MTHFR
Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase or MTHFR is the name for both an enzyme and the gene which codes for it. The significance of this gene and enzyme comes from what it does. It methylates folic acid turning it into its active form. This active form of folic acid is important for hundreds of biochemical reactions in your body including energy production and detoxification. What we know is that due to genetic variation people have forms of the MTHFR enzyme that function more or less optimally depending on which form of the gene they have. This means their bodies can do a better or worse job of methylating. So why should you care? If you have, are concerned about getting, or have a family history of any of the following conditions your copies of the MTHFR gene may have something to do with it.
From the very informative page MTHFR.net
Updated: December 6, 2012
- Autism
- Addictions: smoking, drugs, alcohol
- Down’s syndrome
- Miscarriages
- Pulmonary embolisms
- Depression in Post-Menopausal Women
- Schizophrenia
- Fibromyalgia
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Chemical Sensitivity
- Parkinson’s
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome
- Pre-eclampsia
- Stroke
- Spina bifida
- Esophageal Squamous cell carcinoma
- Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
- Vascular Dementia
- Bipolar disorder
- Colorectal Adenoma
- Idiopathic male infertility
- Blood clots
- Rectal cancer
- Meningioma
- Glioma
- Congenital Heart Defects
- Infant depression via epigenetic processes caused by maternal depression
- Deficits in childhood cognitive development
- Gastric Cancer
- Migraines with aura
- Low HDL
- High homocysteine
- Post-menopausal breast cancer
- Atherosclerosis
- Oral Clefts
- Type 1 Diabetes
- Epilepsy
- Primary Closed Angle Glaucoma
- Alzheimer’s
- Tetralogy of Fallot
- Decreased telomere length
- Potential drug toxicities: methotrexate, anti-epileptics
- Cervical dysplasia
- Increased bone fracture risk in post-menopausal women
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Essential Hypertension
- Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma
- Prostate Cancer
- Premature Death
- Placental Abruption
- Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack)
- Methotrexate Toxicity
- Nitrous Oxide Toxicity
- Heart Murmurs
- Tight Anal Sphincters
- Tongue Tie
- Midline Defects (many are listed above)
- Behcet’s Disease
- Ischemic Stroke in Children
- Unexplained Neurologic Disease
- Asthma
- Shortness of Breath
- Bladder Cancer
- Anecephaly
So what can you do? Get the test from a doctor knowledgeable in MTHFR, then follow the protocol they give you based on your particular genes. You only take the test once, and can do much for yourself and your family to help prevent the above conditions and improve your quality of life.