Methylation is the science behind digesting nutrients, it’s the core of metabolism.
It’s… life.
It’s an important part of the blueprint that our cells use to guide themselves and create components required to enjoy life. Lots of, if not all, animals do it, plants do it too.
Our cells are like little 3d printers that turn raw materials into whatever our body requires. This may include rebuilding muscle, creating dopamine, supporting the immune system, or activating glutathione our master antioxidant.
Life is magical, and seems impossible, but skipping past the weird consciousness part, it’s actually pretty simple if we look at it the right way. Life starts as an egg, which is essentially just a single cell. Mom’s methylation system supports us till we’re ready to handle things on our own.
The food we eat it’s ripped apart and assembled into whatever it is we need to get through the day.
50 billion times every second, our body depends on a process called methylation to make this all happen.
In today’s toxic world, it’s difficult to have enough of the raw materials required to keep up with all of this. Luckily, in times of need, life is able to recycle existing cell’s nutrients into raw materials required to get through the day. But an unfortunately, it’s horrible for long term and generational health. We’re borrowing from tomorrow’s stability. This is similar to pushing any machine past it’s limits without proper maintenance, in order to get the job done. This could be farm equipment, lawn equipment, our car, a refrigerator, etc.
My body finally had too many toxins and not enough nutrients to steal from anymore, so my health crashed.
As more and more of our metabolism is clogged up or runs out of nutrients(think generationally), the more susceptible we become to being clogged up even further. Sometimes we come across just the right amount of something that finally clogs us up enough in order to start showing issues. Metabolism is our nutrient engine, if it clogs up enough, the issues displayed could be just about anything related to any nutritional deficiency.
There is another layer to this, on top of the nutrients, and it’s similar to baking a meal with fresh ingredients. First we need the right ingredients chopped up and mixed properly, then we need them to be baked for a certain time and temperature. Otherwise, the ingredients don’t turn into the expected meal. Our methylation system depends on a similar type of balance.
Our body senses and utilizes natural sunlight. Even when we ditch the unhealthy light sources, the incandescent bulbs are making our body think its daytime all the time. This doesn’t work out well with our circadian rhythm and can eventually start making a mess of things. Some of us are laying in bed with an extremely bright light source 1-2ft from our face while supplementing melatonin because we can’t sleep..
Our exposure to light after dark begins to offset the rhythms that help us sleep properly. Over time this can interfere with our organs’ ability to keep up on their maintenance tasks. Eventually this can contribute to digestive issues which circles back around to reducing methylation’s nutrients. Incorrect light habits can cause poor sleep which can inhibit digestion which can inhibit methylation which can inhibit sleep which can lead to more incorrect light habits.
I started resolving this situation by consuming a variety of good nutrients, giving my body the building blocks it needs to run methylation and reduce metals and other toxins that where inhibiting my cell’s health. I did this by knocking toxic buildup loose with iodine, and cleaning it up with dozens of other nutrients that include sunlight, sleep, physical activity, fresh & garden grown produce, grassfed meat, protein powders, supplements, good water and dedication for building knowledge about the most advanced machine I’ve had the pleasure of learning how to maintain and maximize the performance of.
Years before even finding advanced detox information, I happened to learn how to eat better by cutting most artificial ingredients. Then I happened to learn a bit about gut health and fermentation. Had I not stumbled on these and worked slowly to reduce the toxic load on my body and rebuild my digestive system, starting my detox journey may have been even more uncomfortable at times. Firing up our methylation system while we bombard our body with more toxicity that continues to harm our digestive system etc, will most likely not work out well in our favor.
After experimenting with several supplements and learning more about this process, I found a protein powder with a blend of nutrients that replaced most of the supplements I was taking small amounts of. This powder and additional protein and fat from various quality sources were able to help me purge more and feel better. I keep up on this and a handful of other nutrients like magnesium, lipsomal glutathione, cod liver oil, vit c etc.
Once we understand it all, it’s not so bad, but there is a good bit of lifestyle change required to allow us to support our body and this system well. This stuff takes time to repair and depends a lot on quality sleep, water, sunlight and physical activity etc.
This also gets into releasing emotions and traumas. Negative energy and negative substances go hand and hand. As we work on replacing toxicity with nutrition, we have to work with our emotions to balance ourselves more towards who we should be, without the toxicity. Some people do not even realize this is trying to happen and a lot of people fight the change, which doesn’t allow us to purge the physical negative substances and energy.
Our body has been doing an amazing job tucking this negative energy away so we can do our best to enjoy life, but it can only do so much before things start to spill out and show their face. This ends up influencing our personalities and decisions.
A simplified way of looking at methylation
I explain a general overview of how I see nutrients working together to run our body. I use the idea of a factory to show how materials come in and what might happen when the wrong materials aren’t around.
I created a metabolic simulator to help show how nutrients and genes work together. I recreated Dr. Ben Lynch’s biochemical pathway planners and organized additional information to help explain how things work. Even if this level of info is past our level of understanding, it should help paint a picture of how our cells are working together to help us thrive. I will be adding more videos at Methylate.me
Once we have a general idea what methylation is, we can start working to clean it up and get it working better. Dr. Ben Lynch has a ton of resources to do this. This is a short list to help get started.
Dirty Genes is a great book that pulls this situation into perspective.
This blog post is loaded with a ton of info and common questions http://mthfr.net/mthfr-c677t-mutation-basic-protocol/2012/02/24/
From his blog:
Update June 2019:
It is HIGHLY recommended to start with:
- Optimal Electrolyte,
- ProBiota HistaminX and
- Optimal Start (a multivitamin without any folate or B12)
These open up your biochemical pathways. This way neurotransmitters don’t get ‘stuck’ in your head giving you horrific side effects.