Q&A. How Is Methylation Connected to Mental Health

0:00Hi, everyone. Today's question is, how is methylation connected to mental health? Now, methylation is a biochemical process happening constantly in your body. At its simplest, it involves transferring a small chemical group called a methyl group onto other molecules. And that small action regulates enormous systems. It affects gene expression, neurotransmitter production, neurotransmitter breakdown, hormone metabolism, histamine clearance. So when we talk about anxiety, depression, insomnia, irritability, low motivation, mood swings, methylation is directly involved. So let's start with neurotransmitters. So these are your brain chemicals, including serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and actually histamine is also a neurotransmitter. And they require nutrients to be produced, including folate, vitamin B12, B6, B2. These all feed into the methylation cycle. And one of the major outputs of this methylation cycle is SAME,

1:03which is the universal methyl donor. SAME is required for both the production and regulation of neurotransmitters. So if methylation is sluggish, often referred to as under-methylating, you might see symptoms such as low mood, low motivation, brain fog, fatigue, possibly elevated histamine, reduced stress resilience, that methylation isn't just about making neurotransmitters. It's also about breaking them down. And this is where the compt, the cataclet-O methyl transferase enzyme comes into play, as it breaks down dopamine and norepinephrine, also called noredrenaline. It also breaks down estrogen, which is important, and I'll get to that soon. So interestingly, some people have genetically a slow compt enzyme, that enzyme just doesn't work effectively. So what is actually happening is a few things.

2:05You're not clearing your dopamine and norepinephrine, so they build up and cause symptoms, which I'll get you in a minute. But what also happens is if the compt enzyme is not working well, it can cause your methyl groups to build up, and methyl groups as we know help make dopamine and norepinephrine. So it's like a double whammy, and you can get symptoms such as anxiety, racing thoughts, inattention, insomnia, heart popitations, feeling wired, but tired, and panic lack symptoms. Now, estrogen is also important in this whole picture, because compt also breaks down estrogen, and you might not even have a slow compt gene mutation. You can just be so full of estrogen, that estrogen is just slowing compt activity. And then again, you can have a build up of these neurotransmitters. So it's like a double whammy if you've got slow compt and if you've got high

3:09estrogen. Now, let's layer in histamine. As I said at the beginning, histamine is also a neurotransmitter. It's involved in memory, alertness, and wakefulness, and one of the pathways that clears histamine in the brain relies on methylation, via an enzyme called the histamine n-methyltransferase enzyme. And if you're under-methylating, then you potentially have a slower ability to clear your histamines. Okay, but there are many reasons you can have high histamine in the brain, not just because of slow methylation. If you're interested in learning about that, I think it's my second episode in this podcast talks about all the causes of high histamine, and also histamine can really increase estrogen. He's immune increases, estrogen increases, histamine. And we can see that methylation is involved in both the clearance of histamine and the breakdown of estrogen. So when we're kind of looking at estrogen, compt, under-methylating, over-methylating,

4:09histamine, it becomes a bit complicated. But the good news is, now when it comes to methylation, you can actually test your methylation in real time to see what is actually happening. We don't really learn gene reports, because you can have many genes that say that you're under-methylating, but in fact, in real time, you're over-methylating. That test is called the mood sense test. You can find it via my website. So it's joancennedyneotropathy.com. Just go to methylation test. You can get a discount. I can't remember what the discount code is, but if you purchase it via my website, you can get a discount. And you can actually do that test. It's at home saliva swab test, to actually see what your methylation is doing in real time. That's just part of the picture. We need to be working on your nutrients levels, your nutrient absorption, your gut health, your estrogen levels, your estrogen clearance, your sleep quality, your stress load, any other histamine symptoms, and why you're getting high histamine symptoms.

5:12Okay, but knowing what your methylation via that mood sense test is a really great place. So start, and then if you're interested in working with me to get all of the rest of the stuff sorted, then I'm absolutely here to help. We see patients globally online via Zoom, and you can easily book yourself in for an appointment via my website, which is joancennedyneotropathy.com. So thank you for joining me. I hope you found this episode beneficial. Be sure to subscribe to the histamine well so you don't miss an episode, leave a review, and you can also share this episode with someone who could benefit. If you have any questions you'd like answered, or have a topic you'd like me to discuss, please go to my website, joancennedyneotropathy.com, where you can provide us with that information. Until next time, take care and be well.