Colorado Springs Functional Medicine

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Chasing Pain

Pain is nothing but a perception.

Pain is the cortical, emotional response to nociceptive information that reaches the cortex and there can be a great deal of nociceptive input that does not reach the conscious brain (cortex). Nociception is the detection of noxious stimuli or stressors and the body responds accordingly by increasing the stress response and associated stress hormones, such as catecholamines (epinephrine/norepinephrine) and cortisol.  Increased nociception can lead to sensitization of the nociceptive pathways both peripherally and centrally via the process of synaptogenesis and neuroplasticity.  This sensitization process results in lowered firing thresholds and has been documented to lead to allodynia.  Dr. James Chestnut

What the flip does all that mean?

Cortical/Cortex.

This is the cerebral cortex, which is the conscious part of your brain.  It’s estimated that the brain receives 3 TRILLION bits of information every second but only 50 bits actually reach the conscious brain.

Nociception/Noxious Stimuli.

Nociception (No-See-Sep-shun) is the transfer and communication of noxious stimuli (signals that indicate potential harm in the body).  The more potential harm your body undergoes, the more the body adapts into protection mode, just in case you are actually in danger.  As a result, this sets the stage for your body, regardless of how you feel, to be in a constant state of fight or flight.

Sensitization and Lowered Firing Thresholds.

You increase sensitivity to things like sound, sight, hearing, touch, and for our purposes, pain.  In other words, the more sensitive you are, the less stimulus it takes to set you off.  Imagine one of your kids annoying the crap out of you and you’re doing a good job at holding it together but irritated.  But as soon as your second child joins the “mom…mom…mom…mom” chant, you blow your fuse and snap at the second child.

Synaptogenesis and Neuroplasticity.

The best way to translate these terms is “the cells that fire together, wire together.”  The more you repeat something, a habit, a movement, or even a thought, the more your nervous system creates increased communication and default pathways around those actions.  You learned to ride a bike or swim.  As a result, you created new nerve pathways to remember how to do that the rest of your life.  The more you do it, the better you get at it.

Allodynia.

This is pain associated with things that should not cause pain, like light touch.  As a chiropractor I hear this all the time.  As I’m assessing someone’s tissues, I often hear, ‘I didn’t realize my back was so sensitive,” or “I didn’t realize I had pain until you started poking around.”

Chasing Pain

What’s Your Point Smarty Pants?

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The Bachelor Diet

For 2 weeks, I lived the bachelor life (not the TV show).  While my wife and kids were visiting family for 2 weeks, I was to fend for myself in the eating department.  I have an amazing wife that does all the meal planning and cooking for our family.  At the beginning of each month, she pulls off the dry erase calendar on our kitchen wall and plans out every single dinner for the month.  She even plans out a few days to eat out or super easy meals that I can prepare.

Sadly, this wasn’t my reality for the 2 weeks home alone.  I had to actually make dinners for myself.  The agony.  Seriously, I hate cooking.

About 4-5 days per week, I make breakfast to help out.  EVERY single morning, it’s the same thing.  I crack 7 eggs into a bowl, whisk them and scramble them in a pan with butter.  I divide the finished product between the four out of five of us that are eating solid food and add some fruit to the plate.  That’s breakfast, every morning, 7 days/week in the Perkins house.  Our kids have never had cereal, toast, or a glass of milk or OJ.

As simple as that is to make and with a routine of doing it, I only made eggs for myself ONCE in two weeks of living the bachelor life.  That’s how inherently lazy I am and how much I avoid the agony of cooking.

What was I supposed to eat and make for myself?  I ate what I liked and what was convenient to make.  I call this the bachelor diet and I want you to experiment with this.  I’ll give you the reasons why I think eating this way could create some big changes in your health, especially if you’re looking to shed some weight.  I have no proof that it will cause you to lose weight or gain health but I have a theory behind it and if you’re game, I would love to hear your experience with it…if you choose to accept the challenge.

Rule #1:  This is a NO JUDGEMENT zone.  I wasn’t worried about nutrient content.  I placed no limits on portions.  Out of the standard 42 meals in a 2 week period, 10% did not include the list below.  I was invited out a couple times and I also planned to grab a meal out after delivering a couple workshops.

These were my primary foods for 2 weeks:

  • Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches.  This was actually almond butter and organic strawberry preserves on gluten free bread, most often right after my workouts.
  • Ground beef.
  • Chicken wings.
  • Watermelon.
  • pureWOD Build (protein supplement) mixed in almond milk.
  • Kohana Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate.

All items were purchased at Costco except the gluten free bread and pureWOD Build.

Why do I think this could help your weight loss journey (not that I have any proof since I neither gained nor lost weight doing this)?  I hypothesize that it comes down to calming your nervous system.  The less decision making, the less mental stress.  I think variety has good intentions but it creates paralysis by analysis for many people.

As a result, the nervous system shifts into protection mode, taxing the adrenals, with a resultant sugar and insulin fight inside your body.  You could eat a nutritious meal but because there was so much mental anguish before that meal was prepared, your body won’t digest and absorb those nutrients as efficiently as hoped.

Your nervous system likes routine.  The more you have to adapt to life, the greater the potential that your nervous system defaults to that protection side of life, which chronically puts you into a state of tissue break down.  The more tissues break down, the more inflammation is created.  It’s not just your meal choice that has your nervous system on edge, it could just be the tipping point.  If your meal choice IS your only stress in life, you’re either a toddler reading this, which is amazing.  Or you’ve given up on trying to change the status quo in your life and need to re-establish your purpose in life.

Seriously, when it comes to meal planning and eating, we cycle through the same meals multiple times in a month.  If it were up to me, I would eat the same 2 to 3 things each week.  What I suggest that you try is pick 5-6 meals that you like and repeat those for a month.  Since it’s a longer time frame that my 2 week experiment, and if you’re actually doing it with intention of losing weight, ditch the wheat products and ditch the milk products.  Wheat spikes your blood sugar, which spikes insulin and milk just spikes insulin.

What our typical month looks like:

  • Breakfast:  Eggs and fruit
  • Lunch:  For me, it’s snacking on some nuts and a protein shake.  The family often eats leftovers from the previous dinner.
  • Dinner:  Meat and veggies.

It may seem boring but boring brings rest, especially at the end of the day.  Dinner is never boring when you’re eating with a hot wife and 3 kids.  Boring is eating chicken wings alone. Boring is actually being a bachelor.  Need help on how to be boring?  You know how to find me.

The Bachelor Diet

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Hormone Testing

One of the most sought out requests I get is in regards to hormones, especially for women.  More often than not, they have been to 1-2 other providers and not getting answers.  Instead, they get a hormone test and then prescribed a hormone, synthetic or bio identical.  It sounds logical but that approach can do more harm than help, especially long term.  Let me say it upfront, I’m not a fan of hormone replacement.

Why?  Because hormones are messengers of harmony.  You’ve heard the saying, ‘don’t shoot the messenger?’ I look at hormone replacement in the same light.  A hormone just does what it’s told to do.

Hormone Assessment Requires Context

Context #1:  The Nervous System

Every minute of every day, your nervous system is organizing and coordinating what is happening to you or what could potentially happen to you.  This organization will either create pathways to favor your immediate protection.  Or this organization will create pathways to favor your long term legacy.  Here’s the catch.  If you aren’t set up for immediate protection, there’s no reason to plan for your legacy.

I was listening to a podcast once and the guest was some sort of an elite military trained individual.   When in active duty, he had the type of position that he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone what he was doing.  The reality that he may become separated from communication or his troop was on the side of probable.  In this podcast, he was giving tips on how to survive the wilderness.

There were 3 things that one needs to survive the wilderness:  Shelter, Food, and Water.  He said the #1 reason why people fail to survive the wilderness and die is that they go seek food and water before establishing shelter.  They are looking to sustain their long term legacy over their immediate protection.

Most of us are no different.  We go and seek that long term legacy by trying to balance hormones.  The problem is that your innate intelligence is over riding your well-intentioned, yet selfish behavior to make sure you have protection right now.

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This all takes place in the nervous system.  Assessing the situation happens in your hypothalamus.  Your hypothalamus then triggers your anterior pituitary to send the appropriate signals to the body in response to what is happening in life at that moment.  The pituitary can talk to your adrenals, your gonads, your thyroid, your liver, and skin (stimulating sun tan, freckles, etc).

If you need immediate protection, your pituitary is going to spend most of its time and energy talking to the adrenals.  This is your stress response.  A stress doesn’t have to be just mental or emotional like fear and worry.  A stress is going to include what areas of life you are deficient and or toxic.  It will be nutrition, movement, thoughts, social, spiritual, chemical, electromagnetic, etc.

The point is that if your brain is setting up signals for your immediate protection, it’s not going to support and waste energy on long term legacy.  Therefore, the signals that go to a woman’s ovaries, FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) and LH (Luteinizing Hormone) get disrupted.  FSH will have a major role in the ovulation of a follicle in the menstrual cycle, producing estrogen.  LH will have a major role in the development of the now empty follicle to the corpus luteum, producing progesterone.

The problem is that traditional hormone testing is a one day spot shot of estrogen and progesterone without giving context as to the deficiencies and toxicities the individual woman is facing.  All the doctor asks for is symptoms.  Symptoms are not sufficient context.

If you are super stressed, your brain will shift your hormone needs to immediate protection opposed to long term legacy.  If you’re running from a bear, your brain could care less about making babies.

Context #2: It’s a Cycle, Not a Day

The text book average menstrual cycle is 28 days.  Within those 28 days, it’s expected to have hormone fluctuations.  The first 1/2 of the cycle (follicular phase day 1-14), should favor estrogen.  Estrogen’s role is to make cells grow.  The second 1/2 of the cycle (luteal phase day 15-28), should favor progesterone.  Progesterone’s role is to make cells mature.

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Therein lies the problem.  How many women, concerned about their hormones, have a text book, consistent 28 day cycle?  How many women, NOT concerned about their hormones, have a text book, consistent 28 day cycle?  There is too much assumption at day 19-21, when a blood test is run, attempting to assess a higher progesterone than estrogen.  The strength of the follicular phase is dependent on the strength of the luteal phase and the strength of the luteal phase is dependent on the strength of the follicular phase.

Assessing the cycle with a one day spot shot is like taking a quote out of context or seeing the retaliation punch from your kid.

The other problem is that most often the hormones are assessed using a blood sample.  Blood isn’t bad but with hormones the serum is a measurement of bound protein.  Basically, it’s the inactive form.  Using saliva will give the free and usable values.  Ask your doctor about using a saliva collection instead of a blood sample.  Also ask about getting samples through the entire 28 days.

DiagnosTechs is a lab that has an 11 sample profile that gives insight into your entire cycle, not just one day.  Besides estrogen and progesterone, it looks at LH, FSH, testosterone, and even DHEA.

Context #3: Lifestyle

Xenoestrogens:  There are going to be many other factors that influence your hormones.  Many of the environmental exposures women encounter, especially in beauty products, as well as plastics and pesticides will mimic estrogens.

Aromatase:  Excess body fat can induce an excess of estrogen by way of an enzyme called aromatase.  This enzyme causes testosterone to be converted to estrogen.  This can apply to males with that spare tire and seeking treating for low T.

Liver:  The liver will have major influence on hormone regulation.  The first influence is the production of cholesterol.  Cholesterol is a major building block of our steroid hormones like estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, DHEA, cortisol, and even Vitamin D.  If the body is going to favor immediate protection over long term legacy, then cholesterol production will be shunted towards the production of cortisol (survival hormone) instead of our sex hormones.

Cholesterol:  Something else to think about.  Could the past 40 year battle against cholesterol be a major contributor to our hormone imbalances today?  After all, heart disease is the #1 killer of both men and women and one of the immediate recommendations is to lower cholesterol.  If there isn’t enough materials to make up our hormones, something has to be sacrificed, right?

Another influence by the liver is the ability to detox.  The liver isn’t just detoxing chemicals, it detoxes hormones.  If that process isn’t supported, then it’s possible the hormones don’t get de-activated and cleared through the body sufficiently.

Posture:  Posture will greatly affect hormones.  If the head is ‘stuck’ on that top vertebrae, this is a stressor as much as eating my 3 year old McRib. With the abundance of sitting, this is a prime routine to lock in your skull, disrupting that nerve communication between brain and body.

The list could go on and on with inflammation, auto-immune, sugar, adrenals, insulin, and many more.  The point is that if you’re going to address a hormone imbalance without causing more harm down the road, then you’re going to have to address and assess many issues that influence your hormone expression.  Got questions? Come find me.  If your question is, “what’s the best hormone replacement therapy?” I will hang up on you.

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Xylene Exposure – Are You Toxic?

A lab result I am seeing more and more of, especially in women, is an elevation of 2-methylhippurate.  Your standard lab tests won’t have this but instead is a part of a panel I often run on clients called organic acids.

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Excretion of 2-methylhippurate is a sensitive and specific marker for xylene exposure.  Produced from coal tar or crude oil, xylene is used as a solvent for paints and paint thinners, and its vapors are released from many building and decorating materials such as varnishes and new carpets.  But don’t limit your perceived exposure to just industrial type applications.

Xylene Exposure

Dig a little deeper into your personal care products that include paints and dyes.  Check your nail polishes, hair dyes, nail polish removers, and make up.  For your kids, it’s often in markers (permanent or dry-erase).  You know that distinct maker scent?  Probably xylene.  The ironic thing is that many of those markers are labeled ‘non-toxic.’

If you’re looking for xylene, you may also see it under these names: BENZENE, DIMETHYL; BENZENE, DIMETHYL-; DIMETHYL- BENZENE; DIMETHYLBENZENE; META-XYLENE; TOTAL XYLENE; TOTAL XYLENES; XYLENE (MIXED) ; XYLENES; XYLENES (TOTAL) ; BENZENE, DIMETHYL-

What’s the bid deal about it?  Xylene exposure increases oxidative stress.  Oxidative stress is essentially an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the ability of the body to counteract or detoxify their harmful effects through neutralization by antioxidants.  One of those main antioxidants the body attempts to produce is glutathione.

So what’s the big deal?

An overburdened oxidative stress load internally acts just like your external stress load like fear, worry, fast food, and too many selfies.  It shifts the body into protection and away from growth and repair.  One of the first functions that gets limited when your body makes this shift is detoxification.

You don’t only need to detoxify external chemicals but also your hormones and neurotransmitters.

If detoxification is impaired, you may not suffer from just a chemical over burden but also a hormone and emotional overburden as these compounds are affected as well.  Depending on the person this could be an irregular menstrual cycle, it could be that it takes longer to let things go emotionally, an increase inflammatory load, and many more possibilities.

Detox pathways

I’m not saying xylene is a cause for these things but is a contributor to the body which is already over toxified (my wife’s term).  Should you do a detox?  It’s not an easy answer.  Remember that the detoxification process is one of the first processes that gets limited during a shift into stress.  So forcing your body to leach toxic materials into a system that can’t handle it, may cause more harm than good even though the intent is pure.

Instead, you have to address the underlying stress load (allostatic load).  Part of that is your xylene exposure.  But overall your strategies have to include the deficiencies and toxicities caused nutritionally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and even socially.  So this post is more of a public service announcement of xylene exposure awareness.  I thought about starting a fake non-profit awareness group and organizing a 5k like pharmaceutical companies do but I’m not that ambitious.

 Need help assessing your toxic burden load or strategies to repair that damage occurring?  You know how to find me.

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10 Weight Loss Lessons From The Biggest Loser

Sara VanceI’ve reached out for some help with the content on the site.  I’m lucky to have an article written by Nutritionist Sara Vance, author of the book The Perfect Metabolism Plan. A regular guest on Fox 5 San Diego, you can see many of Sara’s segments on her media page. She also offers corporate nutrition, school programs, consultations, and affordable online eCourses. Download her free 40+ page Metabolism Jumpstart eBook here.  If she looks and sounds familiar to you, she was the amazing host of The Metabolism Summit.  Need a refresher?  Click here.

 

Have you seen the press lately about The Biggest Loser Show?  Articles like this one in the New York Times have been reporting that many contestants have gained back significant amounts of weight.

I am not surprised.  Over 80% of people who lose weight on a diet – gain it back (and often then some).  This is because most diets have several critical flaws. And because The Biggest Loser is kind of like a diet on steroids – the normal diet mistakes seem magnified.

But The Times article painted a pretty hopeless picture, saying that the reason that they gained back the weight is because the metabolism slows down when you lose a lot of weight.  So the logical conclusion is – since it is impossible to maintain that amount of weight loss, why even try?

HOLD UP.  Just hold up one second.

Lets look at that a little more closely. Yes, there is some truth to the fact that a 300 pound person’s metabolism is just naturally working harder than a 150 person’s metabolism. Think about it this way – if a 150 pound man is given a backpack with 150 pounds of rocks in it to carry around all day long, sure – his metabolism will have to work harder – to do everything. Walking up a flight of stairs would be more like hiking up a steep mountain.  Everything he does while carrying that 150 backpack would take more effort and burn more energy. His heart will pump harder, his lungs will work harder, etc.

So I will concede that point.

However, we also have to consider the fact that the metabolism slows down not just because someone loses weight, but also how they lose the weight…

10 WEIGHT LOSS LESSONS FROM THE BIGGEST LOSER (AND MOST DIETS):

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23 Questions to Ask Your Kids

Recently, I have had a number of people with auto-immune conditions consult with me.  Upon digging into their history and personal story, one of the biggest triggers that halts their health progress is related to their personal parent-child interaction.  Many of these people have already done massive changes in their nutrition and lifestyle.  The major issue has been a lot of hurt feelings and chronic stress around a close relationship that is strained.  

My personal relationship with my parents wasn’t that close growing up.  They did anything and everything possible to provide for me and my 2 siblings, but my parents weren’t the 2 people that I would go to first if I needed help with something.  I would either figure it out myself or go to friends.  It’s my own baggage and I am the reason for that distance relationship.

I will say now, as an adult, I’m closer to my mom than I ever have been.  Unfortunately, it’s not the case with my dad.  His mental capacity at this point in life makes me wonder if he would recognize me or know whom I am, if he spotted me somewhere other than at home.

My wife’s family is much closer.  There’s a friendship established with healthy respect between parents and kids.  Something that sticks out to me about them is that the kids (now all grown with families of their own) love going ‘home’ even when they don’t have to.  I hope to create that with my kids.  I want them to come home even when they don’t have to.  Don’t get me wrong, they won’t be living under my roof as adults but are free to visit anytime.

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I Wrote A Book, It’s Probably Not For You

I wrote a book.  It’s probably not for you.  If you’re reading this, you’re more choir than congregation to my message.  This is why I haven’t promoted it that much to you.  There’s really nothing ground breaking in it that you probably haven’t heard me say or someone else say when it comes to health related content.

In fact, I didn’t set out to write a health book.  I actually set out writing a blog post as a call to action for leaders to focus on health outcomes as one of their greatest strategies to expand their effectiveness as a leader.  It just kept building until one day I looked up and tens of thousands of words had been written.  Much too long for a blog post.

Even more, it was mostly intended for pastors of small congregations or those small business entrepreneurs that have roles of being the CEO, accountant, IT department, marketing, and facilities.  It’s for the leader, no matter the size of the following that does it all and won’t stop until it’s all done (hello super moms).  These are the people that need to find rest before rest finds them.  These are the people that look a lot like my brother, who died at age 37, and my father, who developed Alzheimer’s by his late 60’s and is under 24 hour surveillance being a hostage to his own home.  Both great leaders with great aspirations, that ignored (at least in my eyes), the single greatest determining factor on their leadership effectiveness and longevity…their health.

I’ve seen too many of those leaders, both my family and clients, that face burn out or have faced burn out.  They are then coming to me with health conditions that could have been prevented with a little TLC of their health to keep leadership effectiveness strong.  If this is you, then I’m wrong, you will get value out of this book.  If you don’t think you’re a leader, then you’re wrong again.  If you have influence (good or bad) with even one other person, you are a leader.  And again, you will find value in these pages.

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20 Reasons to Break Up With Sugar

Sara VanceI’ve reached out for some help with the content on the site.  I’m lucky to have an article written by Nutritionist Sara Vance, author of the book The Perfect Metabolism Plan. A regular guest on Fox 5 San Diego, you can see many of Sara’s segments on her media page. She also offers corporate nutrition, school programs, consultations, and affordable online eCourses. Download her free 40+ page Metabolism Jumpstart eBook here.  If she looks and sounds familiar to you, she was the amazing host of The Metabolism Summit.  Need a refresher?  Click here.

DO YOU BELIEVE THE MYTH THAT “SUGAR IS JUST HARMLESS EMPTY CALORIES?”

Millions of people believe that myth…and I used to be one of them.

Sugar is definitely empty calories.

But the part that is the lie is that sugar is “harmless.”

FRIENDS. IT IS A BIG. FAT. LIE. 

Not only is excess sugar the #1 reason for a sluggish metabolism and stubborn weight gain, the false idea that it is just harmless empty calories is making billions of people sick….including our children.

Woefully, the real truth is that sugar has a dark side, a very serious dark side.  Chronically elevated blood sugar leads to stubborn weight gain, and raises the risk of almost every major disease. Excess sugar is quite possibly is the worst possible thing for our health overall. Let’s take a closer look….

Sara vance

20 REASONS TO BREAK UP WITH SUGAR:

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Vaxxed – A Must Watch

I took some time with a couple colleagues to drive up to Denver to watch the documentary Vaxxed.  If you have heard of it, it’s probably due the controversy of it being yanked from the Tribeca Film Festival.  As a result, the film probably got more air play with it being yanked than actually having a seat at the table with the other independent films.

Judging a book by its cover, it looks like this movie sets out to be a conspiracy theory, anti-vaxxer film.  At least this is what accusations come up for those die hard pro-vaccine people that refuse to give it a shot.

I can assure you there is no anti-vaccine rhetoric in this document at all.  Everyone involved is pro-vaccine.  What they are fighting against and the message they hope to deliver is the out right fraud by the CDC in omitting data, misleading Congress, and making policy that has caused massive damage to our youth with no repercussions allowed.  Not one second did anyone say, you should not get your kid vaccinated. They did say you should vaccinate with the full data available, which is not available due to a CDC coverup that has the potential to affect 1 million kids every year.  But you didn’t hear about that. You heard about the 600 kids that got measles, that killed no one nor had any long term damage.

The issue isn’t whether MMR causes autism.  The issue is whether the MMR, given at the recommended schedule of 12-18 months causes autism.  This is where the cover-up to catastrophe occurs.  The issue is that the ‘studies’ that the CDC points to in order to ease fear of an MMR-autism link, are in fact damning of their own message.  The studies they reference to calm fears, when using the full amount of data, actually shows an exponential increase with autism with MMR when given at the current CDC schedule.

The issue is that for those that still want to give their child vaccines for measles, mumps, and/or rubella, there’s no single dose vaccines available.  It’s the MMR or nothing.  The issue is that the CDC whistleblower, that has admitted to falsifying data and also trying to contact his superiors about this problem, has no voice unless he testifies in front of Congress.  He wants to be subpoenaed by Congress but NO ONE will serve him with a subpoena, further delaying and covering the catastrophe that the CDC has falsified and covered data that would shake the confidence in their ability to provide unbiased health advice to keep our children from harm.

The issue is that vaccines aren’t treated like every other pharmaceutical intervention, going through randomized, placebo trials.  The issue is that the vaccine makers are also shielded from any responsibility for harm by their product.  The issue is that none of the vaccines are studied in combination with the administration of the other vaccines, yet at 2 months for example, an infant can receive 6 shots together, containing 20 different strains of viral load.

Vaxxed is not an anti-vaccine film.  Vaxxed is a pro-transparency film.  Vaxxed is a pro-CDC accountability film.  Vaxxed is a pro-vaccine safety and efficacy film.  Vaxxed is a pro-parenting film.

As Robert F Kennedy Jr says,

“All those things that protect us are gone. The only thing left that protects that child from that company, the only barrier standing, is the parent. And now we want to take the parent away.”

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Methylation Madness

The term methylation is getting thrown around a lot.  That’s good because the biochemical process of methylation does so much in your health outcomes and you should be familiar with it.  Methylation is the 2nd most abundant chemical reaction that occurs each and every day inside you, right after oxidation-reduction reactions that produce your energy power house ATP.

So what is methylation?  The literal answer is the addition of a methyl group (CH3) to an inactive compound to make it active.  But what does that mean to you and your health plans?  This simple process of adding a single carbon molecule has global effects for maintaining and acceleration many pathways including: neurotransmitters, hormones, detoxification, DNA synthesis, immune system activity, and joint health.

In short, methylation promotes health cells and regulates the expression of genes.  One of the most well known genes that relies on methylation is MTHFR (Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase).  In short, this gene helps the conversion in the pathway from folic acid to methyl tetrahydrofolate (the active form of folic acid).  Without this ability, folic acid remains inactive and this can disrupt a number of reactions that should feed the nervous system.  If the nervous system isn’t supported, this can have global consequences, especially for a fetus in early development.  It’s this active form of folic acid that starts and creates a series of countless critical enzymatic reactions.

For example: Dr. Ben Lynch points out

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