Introduction
Methylation is a rather simple concept that sounds complicated. Just like a car needs oil, our cells need certain ingredients to work well.
Strangely, most our DNA in our genetic code does not do anything. It sits there silently most of the time. Genes are actually switched on and off before they are used. This is how the body chooses what happens and what does not happen.
In order for them to be switched on and off, they require a certain chemical to be placed on top of them to ‘silence’ them or ‘activate’ them. This chemical is a ‘methyl’ group and the process of getting those methyl groups to the right place is called methylation.
Methylation is just a common chemical reaction that our cells need to do very often in order for genes to function and cells to reproduce. Without it, cell function is poor, cleaning up damage is harder and we start to get tired and stressed.
This causes problems all over the body but especially in the brain and in our cholesterol, blood pressure and metabolism; the slow stuff in the background that adds up.
Methylation is an important topic in functional medicine; helping the body function in the small essential ways is how we can avoid being run down and worn out. Critically, B vitamins are essential to good methylation and getting this process right can really help improve energy and function.
What is methylation?
Reference: https://www.labclinics.com/2018/11/08/role-dna-methylation-disease/?lang=en
Methylation is where a methyl group is transferred from one molecule to another. This process is needed to turn on genes, make proteins, forms enzymes, drives detoxification chemical reactions, influences hormones and also helps the body maintain health.
Methylation is impacted negatively by oxidative stress, toxins, poor nutrition, infections and genetic metabolic defects. These processes require the body to divert resources for methylation to cleaning up damage.
Methylation is chemical process that helps cells grow and divide; specifically, it switches genes on and off.
When new cells reproduce, they contain a full set of the entire genetic information our body carries. This is called the chromosome; the twisty thing. Of course, not every gene is needed (a liver cell doesn’t need to make bone); methylation is the process whereby any given cell can ‘silence’ and shut up the unwanted genes to get the ones it needs.
Furthermore, genes need to be read in order to manage many other cell processes. This includes making proteins, enzymes, detoxifying and repairing damage to cells, cell reproduction and downstream this impacts, hormones, health and so on .
What is needed for good methylation?
Methylation is heavily dependent on ‘B’ vitamins, choline, folate and good gut bacteria. The methylation cycle needs to consume B vitamins to get to the other end chemically.
Interestingly, the bacteria living in our gut (naturally, and involuntarily) play a role in methylation. E Coli, as one example, can make Folate out of p aminobenzoyl glutamate or PABA. They use fiber; roughage we cannot digest. Eating vegetables is therefore essential to methylation as it provides the required materials.
How does methylation impact health?
Methylation is an important process. 80% of genes need to be silenced for the body to function properly. 100% of cells need clean genetic reproduction to function well.
The main problems for methylation is not enough folate, B vitamins or problems in the gut. There are also genetic issues with methylation which can impact the process. Any form of inflammation or toxicity also drives up the need for methylation; as cells need to do more work to deal with damage.
What happens when methylation is not going well?
When methylation is not functioning properly, other important cell processes are compromised. For example, the energy production centre of a cell, the mitochondria, also starts to be compromised. Cells then do not reproduce well and the dysfunction spreads.
How can we measure methylation?
Methylation issues can be tested for in a variety of ways. Doing a baseline Folate and B12 level is worthwhile. Checking the liver function is helpful to get a blunt sense of how much stress the body may be under. Homocysteine is a molecule linked to the methylation cycle; it elevates when methylation is going poorly.
Homocysteine itself is linked to blood vessel problems (heart disease, erectile dysfunction) as well as Alzheimer’s disease. The ideal homocysteine is less than 8.
What are the treatments for methylation problems?
Like much of medicine, it is important to treat the body as a whole. Ensuring good quality sleep, exercise, a diet rich in vegetables and fruits is the place to start. Methylation relies on B vitamins and Folate; so B vitamin supplementation (often as an infusion) with long term B complex is usually begun.
In the first instance, B12 will be given. Methylcobalamin or B12 assists homocysteine to be re-methylated into methionine. This is done by methionine synthase or MTR which is encoded by a gene. Methionine becomes SAM which is the key methyl donor for the methylation process of epigenetics.
For difficult cases, SAMe may be used. It was traditionally used for depression, energy and liver function. In addition, it may be useful to conduct genetic studies to see if a person’s methylation system is different to others.
Zinc is also usually given to enhance methylation and fish oil supplementation may assist brain recovery in the setting of poor methylation.
What genetic conditions can impact methylation?
We have heard before that high homocysteine shows that we have methylation issues. Homocysteine is meant to to be turned back into methionine; this is a part of how the methyl groups are recycled.
Some people have a kind of genetic error in this process. This is called a single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP; this means one bit of DNA code is wrong. This can affect a gene called MTHFR which produces the enzyme that turns the homocysteine to methionine.
If this fails, the homocysteine builds up and methionine is lower. The body does not like this and starts using another useful chemical, called choline, to make up the shortfall. This can make the whole methylation process worse.
People with this genetic defect often need to be treated with SAM, the outcome molecule from methionine. If somebody has persistently high homocysteine, they should talk to their integrative doctor about going down this pathway and testing their genes for methylation.
In people with this SNP problem, the homocysteine will continue to go up and has a hard time converting to methionine.
Practically speaking, how can I boost my methylation?
- Zinc picolinate 15mg twice per day
- B12 supplementation
- Dietary Fiber
- Folate 0.4mg or 400mcg per day
- In difficult cases, use SAMe, a direct booster for methylation
