Read The UltraMind Solution Online
Authors: Mark Hyman
The UltraMind Solution (37 page)
The symptoms lasted for years and years and years. During the previous five years he had gained fifty pounds (often a side effect of the medication), and developed high blood pressure and high cholesterol. He could sleep only a few hours a night and had uncontrollable food cravings at night for bread, pasta, and sugar. He also had psoriasis and terrible stomach bloating after eating.
After testing we found he had many, many things out of balance—his blood sugar, low testosterone levels, low levels of serotonin and dopamine, and dairy allergies. He hated fish and had very low omega-3 fats. But the most dramatic finding was severe B
12,
folate, and B
6
deficiency. His methylation train was stuck.
After cleaning up his diet, balancing his blood sugar and testosterone, giving him fish oil, and fixing his digestion, we gave him doses of folic acid, B
6
,
, and B
12
shots.
Subsequently his sleep improved, he was able to work out with a trainer, and for the first time in a few decades, he felt his depression lift. And it did not return!
After a year, he called me to thank me for giving him his life back. While he wasn’t able to get off all his medications, he was able to feel joy again, didn’t need any more naps, and lost thirty pounds.
The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging found that 35 percent of people were deficient in folate and that the risk of getting Alzheimer’s was increased 60 percent in those who were deficient in folate.
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In one double-blind, placebo-controlled study of elderly patients with memory complaints, giving 15 mg of folate a day showed significant improvements in memory.
In another ten-year study in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
,
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doctors found that in those over sixty-five years old, low-vitamin-B
12
status was associated with more rapid cognitive decline.
I see cases like this over and over again in my practice—get the methylation
train running smoothly again and memory improves almost overnight. That is what happened for Eleanor.
Eleanor was a seventy-two-year-old patient of mine who noticed a progressive decline in her memory and mood and believed it was just normal aging. She couldn’t remember names well, would forget why she came into a room, and felt like she was slipping away.
She also took acid-blocking medication for reflux, which prevents B
12
absorption. Even with adequate dietary B
12
we don’t absorb B
12
as well as we age, so the medication turned a small problem into a big one. This led to a severe B
12
deficiency, which not only made her lose her memory, but also led to increasing fatigue and depression.
Eleanor was way off the methylation tracks. Just giving her special B
12
shots (methyl B
12
) and special forms of folate (5 MTHF) improved her mood, memory, and energy almost overnight.
Some of the most interesting studies regarding trouble with the methylation and sulfation trains come from the world of autism and ADHD.
Dr. Richard Deth of Northeastern University has discovered that the brain receptors for dopamine, the neurotransmitter that is essential for focus and attention (two things notably lacking in ADHD and autism), require methylation to work properly.
In fact, children with ADHD and autism tend to have slightly quirky dopamine receptors that are easily disturbed by anything that messes up methylation.
To be turned on, these dopamine receptors need vitamin B
12
acting as a helper to specific enzymes. Unfortunately toxins, especially mercury, poison a particular enzyme (MS or methionine synthase). This can lead to a biochemical traffic jam.
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Getting the traffic flowing with methyl B
12
often has miraculous effects on these children. The special form of B
12
helps synchronize neuronal or brain activity. In one of my autistic patients, the school knows exactly which day he gets his B
12
shots: he is focused, happy, and engaged.
Wow! That’s a rather long list of problems that are caused by improper methylation. So let’s take a look at what causes the methylation and sulfation trains to come off the tracks. That will lead us to better understand how we can repair the problem.
What Causes the Train Wrecks?
Unfortunately, many things can affect optimal methylation and sulfation. But it can be boiled down to two main issues—your genes and your environment.
Genes load the metabolic gun and the environment pulls the trigger. And often a combination of genes sets the stage for problems. There is no one gene for Alzheimer’s or autism—there are multiple genes that interact with a complex and often toxic environment.
That’s how the gun gets loaded.
But whether we pull the trigger or not is largely dependent on us. You may have genetic predispositions to certain diseases, but that doesn’t mean you
have
to get sick.
What Makes Us Sick: Our Nutrient-Poor, SAD Diet and Toxins
Our toxic, nutrient-poor “dietary” environment undersupplies the raw materials for proper biochemical and metabolic functioning, namely nutrients, and oversupplies a load of chemicals, additives, pollutants, and allergens. This sends the train right off the tracks.
The single biggest environmental influence you can control is what you eat. Remember, food is not just calories; it is information. It tells our genes what to do.
You see, the real cause of the epidemics of mental and physical illness in this country is our SAD diet—the Standard American Diet—which is nutrient-deficient and packed with chemicals that poison our bodies.
Remember the only reason we need to “enrich” our food with nutrients is that it’s “impoverished” in the first place.
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It is grown in nutrient-depleted soils,
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artificially supported with petrochemical fertilizers, protected by pesticides and herbicides, and is genetically designed to fit in boxes, be transported over long distances, and stay “fresh” for a long time.
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The highly processed, nutrient-poor foods that are sold to us do exactly the opposite of enriching us. They turn off the right genes, turn on the wrong ones, and send your system into chaos.
They are literally a trigger for the loaded gun.
Other Environmental Factors Interfere with Methylation
There are many other things that interfere with methylation in the body besides our SAD diet. Excess animal protein, sugar, saturated fat, coffee, alcohol,
milk allergy, zinc deficiency, irradiation of food, the measles virus, smoking, poor digestion, certain medications (acid blockers, contraceptives, diuretics), and environmental toxins—especially mercury and organophosphate pesticides—all interfere with normal methylation and/or disrupt normal vitamin status.
Keeping the Trains Running
Whew! That was like going to medical school! But now you know some critical things to help your mood, behavior, memory, and attention (as well as almost all chronic disease), which are connected to these twin trains of methylation and sulfation.
You also learned that genes set the stage for trouble, and that a poor diet and environmental toxins push you into a biochemical train wreck, which you experience as ADHD, depression, bipolar disease, autism, dementia, and other chronic illnesses.
The good news is that we now know how to fix these breaks in the tracks, and correct the collateral damage known as “disease” with a few simple tricks. Clean up your diet, get rid of toxins, and take a few supplements. That’s it!
Vitamin D: D for Depression and Dementia
Are you deficient in vitamin D? Take the following quiz to find out.
In the box on the right, place a check for each positive answer. Then find out how severe your problem is using the scoring key below.
VITAMIN D QUIZ | |
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