Happy Monday Clan! I hope you all got information last week about he SB276, you shared and you got fired up about the potential future of our little ones.
It’s a scary subject, but one that we can’t stand behind anymore. I hope you got the information you need to continue protesting.
——
This weekend, I went to a LIFE changing seminar. I’ve been waiting to take a course of advanced genetics and methylation, and this weekend it finally came! Wow, needless to say I will be changing ALOT in my nutritional practice now knowing what I know.
It seems also pointless for me to go back to doing nutritional protocols without looking at how you are actually processing things. Today, we will be talking about just 1 gene in the entire pathway shown here.
I know right?!
The body is COMPLEX! That’s why when people talk about detoxification and MTHFR gene, they miss a big part of the ENTIRE picture. There’s SO much more than just that one gene, let me tell you!
Don’t worry, before you delete this email from overwhelm, I’m only talking about one gene here called VDR.
What’s important for you to know as well, is that we cannot change our actual genes, but we CAN change and enhance HOW we express them, which can have huge effects!
For Example:
Recent progress in the understanding of nutritional influences on epigenetics suggests that nutrients that are part of methyl-group metabolism can significantly influence epigenetics.
During critical periods in development, dietary methyl-group intake (choline, methionine, and folate) can alter DNA and histone methylation, which results in lifelong changes in gene expression!!
Also when we are talking about gene regulation through nutrition, the genes we are talking about code for different enzymes. These enzymes are either unregulated or down regulated causing effects within the body.
VDR is the enzyme responsible for breaking down Vitamin D. If we have a two copies of this gene from mom and dad, then there are extremely limited receptors for vitamin D.
This is how vitamin D converts in our body:
This gene plays an important role in how we can utilize vitamin D!
Which we know is huge for immunity, bone health, and much more.
If you have this gene, and do not have receptors for vitamin D, most likely in your bloodwork you will show low levels of vitamin D.
But what does that mean?
Well, when you test vitamin D in the blood, that is its inactive form. What usually happens though is that individuals then start taking vitamin D supplementation. But this is NOT smart if you have this VDR gene, because you have LIMITED receptors to use it. So what happens is that the vitamin D gets pulled into the bloodstream and can create calcification in the blood vessels.
That means you will still be vitamin D deficient, because you’re not using it, but also are creating toxicity in your body by overdosing.
This gene also has other roles:
-Immune system
-infections
-SIBO
-chronic fatigue
-depression
-Associated with autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s
-Leads to low dopamine levels-depression and reward seeking behavior
-body aches/pains
•Must have methylation cycles going to get full expression of VDR!
IF you know someone with chronic infections, chronic adrenal fatigue or depression, they most likely carry this gene. Giving continual adrenal support, or always detoxing and doing gut protocols will be an endless cycle with these people. Also, those with LYME you most likely have this gene. When you REV up this cycle the infections can’t hide! That means if you have a lot of infections, this cycle isn’t working well if at all.
What needs to be done is add in what are called nutritional co-factors in order to switch that gene’s expression and actually ABSORB the vitamin D!
•Vitamin A protects against vitamin D toxicity and introduced the possibility that vitamins A, D, and K2 may be cooperative factors that should all be consumed in proper balance.
- Magnesium is needed to exert positive influence over the human genome and may be involved in the genetic actions of vitamin D.
Magnesium possibly has a role in vitamin D’s effect on the immune system.
Magnesium works synergistically with vitamin D and calcium by stimulating calcitonin–which helps to preserve bone structure and draws calcium out of the blood and soft tissues back into the bones - Fat is also needed to absorb Vitamin D.
- Vitamin D is absorbed in the small intestine, requires adequate bile salts. Low HCL and food allergies can cause a binding of vitamin D in the small intestine rendering it totally unusable.
- Probiotic help promote the full absorption of all nutrients, but especially vitamin D. (Maybe affected by FUT variants.)
- VDR balancing can help heal SIBO and greatly benefit the microbiome.
So, think TWICE before taking just a vitamin D supplement when your vitamin D levels are low. Make sure you know your genetics. I like using ancestry.com, and decoding them from there.
More to come on other important genes, and how to clean them up!
I’m excited to incorporate this more and give patients LESS supplements, more SPECIFIC supplements at the cellular level to make lasting changes to allow YOUR body to do what it needs to do.
Have a great week!
Oil of the Week.
On the spotlight this week is DoTerra’s Lemongrass.
What are the origins of a plant’s unique essential oil? The answers lie in genetics. Genes function as a code, similar to the code that runs an app. If you know how to read an app’s code, you can construct in your mind the various functions, and the look and feel of the app. The same applies to genes. Scientists have made great strides in knowing how to read what a gene’s code will make.
DNA is a sequence of linked nucleotides, which are a form of small molecule. A gene is a cluster of these nucleotides. It used to cost billions of dollars and years of extremely hard work to sequence the genes of an organism. In the last 20 years, sequencing technology has improved dramatically, such that now sequencing genes is quick and relatively inexpensive. Scientists have found that most genes code for distinct proteins. Proteins perform almost all of the functions of a cell, including producing the various chemical components of an essential oil.
Scientists in India studied the genetic origins of Lemongrass essential oil, which is native to India. Lemongrass, Cymbopogon flexuosus, produces many secondary metabolites, including essential oils. Of the genes relating to secondary metabolites, 18 percent coded for terpenoid backbone biosynthesis, 1 percent for monoterpenoid biosynthesis, 1 percent for sesquiterpenoid and triterpenoid biosynthesis, and 5 percent for limonene and pinene degradation. That represents a significant investment by the Lemongrass plant in producing a diverse essential oil. The diversity of these genes correlates to the diversity of components in Lemongrass essential oil.
It is theorized that plants with more diverse essential oil component profiles also have a diverse profile of essential oil biosynthesis genes. The chemical component makeup of a plant’s essential oil isn’t created by chance, but is due to evolutionary pressures working on the genes of the plants over time. The essential oil of Lemongrass (and other plants) are therefore the product of thousands of years of evolutionary selection to give you the very best that nature has to offer.
