One Big MTHFR Mistake
There’s been growing hype around the MTHFR gene ever since Joe Rogan’s podcast with Gary Brecka earlier this year.
And understandably so.
MTHFR is not only an extremely important gene, it also symbolizes a broader trend in the way we approach health. It’s sort of the entry point into the growing field of personalized medicine, which aims to take everything about you that makes you unique—including your genetics, lifestyle, and so on—and turn that into an individualized plan for improving your health. It’s a tall order, but there are doctors out there that are doing it right.
In any case, MTHFR sort of epitomizes the world’s growing interest in that sort of medicine—that sort of medicine that promises to do away with the cookie-cutter approach of standard, factory-mill medicine and give you what your individual whole self needs.
Unfortunately, however, MTHFR is being turned into anything but that.
MTHFR itself has been turned into a sort of cookie-cutter diagnosis: “Ah! We see you have MTHFR [even though you can’t really have MTHFR]! Take this supplement and get well!”
1 + 1 = 2. You’ve got this gene, take this supplement. Nothing more.
Sound familiar? That’s because it is. It’s the same sort of (1) diagnosis = (2) prescription paradigm that’s plagued modern medicine for so long and frustrated so many of people. This isn’t any different.
The problem is that taking MTHFR in isolation is wrong. MTHFR is just ONE GENE, just one of many, many genes involved in that all-important, understandably-hyped process called methylation. To look at MTHFR in isolation is to miss the forest for the trees.
What about DHFR? What about MTHFD? What about FOLR—the gene for the folate receptor?
What about your diet? What about your lifestyle? Your exposures? All of that information is vitally important.
The following should drive this point home: I get patients who have the signs of undermethylation but do not have any major reduction in the activity of their MTHFR gene. This means that there’s something else causing the problem. There’s another gene (or lifestyle factor) causing the problem.
So having a normal MTHFR gene test does not mean that you’re safe. It does not mean that you don’t need to worry about methylation.
Similarly, having an under-functioning polymorphism of MTHFR does not mean that can just start taking methylfolate in cookie-cutter fashion and expect your problems to be fixed.
The body is more complex than that.
Achieving wellness is more complex than that.
There are people out there who are real experts in fixing methylation-related problems—people who will tell you more than just, “Take this methylfolate supplement and see me in six months.” Let us help you figure this out.
