Overview
In this episode, Rachel welcomes back Ryan Monahan, a certified functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, national board-certified health and wellness coach, and certified AIP coach who has been managing his own Hashimoto’s diagnosis since 2012. This episode is a deep dive into methylation, which Ryan describes as the most important biochemical process in the body that almost no one knows about. The conversation covers what methylation is, what it does in every cell of the body, how to test for it, what blocks it, and why supporting it is far simpler than most people assume.
You’ll Learn
- Why methylation is a global, universal biochemical process occurring billions of times per second in virtually every cell of the body, and why its disruption can contribute to symptoms ranging from fatigue and brain fog to estrogen dominance, histamine overload, depression, and autoimmune disease
- How homocysteine levels are the most practical and dynamic marker for assessing methylation function, why an optimal level sits around seven to eight, and why this affordable test is widely overlooked in conventional medicine
- Why methyl groups, chemically CH3, function like master keys that activate enzymes, repair DNA, silence cancer genes, produce neurotransmitters, and fuel the methylation cycle through a delivery molecule called SAM-e (S-adenosylmethionine)
- Why up to 60 to 70% of all methyl groups go toward making phosphatidylcholine, the primary component of cell membranes, and why supplementing or eating foods rich in PC can take significant burden off the entire methylation cycle
- Why 20 to 30% of methylation activity goes toward producing creatine, and what this means for energy, athletic performance, and fat burning through carnitine synthesis
- Why the entire B vitamin complex, including B2, B3, B6, B9 (folate), and B12, acts as cofactors in the methylation cycle, and why supplementing with just one B vitamin without the others often fails to produce results
- The key methylation superfoods including leafy greens, avocados, asparagus, broccoli, egg yolks, liver, beef, beets, and spinach, and why these foods cover all three main methyl donor pathways
- What the MTHFR gene mutation actually means, why approximately 60 to 70% of people carry at least one variant, why it is not a disease and does not require panic, and how dietary compensations through choline and betaine can largely offset the reduced enzyme activity
- What blocks methylation, including candida overgrowth, alcohol consumption, heavy metals like mercury and lead, chronic stress, and sedentary lifestyle, with one study showing nearly 5,000 methylation sites activated in exercised muscle compared to an untrained control
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Resources
Connect with Ryan:
Website- https://themindfulnutrivore.com
Start with your mindset. Believe that healing is possible. You will only heal as far as your mind allows you to. Everything else, the diet, the labs, the lifestyle work, follows from that belief.
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If you’re struggling with an autoimmune disease, thyroid issues, gut problems, or mystery health issues that conventional medicine can’t explain, I can help. Through functional medicine lab testing, we will uncover what’s really going on in your body and create customized protocols to help you heal. If you’re ready to reverse your health issues naturally, you can book a health consultation with myself or someone on my team below.
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