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Methylation

The Anxiety Summit – Is My Anxiety and Depression from a Methylation, Pyrrole, or Copper-Zinc Imbalance?

By Trudy Scott 142 Comments

William J. Walsh_Anxiety4

William J. Walsh, PhD, FACN, author of Nutrient Power, was interviewed on the Anxiety Summit by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Is My Anxiety and Depression from a Methylation, Pyrrole, or Copper-Zinc Imbalance?

  • Neurotransmitters: how they are synthesized, transported and broken down.
  • Biochemical individuality and incidences of imbalances of copper, B6 and zinc.
  • Biotypes of depression, methylation disorders and whole blood histamine, and pyrrole disorder (pyroluria)
  • Copper-zinc imbalance and post-partum depression
  • Testing in blood and urine

Here are some gems from our interview:

Copper and estrogen are related and I’ve seen probably 400 cases of postpartum depression.  Virtually all of them have a copper overload.  These are people who might have been on SSRI antidepressants and with nothing really happening not making them better or worse.  But if we are able to simply normalize their copper most of them become completely okay and you can throw away their medications. They’re the easiest people to help. 

Well with respect to the females if a person has an anxiety disorder or a depression disorder and we find out that the onset was at puberty we kind of expect that the lab results are going to show this is a copper problem because at hormonal events copper levels tend to go awry if you’re not able to regulate your copper.  So it can happen at puberty. It can happen at childbirth.  And it can happen at menopause.  During the nine months of a pregnancy a women’s copper level more than doubles.  And this is necessary for that growing fetus.  It’s necessary for something called angiogenesis to promote the rapid development of blood vessels that that little growing baby needs.  And at the end of a pregnancy a woman’s copper level is usually more than double what it normally is.  A woman normally would be around 100 micrograms per deciliter in her blood.  Maybe it would be 220 at the end of a pregnancy. 

Well right after the baby’s born that copper level is supposed to start heading right back down to normal.  Well people with postpartum depression don’t have that ability and this can completely disrupt two of the major neurotransmitters and misery sometimes for the rest of their lives.  But the way we would bring it down, you have to do it carefully because they’re already suffering from too much copper levels in their brain and in their bloodstream so we have to remove the copper gently and gradually.  And one way to do that is to give them small doses of zinc initially and then just gradually build up the doses to the full dose it takes to normalize their zinc which will then automatically get the natural metallothionein system working.  And it takes about six to eight weeks usually.  But it can be done and it can be done without any discomfort for the patient if it’s done slowly.

I enjoyed hearing how Dr. Walsh got to work with one of the great pioneers in orthomolecular mental health, Dr. Carl Pfeiffer, author of Nutrition and Mental Illness:  An Orthomolecular Approach to Balancing Body Chemistry, and creator of the first pyroluria questionnaire.  I based my pyroluria questionnaire off this one.  Dr. Walsh has done the same thing.

Towards the end of the interview we discussed undermethylation and overmethylation and the confusion about MTHFR and terminology. I made reference to this blog post from a prior summit – Methylation and anxiety: histadelia and histapenia  and the interview with Dr. Ben Lynch – How Methylfolate can make you Feel Worse and even Cause Anxiety, and What to do about it

The takeaway from this discussion is this:

If a person had undermethylated depression they have low serotonin activity.  If you gave these people methylfolate their methylation would improve and the patient would get worse.

So basically I agree completely with Dr. Lynch on the best way to improve methylation and all I’m saying is that for some people, people who have problems of neurotransmission of serotonin you can’t give them folates because they’ll get worse.  So that’s an exception to the general rule. 

So it is these people who are the undermethylators (and using the original terminology, those with high histamine or histadelia) that do worse on folate.

Dr. Walsh agreed that the terminology undermethylation and overmethyation is confusing.

Connect with Dr. Walsh and save on his book Nutrient Power: Heal Your Biochemistry, Heal Your Brain (use discount code: ANXIETY)

Nutrient Power

 

You can find information about the Walsh practitioner training here 

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

Missed this interview or can’t listen live? Or want this and the other great interviews for your learning library? Purchase the MP3s or MP3s + transcripts and listen when it suits you.

You can find your purchasing options here.: Anxiety Summit Season 1, Anxiety Summit Season 2, Anxiety Summit Season 3, and Anxiety Summit Season 4.

Low cholesterol, tryptophan & methylation on Hormones – A Women’s Wellness Summit

By Trudy Scott 12 Comments

women's wellness summit

Just sending you a quick reminder about the upcoming summit.

You’ll learn why you don’t have to accept anxiety, depression, mood swings, headaches, constant fatigue or dramatic periods, and how to find answers from some amazing women’s health experts!

Join me and educate yourself online and no cost from April 11-18, 2016 on Hormones: A Women’s Wellness Summit.

(you can register here https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/WWH16reg/trudyscottcn/)

Understanding your hormones may sound like an impossible mission, but it’s really not. As we learn to incorporate healthier choices into our lives, we feel better. And, as women, when we feel better, we can do anything! And as I like to say we deserve to feel our absolute best all the time!

Join health coach and acupuncturist Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP, and the 30+ health and wellness experts she has gathered to teach you how to keep your body in sync with your life.

Even if you’re not a woman, tune in to learn more so you can understand the women in your life – your mom, your sisters, your wife, your girlfriend, your daughter. Or share this information with the women in your life. You may even pick up some ideas for yourself, for example most of my interview is applicable for men too.

women's wellness summit

Here is a snippet about the importance of cholesterol from my interview which airs on day 3: Balance Brain Chemistry to End Anxiety

A lot of people talk about concerns with high cholesterol, but if you’ve got very low cholesterol, you don’t have the raw material to make your hormones. That’s going to affect your mood. There’s actually research showing that very low cholesterol, a total cholesterol below 150 can make you more prone to mood problems and actually increase your risk for suicide.

If I see a woman with very low total cholesterol, the first thing I think about is absorption, as you just said. Have they got a gall bladder? Maybe they haven’t got enough bile production. Have they got damage to the gut, so they’re not able to absorb the nutrients that they’re eating? And when we add in extra healthy fats, and if you’re already doing that, then I would say look at the digestive component and see if that’s a factor. I’ve seen many women with hormonal issues just get their total cholesterol up, and their hormones start to balance a lot better, which is pretty amazing.

I also talk about how to figure out how much of the amino acids you may need and how to do a trial. In this snippet I’m talking about tryptophan for the low serotonin, worry-in-your-head kind of anxiety:

once you start on the tryptophan, for example, and the starting dose for tryptophan is 500mg. You start on that and you see how much did it improve? Wow, it went from an 8 or 9 out of 10 to a 6 out of ten. But I could definitely see some improvement. So after a few days, increase it. Go from 500mg to 1,000mg, twice a day. Yes, it improved 2 more notches, great. We’re making some gains, here. Then another few days later, or maybe a week later, add another one: 1,500mg, twice a day. Wow, now I’m feeling great. This is the dosage you stay on for a while until you feel like you don’t need it anymore.

If you increase it to the 1,500mg, for example, and you didn’t get any added benefits, then you would just go back to the lower dose. So it’s very individualized, it’s very targeted, meaning it’s targeted to your unique needs. Not everyone needs the amino acids. But if you score high on the questionnaire, and you do a trial and you benefit, then you know you need them. And then you just increase until you get the point of no more benefits.

And here is a snippet from Dr. Jill Carnahan’s interview – What’s the Big Deal About Methylation?:

we generally don’t treat methylation by itself. We treat it in the context of the patient. I’ll say that over and over again today because I think what I see in the internet and what I see with responses to my blog articles and things are patients saying, “Give me a protocol. I got this defect. What do I do?” It’s so important for patients to realize that just because you have a genetic defect, it does not cause disease. It’s genetics plus environment.

What is methylation? Basically, methylation is a process that’s involved in cellular repair. That repairs your DNA and RNA. All the time, we’re getting toxic insults to our body, chemicals and environmental things, foods even, and they can damage our DNA and RNA. Methylation is one of the processes that actually repairs those things so we don’t develop things like cancer.

Number two would be helping to create neurotransmitters. This is basically involved in our thinking, our mood, our concentration, our focus, our drive, and things like sleep, and ability to have just happiness and joy [and no anxiety]. People who have methylation issues will often have trouble with neurotransmitters.

Number one, repair DNA and RNA. Number two would be create neurotransmitters. Number three/number four would be detoxification, very involved in detoxification. Your processes to basically take care of toxic chemicals. Then, also, for immune system function which is related to the detoxification process.

Dr. Carnahan shares how our neurotransmitters are affected by methylation and how this impacts anxiety and depression:

The biopterin pathway is part of the methylation cycle. It actually comes from the folic acid metabolism cycle. If that isn’t running properly, this is where you make phenylalanine which is a precursor for tyrosine, tyrosine which is a precursor of dopamine, and tryptophan which is a precursor of 5-HTP.

You can also catch these great speakers on day 3 with myself and Dr. Carnahan:

  • Keesha Ewers – Common Causes of a Low Sex Drive
  • Jen Wittman – How to Have a Thyroid-Loving Lifestyle
  • Amy Medling – How to be a PCOS Diva

Other summit speakers cover the adrenals, low testosterone in women, PMS and missed periods, endometriosis, how to have gorgeous skin, fertility, pregnancy and post-partum, perimenopause, your hunger hormones, toxins in your food, bio-identical hormones, cell phone dangers and much much more.

I hope you join us online from April 11-18, 2016 on Hormones: A Women’s Wellness Summit

You can register here https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/WWH16reg/trudyscottcn/

The Anxiety Summit – How Methylfolate can make you Feel Worse and even Cause Anxiety, and What to do about it

By Trudy Scott 176 Comments

 

Dr. Benjamin Lynch ND, MTHFR and methylation expert, is interviewed  by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

How Methylfolate can make you Feel Worse and even Cause Anxiety, and What to do about it

  • Methylfolate and the MTHFR polymorphism
  • Anxiety and other side effects of too much methylfolate
  • How to prevent methylfolate side-effects
  • How to determine how much methylfolate to take

Here are some snippets from our interview (Dr Lynch actually closed with these wise words) :

Just because you have MTHFR doesn’t mean you’re screwed! 

Don’t look at MTHFR as a bad thing

It just means you have to do things differently

Be proactive and don’t be scared about it

At the start of our interview he said this:

Anxiety can be relieved by methylfolate but it can also be made worse

Here are some snippets from Dr. Lynch’s excellent article: Methylfolate Side Effects

Methylfolate is a remarkable nutrient yet it can create significant side effects.

Those who have MTHFR mutations (especially the C677T MTHFR mutation) learn that methylfolate is critical to take. The issue is methylfolate can cause more harm than good if not started at the right time or tapered up slowly in amount.

There appear to be three types of responses to methylfolate:

FIRST: A person who can jump on methylfolate and feel absolutely wonderful. The only down side they experience is why didn’t they know about methylfolate before?!

SECOND: A person starts methylfolate has an amazingly incredible week where they are happy, interacting and alert. Then the second week comes and they switch to wanting to hide in a room by themselves or literally throw dishes across the room out of anger. Or they may become bed ridden from muscle aches, intense headaches or joint pain.

THIRD: A person takes a small amount of methylfolate and feels all the methylfolate side effects right out the gate.

The above blog also lists the Methylfolate Side Effects:

  • irritability
  • insomnia
  • sore muscles
  • achy joints
  • acne
  • rash
  • severe anxiety
  • palpitations
  • nausea
  • headaches
  • migraines

I encourage you to read the whole blog that Dr Lynch has written (Methylfolate Side Effects)

And here is the related blog on Preventing Methylfolate Side Effects.  I’ve included some snippets here but please read the whole article too

ALREADY TAKING METHYLFOLATE AND FEEL GREAT?

Excellent! However, it may be a ‘honeymoon’ period and in a few days or weeks, side effects may appear.

Discuss this article with your doctor and make appropriate changes to your protocol.

Just think of a bell-shaped curve.

Before you started taking methylfolate, you felt terrible. You began taking it and started to feel good. Day after day goes by and you continue to improve. In time if the above things are not corrected, you will begin to slide down the other side of the bell-shaped curve.

My whole point of this article is to prevent this from happening!

My goal is to keep you feel amazing!

I’ve seen it happen way too much – caused by me, caused by other doctors and caused by over-excited people feeling amazing and pushing their system too hard with methylfolate. Methylfolate is powerful.

This last statement by Dr. Lynch is why I invited him to speak on this summit on this topic!

This is the Dr. Carl Pfeiffer and Dr Bill Walsh histapenia/histadelia blog post that I referred to in our discussion.  You can either read the discussion in the comments or read this new blog post I created: Methylation and anxiety: histadelia and histapenia.

Here is information about the first annual Seeking Health Educational Institute Conference, SHEI Con 15 (an event for health professionals).

Dr Lynch and a team of world-renowned physicians will be presenting absolutely new clinically-relevant information that has never been seen before ANYWHERE.

The main topics of SHEI Con 15 are centered around where physicians must look to recover their patient’s heath at the core.

Mitochondria: Function, Dysfunction, Connections to Pathologies, Identification and Restoration

Cell Membranes: Function, Dysfunction, Connections to Pathologies, Identification and Restoration

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

Missed this interview or can’t listen live? Or want this and the other great interviews for your learning library? Purchase the MP3s or MP3s + transcripts and listen when it suits you.

You can find your purchasing options here: Anxiety Summit Season 1, Anxiety Summit Season 2, and Anxiety Summit Season 3.

MTHFR and methylation: mood, anxiety, depression, and resources

By Trudy Scott 27 Comments

Methylation polymorphisms (also called defects or mutations or SNPs) can impact mood. I’d like to share a few studies on some of the mood issues, other health conditions where we may see impacts and some resources for you to learn more.

If you have one of the MTHFR polymorphisms, the BH4 cycle may be affected and may impact how we make serotonin and dopamine. Here is some of the research:

There is much evidence on the methylation polymorphisms and these health conditions:

Resources for further learning

The two practitioners who I have learned the most from are Dr. Ben Lynch ND and Coleen Walsh, a nutritionist who has been dubbed the “methyl queen”.    

Just remember this great quote from Coleen Walsh during our interview on the Anxiety Summit:

Our DNA is not set in stone! Diet and lifestyle can go a long way to change our health destiny

The good news is that we can change our health, our disease outcomes and how we feel by eating real whole good quality organic food, getting chemicals and toxins out of our diets and environment, reducing stress, supporting the liver and our natural detox processes.

Certain key nutrients can also be very help for many people with polymorphisms. I’ll share more on folate and other nutrients and other SNPs in a later blog post. I’ll also share more on genetic testing.

I’d love to hear if you’ve done genetic testing and how making changes (supplement, diet, lifestyle) have helped. Be sure to post questions too.

 

MTHFR workshop for the layperson

By Trudy Scott 6 Comments

MTHFR lay person training

MTHFR is one hot topic and many of you are getting your MTHFR results, but do not know what to do with them.  Methylation cycle abnormalities can predispose you to disease. The MTHFR SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) is at a key position in the methylation cycle and if not working properly, can affect the whole pathway, creating symptoms and disease. The good news is that nutritional protocols and lifestyle modifications can help tremendously.  Most conventional doctors do not know about MTHFR, they have not studied the biochemical pathways and they don’t know how to support you on your journey to health.

Coleen Walsh, Dubbed the “methyl queen” Created a Guide for the Everyday Mutant – A Training on The Basics – MTHFR and Methylation Pathways – Just for You – The Everyday Mutant!

This 3-hour presentation breaks down the biochemistry of these pathways and epigenetics to give you a big picture idea of what is happening inside your cells and why it is important. Coleen is a natural educator and has an innate ability to break down the scientific information into to layman terms, so you can easily understand these pathways.  She created motion graphics to help you get a visual of the biochemistry and what that could mean to your health when you have these SNPs (mutations).

MTHFR interview from the Anxiety Summit – for your listening pleasure

I had the pleasure of interviewing Coleen on season 1 of The Anxiety Summit. I’d like to share that interview with you here, so you can get a taste of her level of expertise. It’s yours to listen to whether or not you can attend the training. Enjoy!

Are Your Genes Depressing You? MTHFR and Your Mood: Trudy Scott interviews Coleen Walsh on The Anxiety Summit

  • The Methylation Cycle overview, MTHFR and B vitamins as cofactors
  • How MTHFR effects the BH4 cycle and serotonin and dopamine
  • Factors that disturb methylation, how to test and what to do
  • Epigenetics and how SNPs are not our destiny

Listen to the recording here.

 

Learn more and purchase

Here is the link to read more about Coleen’s online MTHFR/methylation workshop for the lay-person and every day mutant on March 7th, and to make your purchase:

http://www.easywebautomation.com/app/?Clk=5393325

PS. If you can’t make it live, you can still register and get the recordings/handouts later

PPS. This is a workshop for the lay-person. The 5 hour practitioner training was last week – if you’re a practitioner or would like to share this with your practitioner you’ll be able to get the recordings and handouts by signing up here for the MTHFR and Methylation Practitioner training. More information can be found on my blog here.