A short YouTube presentation by Dr. Diane Mueller explaining the role of the MTHFR gene and its enzyme in activating folate to produce methyl groups, and how this influences detoxification (including glutathione production), inflammation, and clinical responses in conditions such as Lyme disease and mold toxicity. Dr. Mueller emphasizes that MTHFR is an important but not singular factor—backup pathways (e.g., TMG), cofactor support (e.g., B2), and testing for downstream function (methylation, glutathione) determine whether the genetic variant is clinically expressed. She warns that unmonitored use of methylfolate can worsen symptoms (anxiety) in some patients and recommends a holistic, individualized approach.
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Hey everybody. Dr. Diane, your lymedoc here in this video we're talking about mtfhr, which some people call the mother effer gene. I really think this video is so important to break down what this gene and the enzyme that is related to this gene, what they do, what they don't do, it has that horrible kind of association in part because. Because of regulating detox. So let's get into the nitty gritty of this. How it's related to detox, how it's related to inflammation in your body, on and on and on. So MTHFR is a gene. Genes code for proteins. One of the proteins that MTHFR codes for is an enzyme and this enzyme activates folate. When we get folate from our food, we need to activate it into its methyl form to use is known as this bad gene that doesn't allow us to detox because when we recycle, when we are continuing to activate folate, that is going to downstream in the body lead to the production of something called a methyl group. Methyl groups are needed to run activities and enzymes and processes all over the body. Right. But in addition to that, we also see that MTHFR is needed for the cycle of creating things like glutathione, which helps detox and a lot of other detox pathways. So the reason why people will say that if you have this genetic anomaly, you cannot detox is because it's an upper level part, it's an upper level nutrient that is needed for all these other processes in the body and detox is one of them. Now there's some caveats here and MTHFR I do feel like is very, very important, but I also feel like it's getting so much press and research and I feel like it's only one piece of the puzzle. And there's other pieces that really need to be considered. First of all, when we have a genetic anomaly, it may or may not be expressed and you can check to see if you have enough of certain things in your body. There's tests, for example, to see are you methylating? Okay, are you making enough glutathione? Right. We can test for some of these things and we're testing for some of these things. They can sometimes tell us if MTHFR is likely turned on or not if we had that genetic anomaly. Because if you're making all the downstream things, then your body is probably managing it. Okay. Another thing to know is that another way, another pathway, the body has some of these, these pathways that are backups, right? And so we have backups. For example, if you're not able to make methyl groups because of folate, so you can't. So this process is shut down. Body has something called the TMG pathway. The TMG pathway is another process through which we can actually make things like glutathione. So there are backup pathways for the body. Sometimes they're a little bit more laborious for the body. So I'm not saying it's perfect perfect, but it doesn't mean that everything is completely shut down just because this one chemical pathway is shut down. Now that being said, people oftentimes do respond to getting all their pathways working. But one of the problems that I see sometimes with Lyme and mold, when, and these chronic disease processes, when people are so reactionary and you put them on something like methylfolate and activated folate because they have this gene sometimes that leads to a lot of anxiety. Folate, too much folate can cause anxiety. So sometimes this will lead to a lot of anxiety, for example, and it makes symptoms worse and not better. So we really want to understand all of these different pathways and understand that sometimes by working with one of these other pathways such as tmg, we can detox. That way we can get the process going a little better and we can come back to work on folate later. Another thing that can sometimes help is giving B2, B2 is going to help that folk folate enzyme work better. So kind of the point of this is like MTHFR is very, very important, methylated folate, very, very important. It definitely runs detox, it definitely has impact. There's plenty of evidence showing that. But it doesn't mean that everything that like you're subject to this life full of toxins. It means it's one of many important components and we always want to take into account the. The web of the entire picture is very, very, very important. So if you want help on any of these sorts of things, you can always join my DIY program which is in the show notes for information about my clinic. Also in the show notes. And I hope you have found this helpful and I will see you in another video. Please subscribe if this has been valuable for you. See.
