break down estrogen.

Another one for anxiety is MAOA, so that’s monoamine oxidase. Histamine is very related to anxiety, and that’s tied in because of the MAOA enzyme, so reducing your histamine-containing foods is a big one.

We mentioned that we’d share some links to MTHFR blog posts on Dr. Lynch’s site.  Here is one – MTHFR A1298C Mutation: Some Information on A1298C MTHFR Mutations and MTHFR C677T Mutation: Basic Protocol

We didn’t mention specific studies during the interview but here are a few:

  • Are there depression and anxiety genetic markers and mutations? A systematic review.
  • Association of a MAOA gene variant with generalized anxiety disorder, but not with panic disorder or major depression.

Dr. Lynch discussed the 23andme genetic testing and said this:

Genetic testing should be an empowering thing for you. You know it’s access to knowledge that can really be beneficial to you, if it’s utilized properly.

Here are links for 23andme  (my affiliate link) for doing the genetic testing, and Geneticgenie.com  and MTHFRsupport.com for getting the reports.

Here is information about Dr Lynch’s part 1 and part 2 practitioner training (which is very heavily referenced): Methylation & Clinical Nutrigenomics

Dr. Lynch has a free download: folate video presentation along with a pathway planner

If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com

Filed Under: Antianxiety, Gene polymorphisms, MTHFR, The Anxiety Summit 2 Tagged With: anxiety, Ben Lynch, COMT, Folate, GAD, genetic predispositions, MAOA, mthfr, mutations, polymorphisms, the anxiety summit, Trudy Scott

Primary Sidebar

FREE REPORT

9 Great Questions Women Ask about Food, Mood and their Health

You’ll also receive a complimentary subscription to my ezine “Food, Mood and Gal Stuff”

Success! Check your inbox for our email with a download link.

Connect with me

Recent Posts

  • ADHD: 5-HTP melts have been a miracle for one of my adopted kids
  • GABA eases anxiety and is protective against metabolic and reproductive disturbances in polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)?
  • GABA helps a stressed young boy with episodes of “choking” or tightening in his throat
  • Christmas tree phenols as a trigger for anger, meltdowns, anxiety, hyperactivity, insomnia, aggression, self-injury and autistic symptoms?
  • PharmaGABA eases physical anxiety in a young man who has recently given up Adderall, alcohol and nicotine

Categories

  • AB575
  • Addiction
  • ADHD
  • Adrenals
  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Amino Acids
  • Antianxiety
  • Antianxiety Food Solution
  • Antidepressants
  • Anxiety
  • Anxiety and panic
  • Anxiety Summit 5
  • Anxiety Summit 6
  • Autism
  • Autoimmunity
  • benzodiazapines
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Books
  • Caffeine
  • Cancer
  • Candida
  • Children
  • Cooking equipment
  • Coronavirus/COVID-19
  • Cravings
  • Depression
  • Detoxification
  • Diabetes
  • Diet
  • Drugs
  • EFT/Tapping
  • EMF
  • EMFs
  • Emotional Eating
  • Environment
  • Essential oils
  • Events
  • Exercise
  • Fear of public speaking
  • Fertility and Pregnancy
  • Fish
  • Food
  • Food and mood
  • Functional neurology
  • GABA
  • Gene polymorphisms
  • General Health
  • Giving
  • Giving back
  • Glutamine
  • Gluten
  • GMOs
  • Gratitude
  • Gut health
  • Heart health
  • Histamine
  • Hormone
  • Immune system
  • Inflammation
  • Insomnia
  • Inspiration
  • Introversion
  • Joy and happiness
  • Ketogenic diet
  • Looking awesome
  • Lyme disease and co-infections
  • Medication
  • Mental health
  • Mercury
  • Migraine
  • Mold
  • Movie
  • MTHFR
  • Music
  • NANP
  • Nature
  • Nutritional Psychiatry
  • OCD
  • Oxalates
  • Oxytocin
  • Pain
  • Paleo
  • Parasites
  • People
  • Postpartum
  • PTSD
  • Pyroluria
  • Questionnaires
  • Real whole food
  • Recipes
  • Research
  • serotonin
  • SIBO
  • Sleep
  • Special diets
  • Stress
  • Sugar addiction
  • Sugar and mood
  • Supplements
  • Teens
  • Testimonials
  • Testing
  • The Anxiety Summit
  • The Anxiety Summit 2
  • The Anxiety Summit 3
  • The Anxiety Summit 4
  • Thyroid
  • Thyroid health
  • Toxins
  • Tryptophan
  • Uncategorized
  • Vegan/vegetarian
  • Women's health
  • Yoga

Archives

  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • July 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • November 2009

Copyright © 2021 Trudy Scott. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy | Terms of Use | Refund Policy