This is the letter I sent to my brothers and sisters and the father of my son:
HI, Everyone,
Yesterday I received a stunningly odd piece of information
that affects all of us. Yes, I know you’re wondering, “ huh?”
A week or so ago at my annual physical, my doc wanted to add
an additional blood test, the results of which she thought could give us
additional information about why my year-long allergy elimination (LDA) program
has only been so-so successful. As a side note, in the past year, I have been
off all sugar (think chocolate candy), gluten, dairy - so you know I’ve been
truly committed to getting rid of these allergies.
The results of my standard blood test was great -
thanks to those great genes from Mom and Dad. Except for that odd blood test.
Turns out the test was for thrombophilia risk - a genetics test.
My results - I have a genetic mutation called, MTHFR Gene
C677T as being “TT; homozygous”. Homozygous means that I received the gene mutation
from both Mom and Dad, which means that you have a 75% or higher chance of
having it too. My son definitely has the heterozygous mutation - one gene
from me - and perhaps homozygous if his dad also gave him the gene.
This mutation explains a plethora of things that seem to run
in our family: addictions, serious chocolate cravings, many allergies, mood
swings, gluten intolerance (different from celiac disease), hypersensitivity,
and so much more. Over the years, I’ve been put on SSRI’s,
depakote, thyroid meds, tryptophan, prayer, meditation, and a wide variety of
natural remedies - none of which offered much improvement from what I think of
as general anxiety and hypersensitivity. The mutation taxes the liver lots
so that explains why I love Hot Yoga - the heat coupled with yoga detoxes the
liver, and it explains why we own an infrared sauna that I I use as a
“pick-me-up” when I feel sluggish. Also why I crave fresh veggies - again, they
help detox the liver. And chocolate somehow helps with the symptoms of this
mutation. The darker the better.
Biochemically, the mutation disrupts the very important
methylation cycle. This affects liver function, the normal production of brain
chemicals such as serotonin, and potentially causes many serious and mild
health conditions. A person who has this mutation must stop taking any vitamin
supplements that contain B12 in the form of cyanocobalamine, but it’s great to
take B12 as methylcobalamine. Also no folic acid in supplements.
The good news is that a person can dramatically improve
their health and often eliminate the symptoms by taking specific vitamins. For
the next week or so, my doc has me on an over-the-counter supplement called
“Methyl CpG” plus an RX called “deplin” which is L-methylfolate. After one day,
I can’t attest to much change yet, but my vision has gotten surprisingly clearer.
This mutation could explain Mom’s fatigue and discomfort
(especially if the docs were treating her anemia - which is a symptom of MTHFR
- with the cyano form of B12) and it probably goes a long way to explaining
the alcoholism in our family.
I have immense joy and hope that a protocol similar to mine
could be helpful for my son and could lessen his learning disabilities. That
would be a dream come true. So he’ll be tested soon and I’ll keep you up to
date on his experiences as well as mine.
If you are having some of symptoms of this mutation, I suggest
you check out the info I added to the bottom of this email and get a blood
test. There’s a list of docs who treat this mutation on a very informative
website, www.MTHFR.net. And if you google
MTHFR C667T, you can learn lots about MTHFR.
I have odd feelings about all this. On the one hand, my
health, energy, brain chemistry puzzle could be solved. Yeah! And I no longer
need to feel guilty about having these odd symptoms and allergies. And it’s
strange to write you a letter with this information. I care about all of you
lots, even though you may not be aware that I do.
I wish you great joy and love,
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