MTHFR Explained: Why You’re Doing Everything Right But Still Feel Off (Episode 79)

0:00You're listening to the Thrive with Carey Podcast, where midlife women reclaim their health with cutting-edge holistic tips and practical wisdom. I'm Carey Chenasi, holistic-up practitioner and certified health coach, and I'm here to guide you with inspiring stories, actionable advice, and lots of laughter. Are you ready to get out of the rut and start flourishing with radiance, confidence, and joy alongside me? Let's get started. Hello friends, and welcome to the Thrive with Carey Podcast. I'm so glad you're here today listening in. Today's episode is one that feels really, really personal to me, and honestly it's one I wish I had heard years ago, because it would have helped me understand my body in a way that I just

1:02never did before, and in a completely different way. So, what we're talking about today is something called MTHFR. So we're going to talk about what it is, what that means, and why it might be a missing piece. If you've ever felt like you're doing everything right, but that, you know, those things are not working, and you're still not feeling like yourself. Now, before I go into the science of it all, I want to start with my story, because this is actually how I found out about MTHFR. Several years ago, my dear brother passed away unexpectedly from a stroke. He was only 50, like a week shy of his 51st birthday, and it was absolutely devastating, came out of nowhere, and we were broken, you know, and just even, you know, just talking about it still feels heavy, because lost like that doesn't just pass.

2:03It changes everything about how you look at your life, how you experience day-to-day events and big events, and it just honestly feels like a piece of you is gone. And honestly, nobody can really understand it unless they've gone through it themselves, but it just changes you completely. So in the middle of the grief of losing my brother, I was also searching for answers. I was actually the one in the family who was like, I need to understand why this happened. I don't want this to happen to anybody else ever in my family. Again, how can we stop this, you know, because honestly, my grandmother had died of a stroke. My aunt had had a stroke, so like there was a lot of the prevalence of stroke was really heavy in our family, and I knew that there had to be a reason.

3:08So I went to my doctor and I asked her, you know, is there something underlying that could have caused this? What do I need to do to figure out if this is something I might be susceptible to you know, because honestly, like we wondered, you know, what do we miss? What could we have done differently? And in situations like that, there's really nothing you can do except be proactive and figure out how to prevent it in yourself and, you know, try. All you can do is try. So my doctor decided she wanted to do what was called the thrombotic panel to look at some genetic clotting disorders, just to see if that might have been a contribution for his death, because he was an organ donor, and honestly, like we didn't dig that deep using him, right? It wasn't like, okay, well, let's figure this out. They knew he had a stroke, and that was it, and his body went off to save other lives, which was wonderful for them, but we still needed to know.

4:14So I had this thrombotic panel, and what I found out was that I have what's called a compound heterozygous MTHFR gene mutation, and I remember sitting there going, what the heck, you know, MTHFR, like all you could think of is like, you know, like, like, what are you talking about? What does that even mean? You know, is this serious? Like, am I going to have a stroke? Is this something I should be worried about? Is it connected to other issues that I've experienced in my own health? So thankfully, my doctor, you know, kind of reassured me, she did have me go off birth control, and said, you know, I really don't think you should be ever with control pills, anything that could put you at risk for clotting. Like, let's just, I never, I'm never, knock on wood, experienced a clot in my life, but I, we wanted to do whatever we could to prevent

5:15anything, you know, so she talked to me about seeing a nutritionist and trying to figure out what next steps could be helpful for me. But as I dug deeper into learning about MTHFR, and I started learning more, I just didn't realize how much it would start to connect the dots for me. Like, things began to click in a way that had never before. Like, the fatigue I had experienced, the brain fog, and this took me a while. Like, I had the testing right after he died, and honestly, it took me probably five, six years to actually get to a point where I was like learning consistently, and actually doing something about what I was learning, you know, like utilizing the information. Because, you know, I went through a whole period of grief, and I had all these really chronic illnesses, and which, if you want to hear about that, go back to, like, I don't know, maybe episode two, one of my first few episodes talks a lot about the things that I was struggling with. And so,

6:19anyway, I started, as I started to learn more, I started to put the pieces together, and I realized, like, the fatigue I had experienced, the brain fog, the chronic pain, the hormonal imbalances, the GI issues, the feeling that I was doing all the right things, and I could not seem to feel like myself, ever. And it was like, someone just handed me a missing puzzle piece. And I want to pause there for a second, because this wasn't actually a moment of fear for me, which I get that a lot from people, like, some people don't want to know these genetic things that they have, or they, but honestly, it's empowerment, right? There, there becomes a state of knowing and understanding. And for me, it was the beginning of asking better questions. And making simple changes, and that's what I want for you today, and listening to this,

7:22because if you've ever felt like I did, right, you're trying, you're making good choices, you're eating well, you're supplementing, you're moving your body, and yet you are still exhausted. Foggy brain, cranky, irritable, anxious, and your body doesn't seem to be responding as it should, or as it used to. And then you go to your doctor, and your doctor's like, well, everything looks great, right? Their labs look great. Everything looks fine. And sometimes it's not that nothing is wrong. Everything can look right, and still something can be wrong. It's that we're, it could just be that you're missing how all of the systems in the body are actually connected, and what could be impacting them to cause this mass chaos. Okay, so we're going to walk through this together in a way that I hope feels simple and grounded.

8:27So first and foremost, empty each of our is a gene. I'm not going to try to say the whole word because it's hard. And I'm going to trip over it. But it's a gene, bottom line is it's a gene that helps run a process called methylation. And I want you to think of methylation as your body's internal support system, like a master switch that helps regulate everything that's happening behind the scenes. Okay, your body is constantly doing things for you that you don't ever have to think about. It's processing hormones, it's clearing toxins, it's producing neurotransmitters, which are chemical signals or chemicals that travel from your gut to your brain. It's producing neurotransmitters like serotonin, which is your feel good, happy chemical,

9:28endopamin, which is your drive and motivation and like, yeah, your drive and motivation to do things and move. It's producing GABA, which is your natural anti-anxiety and melatonin, which helps you sleep. Okay, so it's it's making those neurotransmitters. It's making energy at the cellular level. That switches off. You don't have basic cellular energy. It's repairing cells and managing inflammation. Methylation is one of the key processes that helps all of these things happen smoothly. So when this process is working well, you don't have to think about it and you feel great. But when it's not, things can start to feel off in multiple areas all at once. And that's really where we're like, what the heck is wrong with me, right? It's it's really discouraging

10:30and exhausting and sometimes deflating to feel this way and not have an answer and not understand maybe the switch just needs to be turned on or at least nurtured. So this is where I see a lot of women get stuck because the symptoms they're experiencing don't seem connected. Like, why am I tired and wired? Like, why am I anxious and yet sometimes calm? Why is my digestion off and my hormones like raging? Why do I feel foggy brain even though I slept a full 10 hours last night? Why do I feel achy and sore for no reason? But when you zoom out, there's often that deeper connection and that is where the MTHFR gene comes in. So with this gene, there are two pretty

11:35common variations. They're called C677T and A1298C. Again, I don't expect you to remember this, but the C677T variation tends to impact how your body processes something called homocysteine. And I want to explain this in a simple way. Homocysteine is a compound in the body that when it builds up, it can contribute to inflammation and stress on the cardiovascular system, which is your heart, your circulation, all of those things. Okay, so your body needs a way to process and recycle homocysteine efficiently. And that's where these methylation pathways come in. So if the pathways are sluggish or slow, homocysteine can build up and that's where we start to see connections and things like inflammation, circulation issues, and cardiovascular risk. Okay. So in my case, I have one allele of this gene. I know that when my health was at its worst, my inflammation was seriously high.

12:43I had terrible rain odds. If you're not familiar with rain odds disease, it is a circulatory issue where you lose circulation in your fingers and your toes, particularly in response to cold. And so I, my circulation was so bad that I had what was called chill blades. I had these blisters and my, on the tips of my toes and my fingers and they would bleed and oh my gosh, it was terrible. And I would have heart palpitations and tacky cardia and I would be really dizzy upon standing and I had all these cardiac issues. I even had one time was brought to the hospital for a rain odds event in my heart, which basically meant there was lack of circulation to my heart. I wasn't having a heart attack or like stroke or anything, but it was like really distressing. And this was probably because I had a build up of homocysteine. So the second most common variation of this gene is the A1298C variation.

13:47And this one tends to show up more in areas like mood, neurotransmitters, detoxification and energy. So this is where you're going to see things like anxiety, high anxiety, low mood, like irritability, you might see depression, you might see other mental health issues, brain fog, ADHD, feeling like your body doesn't handle stress well. I have that variation too, thank you very much. So again, when my health was at its worst and my inflammation was at its highest, anxiety is high, my anxiety was high, it was chronically overwhelmed, I couldn't process information, and I was always stressed. So it can be really, really hard to manage and hard to be around that person. And so as you can imagine, it's not about one system and it's really

14:49hard to pin down. It's about multi systems interacting. And here's the most important thing I want you to understand. It doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you. It is a genetic genetic variation, yes, but it doesn't mean that you are doomed to struggle with all these things. What it means awareness actually makes it easier to support your body in different ways so that you don't struggle with those things. So those of you who know me well and those of you who have followed me, you know I am a very strong advocate for regulating my nervous system, for removing toxins in my environment, for eating whole foods and supplementing all the things we're going to talk about today. Because those things minimize the side effects of they keep my homocysteine levels at bay and they minimize the side effects that come with the higher homocysteine levels. That's it. And when that support is not there, it's obvious. Because what I like to think

15:58of it as is like a traffic jam in the body. Things don't flow so easily. And things get stuck and build up and toxins, you know, you don't do toxifying and just everything accumulates and that's when those symptoms start to show up. I see this all the time in women I work with. They come to me saying things like, I just don't feel like myself anymore. I'm chronically exhausted when I sleep, even when I sleep well, I feel puffy, I feel inflamed. My, I just don't, I can't think clearly. I can't remember anything. My mood is all over the place. And they're trying. They're trying the best they can. But the things that they, that they've been taught are supposed to work aren't working. And when we start to peel things back, we realize it's not really about doing more. It's about supporting the body in the right ways that are specific to this genetic mutation, which are honestly all the, the ways I would teach somebody in my coaching because it's

17:04removing toxins. It's, you know, really creating going back to the basics of fueling and supporting our bodies. Now, one question I get a lot with this is, do I need to get tested? Maybe I should find out if I have this. And here's the deal. Okay. I recently did have my son tested only because well, it's a long story, but I ended up getting tested. But I have treated my kids as though they are positive. I treat most of my clients as though they are positive. So the answer is, yeah, testing can be helpful. But it's not required to take the steps to support your body because honestly, the things that support this pathway support everyone. And this is where again, like I said, always, I always come back to that foundation of whole foods and supplementing with the right things for your body and removing stress and toxins. Because here's the deal. No supplement is

18:07going to outdo a foundation of whole food. Okay. That's really the first thing. Things that you put in your body need to be real. They need to be natural, truly natural, and they need to be in their purest form. You want to balance your blood sugars? You want to eat enough protein. Protein is huge because it's not just about muscle. So I mean, protein is like all over the internet right now. And it's all over social media. And there's protein water and protein bars and protein juice and protein popcorn and protein. Oh my god. It's like protein protein protein protein but honestly, those things are synthetic. A lot of the time they contain synthetics which are man made. They're not whole foods. So getting protein in a whole food form is vital. But again, protein is not just about muscle. It supports your brain, your mood, your detox pathways, your hormones

19:11and your nervous system. So most of the women I see honestly are under eating protein by half. They start their day with just coffee. They might grab something quick, five hours after they've been awake. And they wonder why they feel shaky, tired, irritable, and foggy. And I'm going to tell you this, the caffeine is a piece of it. But it is underfueling is one of the biggest mistakes most people are making. I know fasting is popular and I know that it has its benefits. However, when I am working with a client, I emphasize fasting at the end of the day rather than the beginning because your body, it's kind of like letting your car run on empty. Your car will not run on empty. You need to put fuel in the tank. We have to put fuel in our tanks. Otherwise, we will not

20:14function well. Your body needs the building blocks. So if nothing else, what I want you to take away today is that simplify. Eat first thing. Eat a protein packed breakfast. And that not only will fuel you and provide what your body needs for the processes I mentioned before, but it also helps stabilize your blood sugars early in the day so that you're not going to crash and burn and then have all beyond that glucose roller coaster throughout the day. And when your blood sugars are steady, everything else becomes easier. So your energy is steady or your cravings are lower. So you're going to reach for fewer junk food items. You'll have a more regulated mood. You'll feel better and that alone will make a huge difference. And then you layer on all the other nutrients. Now, some of the nutrients that are especially

21:15important for someone with this MTHFRG mutation are the B vitamins, especially B12, B6, B2, and BOLATE. But this does not give you an open door to supplement because a lot of these supplements or the supplements that are out on the market are synthetic forms of these vitamins and someone with the MTHFRG mutation cannot process the synthetic form. It just kind of gets stored in the body and causes toxicity. So focusing on real food sources of these B vitamins, leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and Brussels sprouts, high quality proteins, as I mentioned before, and healthy fats. Other important nutrients are colon, magnesium, omega-3s, and vitamin D. Those are often seen to be deficient in someone with this G mutation. So

22:16they're super important for supporting the body's ability to methylate appropriately. So again, it's not about taking synthetic forms of any of these really trying to get them through food is key. But having somebody check your nutrient levels, a qualified provider is really ideal so that you know exactly which ones you should be taking and which ones you shouldn't. And then one of the other biggest pieces that I see missing in most people's lives whether they have the MTHFRG mutation or not is regulating your nervous system. Running too hard, you know, because you cannot out supplement a stressed body. And I know you've

23:19heard me say this before, but it's so very important. If your body is constantly in fight or flight, which is stress state, right? You're wired to run and all the blood is flowing to your extremities and there's nothing, nothing nourishing your internal organs and helping your, you know, your internal organs function because it's a stressed state. And when your body is in that state, it does not prioritize detoxification, hormone balance, or repair. It is prioritizing survival. And I see this so often, people just don't realize, and in this digital age where we're constantly seeing and hearing things that are distressing, it's no wonder we're all walking around with chronic disease because we are constantly stressed out.

24:19And, you know, especially in my life, we're juggling aging parents, aging children, managing households, trying to keep our marriages going, trying to have friendships, nurturing our, you know, emotional, spiritual, physical, mental health, all the things. And our bodies just trying to keep up. So when I talk about things like box breathing or journaling or stepping outside or slowing down before meals, it's not to give you one extra thing to do. It's foundational to help your body shift into a state where it can actually heal. These things are so much more important than the supplements. Because if like I said, you cannot out supplement a stressed out body. So prioritizing getting your body into a rest and digest state is it like non-negotiable. And then the final

25:23thing is really getting adequate sleep because that is when your body does so much of its repair work. If your sleep is off, everything becomes harder. And ladies, I know that hormonally our sleep cycles get really wrecked when we are going through pariametopause. I know this. As someone who, I mean, I eat all whole foods for the most part very rarely eat anything processed unless I'm like stuck somewhere and have no access to anything else. I have removed all ton of toxins from my life. I exercise daily. I regulate my nervous system. And even so, I went through a period where my sleep was wrecked. And I was like, what the heck is happening? Well, my progesterone levels were really low. And so I had to go on HRT for that.

26:24Because guess what? When my sleep was off, I was cranky. I was low energy. I could not get anything done. I was eating more sugar. I mean, it just like totally messed with everything I was trying so hard to stay on track with. So making sure, you know, and if you're somebody who is in midlife and struggling to sleep, it's worth it to get your hormones checked. Because that is something that, you know, finding balance in your hormones, your thyroid function, all of that is going to help remove the stress from your body so that you can do all the other things that you need to do to heal. Now, the final thing that can be really, really difficult for somebody with MTHFR is toxins in our environment. Okay, we are exposed to more toxins than ever before. And I'm not talking about this to like fear monger. But there has to be a level of awareness that if your

27:27body is struggling to detoxify as it is, it's going to have an even harder time processing and clearing things out that are adding to the load. Like perfume-y type things, you know, detergents that have all kinds of additives. Maybe there's toxic mold in your environment. Maybe, you know, so just being aware of those things and the potential for them and, you know, on a basic level, trying to eliminate products in your life that have excess additives and dangerous chemicals. I use the Yucca app. And that has honestly, I do have seen a difference in my body's functioning since I've started to use cleaner products by using that app. I use laundry detergent that does, you know, that is deemed safe by the environmental working group. I use dish soap. So if you're going to prioritize, I would prioritize laundry detergent hands soap and just soap and maybe

28:31toothpaste and deodorant and lotion, you know, all the things. But I'm not so careful with my makeup and hair products. But I should, that's a lie. But I, I will use some makeup that isn't totally clean. So because that load, the load of each thing just adds up and it gives your body more to work against. So even small changes. Filtering your water is another one, you know, choosing cleaner products, focusing on Whole Foods. Every single one of those things can make a difference over time. And now, so I know I've said a lot. So I want to bring this, bring this full circle for you. Learning about MTHFR didn't make me feel limited. It actually made me feel empowered. It helped me to understand my body in a deeper way and help me connect the dots. And it reinforced something I believe so strongly now that your body is not broken. And your genetics do not have to

29:36define your longevity, your quality of life. If you listen to your body because it is communicating with you all the time, when you start listening and supporting it in the right ways, things can shift. They can shift and you can feel like a completely different person. I am living proof of this. And I am grateful that I have been able to educate and coach and empower so many others to live a life that is thriving and not just surviving. I used to say it, it felt like so like cliche. Like I was like, yeah, I was barely surviving and now I'm thriving. But this is, it's not cliche. It's the truth. It is the truth because I have found how to support my body so that I don't have

30:42to be a victim of my genetics. Okay. So if you're listening today in this episode resonated with you, I just want you to know you are not alone. And there are answers and there's a path forward that doesn't involve necessarily doing more, but maybe just doing things differently. If you want to talk, if you, you know, if again, if this episode impacted you in a positive way, I would love to hear from you. You can always reach out, send me a message, share this episode with anyone who you think might need it. Like I said, about 40% of the population has this genetic mutation. And I have had so many friends find out that they have it and have made the necessary changes because I'm like, hey, have you been tested for the MTH of our gene? They're like, what are you talking about? It makes a difference, my friends. So please reach out, share this with a friend.

31:42Thank you so much for being here today, guys. And as always, keep showing up for yourself in small consistent ways. That's where real healing happens. I'll see you next time. Take care. Thanks for tuning in to the Thrive with Carey podcast. I hope you're feeling inspired and empowered to reclaim your health and vitality. Remember, midlife is just the beginning. And together, we can thrive with confidence and joy. If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe, share with your friends, and leave a review. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for more tips, laughs, and ongoing support. Keep shining, stay fabulous, and keep thriving, my friends. See you next time.