BY BEN LYNCH, ND

My friend Yasmin was in her mid-forties and had struggled with depression her entire life.

Nothing clinical, nothing that kept her from holding down a demanding job as a biomedical technician, marrying a great guy, and raising two wonderful kids.

But whenever I met up with her, she always seemed a little down, a little flat.

“How are you?” I might ask.

“I’m okay.”

“Well, how’s your day going?”

“It’s okay.”

“And the kids?”

“They’re okay.”

You get the idea.

Yasmin wasn’t a client of mine, but she was very interested in my work, especially when I told her about the research I was doing with MTHFR, a gene that has an enormous impact on our physical and mental well being.

When I told her that MTHFR SNPs (single-nucleotide polymorphisms) are very common and that I, along with all three of my boys, have them, she decided to have her doctor check out just that one gene. Sure enough, she had two SNPs.

Because her MTHFR gene was dirty, hundreds of functions in Yasmin’s body weren’t being properly methylated. Methylation is crucial to your body’s health, and MTHFR is crucial to the Methylation Cycle—the process by which your body’s genes, enzymes, and biochemicals receive the methyl groups that they need to function properly.

Due to the importance of the Methylation Cycle, a dirty MTHFR will soon cause you problems like Yasmin’s. Your energy level drops. Your mental outlook suffers. Your metabolism gets out of whack. Your hormones go nuts. Your heart struggles.

So, what’s the solution?

Well, the first step, as I told Yasmin, is to eat a lot of leafy greens. Your MTHFR’s job is to methylate folate (vitamin B9), turning it into methylfolate, the biochemical needed to kick off the Methylation Cycle. If your MTHFR is dirty, however, it can’t methylate all the folate you need, so your Methylation Cycle can’t function smoothly.

Luckily, you can help your dirty MTHFR by eating foods that already contain a lot of methylfolate, easing its burden and supporting your cycle. Leafy greens are full of methylfolate, so I told Yasmin to eat more salads and lightly cooked greens.

Ideally, diet gives you all the nutrients you need. But if your genes are dirty—and especially if they’ve been messy for a while—they might need another boost. Yasmin had been depressed for such a long time that her methylfolate levels were likely to be extremely low. For that reason, I also suggested that she take a methylfolate supplement to jump-start her recovery.

Methylfolate is a very potent supplement—you can’t just start taking it in big quantities and expect everything to go smoothly. Some people can get away with that, but others will have very disturbing symptoms, anything from persistent anxiety to intense feelings of anger and aggression. As I do with my clients, I had Yasmin start slowly.

Yasmin started the dosage just a week before she and her family took a week’s vacation to spend some time with her parents. Next thing I knew, her mother was on the phone to me, with her dad on the other line.

“What have you done to our daughter?” they wanted to know.

“She’s so happy! She seems to really be enjoying life. When you ask her how she is, she tells you about all the things that are going well, that she’s excited about. This is the happy person we always hoped she’d be! What happened?”

When Yasmin came back, I could see the difference, too. She was still a quiet, thoughtful person, but there was an extra spark. Her affect was no longer flat; instead, it was lively and warm.

“I feel like I’ve come to life,” she told me. “Can one supplement really make such a difference?”

I told her I had seen the same type of response with dozens of patients, and that the doctors I’d worked with had shared hundreds of similar stories. In time, I told her, she might not even have to take a supplement—she might be able to get the same effect entirely from diet. That’s the power of cleaning up your genes—especially your MTHFR.

Meet Your Dirty MTHFR

If your MTHFR was born dirty, it can have more than one hundred SNPs. However, lab companies test only the most common ones, so your results are likely to show just one to four SNPs, which typically lower function to anywhere between thirty to eighty percent.

However—and I want to be super clear about this—even if you were born with a thirty percent MTHFR, you might experience absolutely no symptoms at all.

Why not?

When all your genes are as clean as they can be, your born-dirty genes will give you a lot less trouble—maybe even no trouble at all.

The Methylation Cycle—Part 1

I call MTHFR the “methylation master” because it’s the gene that kicks off your Methylation Cycle. More than two hundred of your body’s vital functions rely on methylation—functions such as skin repair, digestion, and detoxification.

In other words, those functions need methyl groups to operate the way they’re supposed to. And where do they get those methyl groups? From your Methylation Cycle. Since the Methylation Cycle is such an important factor in keeping your genes and your body in good shape, I want you to understand how it works.

Think of those two hundred functions, or processes, as two hundred gardens located throughout your body. Just as gardens need water, so do those processes need methyl groups.

The Methylation Cycle is like an irrigation system that draws water from a clean, clear lake and distributes it to all the gardens. If something blocks or disrupts or dirties the irrigation system, some or all of those two hundred gardens won’t get the water they need. Likewise, if something blocks or disrupts or dirties your Methylation Cycle, some or all of your body’s processes either won’t get the methyl groups they need or won’t be able to use them properly.

In assessing the effectiveness of your Methylation Cycle, there are two issues you’ll want to look at:

• Are methyl groups distributed to all the processes that need them?

• Can each process, once in possession of needed methyl groups, use those methyl groups effectively?

What might keep your Methylation Cycle from effectively using the methyl groups it produces? It’s a long list! Chemicals, dirty genes, lack of vital nutrients, leaky gut, chronic infection, and stress can all either block the Methylation Cycle or significantly slow it down.

The Methylation Cycle—Part 2

So you need your Methylation Cycle to work efficiently. How exactly does that happen?

As noted above, it’s all about passing on methyl groups to functions that need them. Your MTHFR gets the process going by passing a methyl group to folate. That methylfolate then interacts with another biochemical—homocysteine, for example—passing the methyl group to it. Now homocysteine is methylated and becomes methionine. This process continues from one biochemical to another, in a kind of “bucket brigade” of genes, enzymes, and biochemicals. Just picture a bucket full of methyl groups being passed on and on through the Methylation Cycle.

Finally, the bucket ends up in the hands of a biochemical called S-adenosylmethionine, or SAMe. That’s the player that ultimately passes those methyl groups on to the two hundred functions, or processes, that need them. When SAMe levels are too low or too high, those crucial processes in the rest of your body are greatly affected. Maintaining the right amount of SAMe is a f ine balancing act, and MTHFR plays a crucial role in that process.

After SAMe has successfully passed on its methyl groups, it becomes a different biochemical, known as homocysteine. Homocysteine is the end product of methylation—but it’s also the beginning: when your body is healthy and the Methylation Cycle is working well, homocysteine gets scooped up, methylated, and eventually turned into SAMe—and the whole cycle begins again.

The Methylation Cycle—Part 3

Once SAMe passes the methyl groups on to the various processes that need them, what happens next?

The binding of a methyl group changes many compounds in your body so that they have a new structure—and a new function. Sometimes the transformation occurs so that your body can use these new compounds. Sometimes it occurs so that your body can expel them.

Here are some examples:

Compounds Methylated to Use

• Phosphatidylcholine. Choline is a biochemical found in animal proteins. Methylate it, and you get phosphatidylcholine, which your body uses to make cell walls and to perform many other functions.

• Creatine. Methylated guanidoacetate becomes creatine, which is absolutely crucial for brain and muscle function.

• Melatonin. Methylated serotonin becomes melatonin, which you need to fall asleep.

Compounds Methylated to Expel

• Arsenic. When arsenic is methylated, it stops being active and your body can flush it out with the help of a superhero called glutathione.

• Histamine. Histamine is a powerful immune-system compound that you want in just the right amount. Too much gives you symptoms such as a runny nose or insomnia. When histamine is methylated your body can expel it.

• Estrogen. Unmethylated estrogen is active, but methylated estrogen is expelled from your body. So methylation protects you from excess estrogen, which can cause PMS, menstrual issues, and the risk of estrogen-related cancers.

These are just a few of the critical biochemical reactions that depend upon SAMe.

When SAMe has finished handing off its methyl groups, it turns into a brand-new chemical—one made only inside your body: homocysteine.

Think of a big sheet of cookie dough. You’ve cut out dozens of cookies in all sorts of shapes, but when you’re done, some scraps of dough remain. That’s homocysteine—the scraps left over after all that important methylating has gone on.

Your body has two choices for that leftover “dough”: it can roll it back into the next batch of cookies, or it can use it for something completely different.

1. The “more cookies” option. Homocysteine is methylated and goes right back into the cycle.

2. “Something completely different.” Homocysteine is used to make glutathione, a key detoxifying biochemical. (Glutathione is so important that I often refer to it as a “superhero.”)

The decision is easy for your genes. If your body is in good shape, not too stressed, everything is working fine, homocysteine goes right back into the Methylation Cycle. More cookies!

But if you have a lot of free radicals and oxidative stress around—which happens if you’ve been skimping on sleep, feeling stressed, and exposing your body to a lot of toxins—then you’re going to need more glutathione to clean things up. In that case, your homocysteine will be pulled out of methylation and put toward making glutathione.

This is why you want your body in good shape: you want to maximize the materials available to your Methylation Cycle, rather than shunting them off to make extra glutathione.

Change can be gradual, and sometimes, even the smallest adjustments—more greens on your plate, mindful methylfolate supplementation, or a new perspective on your daily habits—can help rewrite your story.

As Yasmin discovered, supporting your genes is not about perfection but progress: a chance to move from “just okay” to truly thriving. Your genetic blueprint isn’t your destiny.

With informed choices and steady steps, you can empower your body and mind toward greater vitality, resilience, and joy—one healthy decision at a time.

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Ben Lynch, ND, received his Bachelor of Science in cell and molecular biology from the University of Washington and his doctorate in naturopathic medicine (ND) from Bastyr University. His passion for identifying the cause of disease directed him toward nutrigenomics and methylation dysfunction.

Currently, he researches, writes, and presents worldwide on the topic of MTHFR, methylation defects, and genetic control. Learn more about Dr. Lynch and his work at www.drbenlynch.com

Well Being Journal adapted the above excerpt from DIRTY GENES: A Breakthrough Program to Treat the Root Cause of Illness and Optimize Your Health by Dr. Ben Lynch and reprinted with permission from HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. © Copyright 2020.