What is Methylation?
How can you tell if you may be one of the many whose methylation cycle isn’t working optimally?
You might be feeling low in energy. Maybe you’re feeling moody or down. You may not be sleeping as well as you’d like. Or you may be finding it hard to concentrate or notice it takes you a while to calm down after a frightful experience or have poor fertility.
All these can be signs that you have a mutation in the gene that controls your methylation cycle – the MTHFR gene (stands for methylene-tetrahydrofolate reductase).
There are many everyday things you can do to help balance methylation and give your body its best chance to overcome the shortfall and reducing stress on the liver:
- Avoid foods and supplements with folic acid (be sure to read labels!)
- Eat lots of organic raw, leafy green vegetables and other high folate foods
- Avoid processed foods, refined carbohydrates, and sugar
- Minimize stress and practice stress management (Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and meditation)
- Avoid dairy, gluten, and soy (especially important if you have methylation issues)
- Restrict, or better yet, avoid alcohol (it depletes needed B vitamins)
- Avoid smoking and second-hand smoke
- Reduce your exposure to plastics, BPA, and manmade materials
- Avoid using cleaning products with toxic and harsh chemicals
By supplementing with 5-MTHF, you reduce the chance of overtaxing your liver and depleting it of its methyl groups and supply of glutathione for your body’s cleansing processes.
