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

  1. Autism
  2. Addictions: smoking, drugs, alcohol
  3. Down’s syndrome
  4. Miscarriages
  5. Pulmonary embolisms
  6. Depression in Post-Menopausal Women
  7. Schizophrenia
  8. Fibromyalgia
  9. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
  10. Chemical Sensitivity
  11. Parkinson’s
  12. Irritable Bowel Syndrome
  13. Pre-eclampsia
  14. Stroke
  15. Spina bifida
  16. Esophageal Squamous cell carcinoma
  17. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
  18. Vascular Dementia
  19. Bipolar disorder
  20. Colorectal Adenoma
  21. Idiopathic male infertility
  22. Blood clots
  23. Rectal cancer
  24. Meningioma
  25. Glioma
  26. Congenital Heart Defects
  27. Infant depression via epigenetic processes caused by maternal depression
  28. Deficits in childhood cognitive development
  29. Gastric Cancer
  30. Migraines with aura
  31. Low HDL
  32. High homocysteine
  33. Post-menopausal breast cancer
  34. Atherosclerosis
  35. Oral Clefts
  36. Type 1 Diabetes
  37. Epilepsy
  38. Primary Closed Angle Glaucoma
  39. Alzheimer’s
  40. Tetralogy of Fallot
  41. Decreased telomere length
  42. Potential drug toxicities: methotrexate, anti-epileptics
  43. Cervical dysplasia
  44. Increased bone fracture risk in post-menopausal women
  45. Multiple Sclerosis
  46. Essential Hypertension
  47. Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma
  48. Prostate Cancer
  49. Premature Death
  50. Placental Abruption
  51. Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack)
  52. Methotrexate Toxicity
  53. Nitrous Oxide Toxicity
  54. Heart Murmurs
  55. Tight Anal Sphincters
  56. Tongue Tie
  57. Midline Defects (many are listed above)
  58. Behcet’s Disease
  59. Ischemic Stroke in Children
  60. Unexplained Neurologic Disease
  61. Asthma
  62. Shortness of Breath
  63. Bladder Cancer
  64. 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.