We are growing older but we are not healthy. You could say the key is as simple as not getting sick in the first place… yeah, easier said than done when we live in such a polluted environment and are suffering from overwork, poverty, greed and ignorance. I mean it’s a vicious circle isn’t it?
We can’t get away from the pollution which depletes the vitamins that are necessary for us to function. And its difficult to naturally re-nourish the over farmed earth we grow our crops in. We could and should all take that good health advice and eat the 5 or 7 or even the 10 a day that they currently say are good for us, give up the booze and cigarettes and exercise regularly. Imagine eating 10 a day, that would be ten handfuls of fruit and vegetables add in a cube of cheese a yoghurt, some protein and your carbs. Its a lot to take in isn’t it but, its not impossible and we can always revert to smoothies, soups, shakes, juices and multivitamin supplements just to make sure you are getting all the right nutrients in there. If you live healthily you should be living a spritely life well into your 90’s but sadly for about 40% of us none of that healthy living really matters. If you have an MTHFR gene mutation you can do as much healthy living as you like and still fall prey to a whole host of diseases including cancer, mental illness , Alzheimer’s, dementia, heart disease, ME , chronic fatigue syndrome, Arthritis… the list goes on and on and on. Because with this Mother of a gene mutation the methylation process doesn’t function properly which put simply means some of your vitamins don’t convert to usable ones.
We could say its a lottery, we cant do anything about it, its just the luck of the draw. But is it? If you could check that you had MTHFR would you? It is easily done with a genetic test. There are a number of companies that offer this type of genetic testing at a reasonable price. But what difference would it make if we knew anyway? Wouldn’t we be living in doom and gloom knowing we were going to pop off early? Maybe, but when you think about it, Knowledge is power and knowing means we can be proactive. I mean we do want to be healthy don’t we? Supplementation with the correct vitamins could actually protect us. The main thing we need to understand is our methylation process doesn’t function properly so we need vitamins and supplements that have already been methylated, and that are optimised and bio available and to support the methylation process itself, particularly B12, B6, B3, B2, Folate, glutathione, Magnesium, Choline and the others mentioned in the infographic below.
It saddens me that here in the UK the NHS does not test for MTHFR and encourage people to supplement wisely. We can see the effect of what not doing so is having on our NHS resources and the care and mental health services. We are seeing the mortality rate drop, more younger people suffering from heart disease, dementia and cancers. Yet the government have done nothing. Doctors are not trained to spot a vitamin deficiency and few really understand what Methylation or MTHFR is but they do understand antidepressants and would rather you just chilled out and slipped away peacefully whilst taking a whole host of other pharmaceuticals to treat something they could have avoided in the first place.
The problem with Supplements is knowing what to take, knowing what you are deficient in is key. Not all deficiencies are caused by MTHFR. Many are caused through pharmaceuticals and gut problems. Unfortunately its impossible to get a full vitamin profile from your doctor and difficult even for deficiencies that will kill you or leave you disabled such as a b12 deficency. The NHS would be better offering a full vitamin profile on a three yearly basis. After all we are what we eat and the vitamins, minerals and micro nutrients we put into our bodies are what build, renew and protect every cell in it. Being proactive would not only save lives but also billions of pounds each year. There are however companies that will do a vitamin check for you at a reasonable cost if you want to take your health into your own hands. The way things are going you may have no choice as the NHS may not survive the epidemic that it has failed to protect us against.
Supplementarily Yours 