Dr. Tim Jackson is a doctor of Physical Therapy. He also studied nutritional biochemistry, digestive health and its systemic effects, as well as functional endocrinology. He helps people with all sorts of disorders over at HealYourbody.org. He also does online consults through his Heal Your Body Program.

In this episode we talked about:

What MTHFR means: (It's not your first thought. I know what you were thinking.) It stands for Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. (Say that three times fast.)

It basically means that if you have it, you lack the ability to activate folic acid into methyl-folate.
Then you don't have the useable form of folate and you have too much folic acid sitting around.

That's when disorders start popping up. Miscarriages have been associated with MTHFR.

Best place to get tested: 23andme.com. You will just get the raw data, no interpretations.
Get interpretations at livewello.com or MTHFRSupport.com.

Heterozygous means you have one copy
Homozygous means you have two copies
Polymorphism is a SNP (Single-nucleotide polymorphism)
Genetics refers to actual mutations someone might have. Trisomy or Down's Syndrome are examples.
Epigenetics are modifiable risk factors, which give us a predisposition to certain diseases or disorders. The key word is modifiable. They are not set in stone.
"HG can be the straw that breaks the camel's back."
Allostatic load means the sum total of internal and external stressors on the body.
"It can take a disease from subclinical to clinical" (expressed).
"Any stressor can effect the expression of genes."
Exposome means everything you've been exposed to in your life.
You can have too little or too much methylation. This effect neurotransmitter production (mood disorders), T-cells (infection and allergies), and Glutithione (which controls free radicals).

Can Hyperemesis Gravidarum be an allergy to the hormones, the placenta or the baby? Short answer....YES.

Neuro-immune is more accurate than "Auto-immune" to describe this.

Liver Detox:
Phase 1: oxydation
Phase 2: conjugation-methylation
Phase 3: Transport to the cell

Milk Thistle supports Phase 1 detox. If phase 2 is not adequate, the byproducts of phase 1 sit around causing oxidative stress.

B vitamins, NAC (N-acetyl cysteine-precursor to glutithione), Glutithione and Glycine support Phase 2 detox.

Oxidative Stress causes all disorders, which go through 3 stages.
Stage 1: energetic imbalance (you don't feel bad in this stage)
Stage 2: Functional: Fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome. You feel the effects but there are no biomarkers to show what's going on.
Stage 3: lesional-can be seen on an MRI (like Multiple Sclerosis)

Inflammation causes fatigue ad premature aging.
Lipid Peroxidation: damage to cell membranes

What to do about it:
Support the methylation cycle
Reduce oxidative stress

Diet:
Clean out processed foods and additives.
Remove sugar and gluten.
Consider removing dairy
Heal your gut (mood disorders are related to leaky gut.)
Just because you don't have symptoms, doesn't mean you don't have a disorder.
"The system that is disordered might not be what's expressing itself."

Supplements:
Glutithione: Oral liposomal form, transdermal creams and oral s-acetyl-glutithione
Magnesium and zinc are cofactors for methylfolate and other b vitamins.
B12 needs methylfolate. Taking methylfolate without B12 could cause "methyl-trapping". To learn more about this, check out my paper about the importance of Magnesium, Zinc and B vitamins. Sign up here and I'll email the paper to you.

For more suggestions, check out Dr. Jackson's website.
He suggests not taking supplements all at once but after changing your diet to reduce insulin (which is pro-inflammatory), increasing healthy fats (which fuels the liver, tissues and cells and helps balance hormones) then layer in supplements, one at a time. Minerals first, magnesium, then zinc. Then add B vitamins, starting with B12. The last supplement to add is methylfolate.

Liver, gallbladder and pancreas:
We know the importance of the liver. The gallbladder helps with bile flow. Bile is dependent on glutithione. If you're not methylating in the liver and the bile is backed up, toxins back up. This can mess up our ability to process carbohydrates (diabetes is carbohydrate intolerance) and this has an effect on our pancreas, which produces insulin.

If you want to get in touch with Dr. Jackson, you can visit his website at healyourbody.org. Check out his facebook page. Or email him at [email protected].

Let me know what you think! Does this connect some dots for you about your health?