Food as Medicine — Janet Szabo

I put down some of my thoughts on food; if this isn’t something that interests you, keep scrolling. I will include other items of note below the fold.

My first introduction to the direct effect that food has on health—in other words, more than just the general understanding that nutritious food is good and junk food is bad—came when I got pregnant the first time. It’s a long, sad story, but the upshot is that that baby developed without a brain. That kind of birth defect is incompatible with life. That was also around the time when researchers had determined that those kinds of birth defects, known as neural tube defects, were the direct result of a failure to metabolize folic acid (vitamin B9). With all subsequent pregnancies, I was put on a folic acid supplement. (More on that in a moment.) I went on to have two healthy kids.

A few years ago, I heard about a specific gene mutation that has been linked to all sorts of medical conditions, including anencephaly (what my baby had) and spina bifida (which is the failure of the spinal canal to form properly at the base of the spine). The gene codes for something known as MTHFR, which stands for methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. (You can see why they came up with an abbreviation.) Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase is an enzyme that is involved in several different metabolic pathways. The gene mutation means that the body produces less of that necessary enzyme—in some cases, as much as 70% less.

The MTHFR gene can be mutated in one or both of two locations, C677T or A1298C. Curious, I had myself, the husband, and the girls tested through 23andme.com. I also asked my mother, my sister, and my father’s only surviving sibling to be tested. The results confirmed my suspicions. My mother, my sister, my aunt and I all have two copies of the mutation at C677T. We get a copy from each of our parents. I will assume for sake of argument that my father also had two copies, but because he died in 1993, I don’t know for sure. He had to have had at least one copy to pass it on to me. The husband has one copy of the other mutation, at A1298C (as did his mother). My girls have one copy of each mutation.

Mutations are not always bad; there are instances in which a gene mutation can confer an advantage instead of a disadvantage. In my case, though, it is most certainly a disadvantage, and identifying it explained much of my family’s medical history. In addition to folic acid deficiencies, the C677T mutation can cause high homocysteine levels. Homocysteine is an amino acid. The body naturally recycles it into other amino acids with the aid of B vitamins, specifically B9, or folic acid. If folic acid metabolism is impaired, homocysteine can’t be recycled efficiently and builds up in the bloodstream, causing inflammation and cardiac injury.

We have lots of blood clots, strokes, and heart attacks in my family. On both sides. (Some of that has to do with the fact that my mother and father are at least fourth cousins and possibly third cousins, which is a story for another time.) We also have a lot of thyroid disease and a few other bizarre medical conditions. As far as I have been able to determine, this mutation isn’t involved in blood cancers so it doesn’t directly explain why my father had multiple myeloma and I had leukemia (and I think one of his paternal aunts may have had lymphoma). I believe the A1298C mutation has been associated with acute lymphocytic leukemias, but I had acute myeloid leukemia.

Unfortunately, treating this deficiency is not as simple as popping a folic acid pill every day. The folic acid that is available as a supplement is a synthetic version that actually exacerbates the very problem is it supposed to treat. There are other forms, such as methylfolate and folinic acid, which can be used instead. I cannot take methylfolate, which is considered the best supplement for people with this mutation. My naturopath and I have tried for several years to find a dose I can tolerate. I am so intolerant of methylfolate that the tiniest amount will cause terrible anger and anxiety issues. He prescribed an iron supplement for me a few years ago. I took one pill—one pill—and felt like I wanted to rip someone’s head off. I looked at the ingredient list and sure enough, it contained a tiny amount of methylfolate. He thought it was a small enough amount that it wouldn’t cause problems. Now we know better.

I’ve found that I can tolerate an iron supplement with calcium folinate in it, so that’s what I take.

[I belong to a very helpful Facebook group for people who have two copies of the MTHFR C677T mutation. I am not the only person with the methylfolate intolerance issue. Interestingly, that group is also overrepresented by people with autism and vaccine injuries in their own or their family medical histories. I am not anti-vaccine, but I don’t discount the fact that this gene mutation can wreak havoc in lots of different ways.]

And to bring this back to food, I’ve long wondered why my preferred diet is heavy on leafy greens—all green vegetables, really—beans, and rice. (I should have been born in India.) All of those foods contain high levels of naturally-occurring folate. My body was telling me all along what it was missing. I am not a vegetarian, but I don’t eat a lot of red meat.

I’ll continue this in the next couple of blog posts, because I have a few other comments to make.

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I canned another 20 quarts of tomato sauce yesterday to bring the total to 47 so far. The third batch is cooking down on the stove. I decided I might as well get it all done at once so that I don’t have canning supplies strewn from one end of the kitchen to the other for the next three weeks. Hopefully, I will have the freezer emptied and all the sauce made by Monday.

The Hobby Lobby embroidery piece is finished.

I might turn it into a small pouch or something. I don’t need anything else to hang on the wall. Now I have to find another project to work on in the evenings. Those Squash Squad blocks need a bit of prep before I can work on them.

We did get snow yesterday, about 4” or so, and a bit of wind overnight. Spokane set a new record with 6.8” of snowfall at the airport. I haven’t heard how Missoula fared. Dispatchers in Kalispell were kept very busy yesterday with a lot of car accidents. (Slow down, people. Four-wheel drive does not confer magical driving abilities upon you.) We’ll have to see if this snow hangs around—the forecast is for slightly warmer temps toward the end of next week, but that could change. I’m anticipating that winter is here to stay now.