What is Methylation? And what are common signs of a patient suffering from a methylation issue?
What Is Methylation?
Methylation is a biochemical process that helps to keep your body healthy and well.
Methylation is necessary to help cells of the body detox, keep the hormones and body in balance. When we are over methylating or under methylating the body struggles with all sorts of health challenges.
“methylation is provided by S-adenosylmethionine or SAMe, called the universal methyl donor. This compound gives methyl groups to substances that need to undergo methylation. So, methylation relies on SAMe, which in turn is reliant on vitamin B and 5-MTHF (the active form of folate called methyl folate)”
Common Methylation Issues
Some of examples of poor methylation ( undermethylation) include allergies, chronic inflammation and chronic pain such as fibromyalgia, fatigue, hormone imbalances, infertility, neurological issues, weight gain, mental health challenges, neurological and memory issues. When the body has a serious methylation issue it will have high levels of folic acid but low levels of other nutrients.
This can lead to a variety of health imbalances; such as lymphatic congestion, chronic infections and chronic inflammation. Serious chronic healing crises to certain types of massage, healingholistic or wellbeing treatments and detox protocols. Such as serious lymph and teeth infections.
7 Common Causes Of Methylation Issues
Diet And Gut Health:
a poor diet such as processed food, manmade and genetically modified food, sugar.
Gut issues are well reputed to be related to methylation dysfunction.
Genetic:
MTHFR is a genetic variant or SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) that can have significant consequences on health
Hormone Issues:
hormone issues can be both a cause and contributor for example certain drugs or herbs that influence the hormones can impact your ability to methylate properly.
Lifestyle:
an unhealthy lifestyle that is unbalanced can contribute to further imbalances in the body.
Lack of sleep:
poor quality sleep can seriously impact the hormones and upset the natural circadian cycles that are an important part of detoxification.
Stress:
stress puts a lot of pressure on our hormones, organs, glands, brain and nervous system.
Toxins:
Toxins such as caffeine, drugs and over medication, heavy metals, toxins, stimulants, sugar increase the risk of methylation difficulties.
Top Tips To Improve Methylation
How to boost the methylation process naturally by supporting methylation pathways in the liver .
Clean Diet:
Eat a clean diet and improve gut health, eliminate sugar, processed foods, fungi and yeast from diet. Add methyl folate-rich foods in your diet such as citrus foods, leafy greens, avocados.
Dry Brushing:
Dry brushing is a technique that involves using bristle brush to improves blood flow and lymphatic flow.
Mould Remove:
Clean any mould from your home or move to a more healthier mould-free environment.
Healthy Exercise:
Regular exercise has been shown to improve methylation ” it has been shown that 6-month of vigorous training including one session of 1 h spinning and two sessions of 1-h aerobics resulted in increased methylation in adipose tissue in response to exercise in sedentary middle-age men (Rönn et al., 2013). ”
Infrared Sauna:
Infrared saunas can helps support methylation and improve immune system in many cases.
Lymphatic Massage:
Lymphatic massage is often more safer for clients with serious methylation issues. As the healing crisis can be overwhelming in other types of massage. Find a fully qualified lymphatic practitioner to support you.
Manage Your Stress:
Remove unnecessary stressors, learn how to manage your anxiety and stress e.g. meditation, mindfulness, relaxation therapy and other stress management techniques.
Vitamins:
Certain supplements and vitamins such as B6 and B12 can often support a methylation issue. But equally using unnecessary or the wrong supplements can lead to further methylation problems so always get tested by a private extensive lab to see what you nutritionally need. Than waste money on supplements you don’t need or those that will cause you more harm.
Stay Hydrated:
It is important to drink plenty of fresh water, to support natural detoxification, harmony and balance in the body.
Chronic Health Conditions – 5 Tips On How To Find The Right Help
Top tips on how to find the right help when you have suffer from complex or chronic health conditions.
Exploring some of the biggest challenges getting the right help or wellbeing support when you have a chronic illness, chronic disabilities or a complex medical history.
One of the biggest problems many people face with chronic health conditions face is the length of time it takes them to get the right diagnosis or the right help.
Without having to waste a lot of time, energy and money or all of their life savings on the wrong type of help, wrong therapists, doctors or wellbeing professionals.
Navigating The Holistic Wellbeing Arena With Chronic Health Conditions
Now more than ever the healthcare system and the holistic wellbeing system can be a bit of a minefield to navigate through.
I know as someone who at 54 years of age, dealt with a complex health history and wide range of rare and chronic health challenges and medical harm from a young age.
I spent over 30 years investing in peoples, courses and programs that were not an ideal fit for a variety of reasons. But often because of over zealous or naive therapists who assumed they were the right fit when they weren’t really.
The last thing anyone needs with a long-term health condition is waste more time, energy and emotions on someone or something that is not a perfect fit for your needs.
5 Things To Consider When Trying To Finding The Right Help With Chronic Health Conditions
No 1 – Identify What Kind Of Support You Want:
It is so important to get clear what kind of support and help you really want or feel you need. If you are not specific enough and very vague just looking for any sort of help, you will often attract a lot of help that is not an exact march for your specific needs.
Think about your biggest challenges or those tricky aspects of your wellbeing you struggle to shift. Particularly the main issues that if you get help with are more likely to help and make a better impact on other areas of your life or health.
Identifying those things that maybe the root of the problem or the things that can make the biggest shifts should always be considered a priority.
One of my best investments was getting tests and nutritional support around gut health, intolerances, and nutritional deficiencies and inflammation this helped address some very serious issues with my health when my health was dramatically declining.
I chose to go with a naturopath and nutritionist who were highly experienced and qualified in the areas I had problems in, they both had many years of experience working with complex issues.
No 2 – Identify What Level Of Support You Need And Can Afford:
Think of what level of support do you need and can afford for support or help with your chronic health conditions. No matter if that is practical support or health and wellbeing education or support.
For example today we have so many online coaching, therapy programs designed to help the masses. But the reality is group programs are not always ideal for those with complex or chronic health challenges.
Sometimes you can have so much going, so many conflicting medical and therapeutic opinions or challenges you don’t know where to start. Unless you invest in a course with someone who is definitely an expert in your problem and has a tried and tested program that demonstrates a high success rate with hundreds of similar clients. It can be difficult to be assured if it will help you.
Sometimes it can better to invest in more one to one support even if it is just initially, if you can afford it. But the problem is most people with chronic health condition have often spend so much time and energy on the wrong things that they can struggle to find the money for the right things. It is one of the reasons why I always think therapists and wellbeing practitioners should always be really honest and realistic with their clients.
No 3 – Are You Asking The Right Questions
It is so important for anyone with a chronic health condition to be able to ask the right questions from anyone they are getting medical, health or wellbeing advice or support from.
Depending on what type of support or help your seeking one of the questions is usually important is checking the health professional does have the right experience and qualification. And if they have enough knowledge or awareness about your condition or other challenges such as sensory processing issues you may have.
And please never assume if someone has a certificate that it actually equates to the right training or right level of expertise. Ask, ask, ask, consider things like how long was their training, who did they train with, is their qualification recognised with and by who.
Never be shy about asking direct questions to the practitioner about their expertise, depth of training, where and when they studied, how many clients they have helped with similar challenges, how many of these clients improved. When it comes to your health and wellbeing you should know.
No 4 – When Will I Start Seeing Serious Health Improvements
Another thing many people suffering from chronic health conditions fail to do is ask how long they should need to wait or invest before seeing results from the help or support they are investing in. This will obviously depend on the type of help or support your investing in.
I spent years in my twenties going to therapists and one homeopathic doctor who encouraged me to keep coming to them for years.
When I wasn’t seeing any results or actually was having constant relapses or chronic healing crises due that didn’t seem to heal anything because of methylation problems. This is so unhealthy and in sometimes it creates co-dependency issues or you just become someone’s cash cow.
On the other hand I went to other practitioners expecting the results to take months and had instant relief or problems permanently solved in one session.
This made me question a lot about so many types of modalities and therapies how they were being sold. And how important it was to value a lot of investments not on the cost of the session but how quickly, deeply and permanently was the result.
No 5 – Look For Testimonials From Other Chronic Health Suffers
Testimonials and reviews especially those that have been submitted on social media are a great way to ensure that testimonials are actually from real live people. And have not been falsified or adapted in anyway. If you can see any evidence on your specific issue.
Sometimes therapists have previous clients who are willing to share their experiences. Of course for many reasons this may all not be appropriate for the therapist, healer, coach or medical professional to ask.
But it doesn’t mean you cannot inquire if there is someone willing to share their experience working with this person, especially if you are investing a lot of money or time into a program or a certain amount of sessions.
Chronic Health Conditions And Self-Responsibility For Your Health
One of the most important thing that anyone with a chronic health condition can do is take as much self-responsibility for their own healing, their own health and wellbeing.
The daily lifestyles choices you make everyday that help reduce or increase those chronic health conditions, your mental and emotional wellbeing. Can make a huge impact in the quality of your life.
Chronic Health Conditions And Stress
Managing your anxiety and stress, creating healthy boundaries, especially saying NO to what isn’t right for you. Is a vital aspect of any wellbeing approach.
I learned early on how important it was for me to manage my anxiety and stress levels, Also the importance of a clean and healthy diet, and to reduce as much toxins from my environment as they were having a considerable impact on my general every day functioning. Especially being someone who had gut issues since infanthood and all sorts of toxicity exposure.
Chronic Health Conditions And Listening To Your Own Body
And began to learn how to listen to my own body and not be bullied by medical and wellbeing practitioners who tried to gaslight or bully me into taking medication or approaches that were more likely to cause me more harm than good.
Why I Choose Therapists Who Really Understand Chronic Health Challenges
It is one of the reasons when I can, I choose therapist, healers and other wellbeing professionals who have had some sort of similar challenge. Who really know what they are talking about, walk the talk, have just not read in a book or magazine some sort of theory or perspective.
Have experienced some of those challenges themself, have tried and tested approaches, have a more wider holistic approach in the way the work, than be too stuck or fixed on one perspective or a few modalities,
Because they often have a higher degree of awareness, insight and experience, as well as greater empathy and compassion. So tend to not to be as quick to make pre-judgements about you or your situation.
Support To Help Reduce Your Anxiety And Stress
If you are struggling with the anxiety and stress of living with complex chronic health conditions and would love access to some powerful anxiety and stress reducing tools that help reduce chronic pain, improve sleep and support general wellbeing.
Check out my Stress Management Program For Sufferers of Chronic Health Conditions as someone who has suffered from fibro, M.E, suspected Late Stage Lyme and a whole list of rare and complex symptoms. And as someone who has studying holistic wellbeing and stress management for over 30 years. I can’t recommend highly enough how much managing your anxiety and stress helps improve your health.
Symptoms of Lyme, late-stage Lyme disease, and Lyme Co-Infections. What is Lyme Disease? And my own story of undiagnosed Late-Stage Lyme Disease, suffering from Lyme for over 35 years.
What is Lyme Disease?
Lyme disease is a multisystem bacterial infection that can be spread to animals and humans by bites from infected ticks.
In the USA Lyme disease is a manifestation of the bacterial spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. Asia and Europe, Lyme disease is mostly from Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia afzelii, and Borrelia garinii.
Lyme Disease Co-Infections?
Those infected with Lyme disease are also usually infected by a variety of co-infections; different co-infections are more common in certain countries and parts of the world than others.
In the USA these include “Lyme borreliosis, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Powassan virus, and B. miyamotoi infection”
In Europe, these include Babesia, Bartonella, Brucella, Q Fever, and Tick-borne Encephalitis. These co-infections can cause a wide range of devastating impacts on the immune and central nervous system when not treated early enough.
What is Stage 1 Of Lyme Disease?
Stage 1 of Lyme Disease is the transmission of the tick bite. This is where one normally would find a tick and then a bull’s eye rash. Although it is reputed that many people do not see the tick and may never get or see the rash. At this stage it is important to remove the tick. Note not all ticks are infected.
What is Stage 2 Of Lyme Disease?
Stage 2 of Lyme Disease is when the patient begins to feel sick or unwell this tends to occur within weeks or months, and the person experiences flu-type symptoms; chills, fatigue, pain, weakness, rashes, heart problems, facial paralysis, eye problems.
What is Late-Stage Lyme Disease?
Late-stage Lyme disease is unhealed or untreated Lyme disease (late-stage disseminated lyme) it is known as the great imitator as it mimics so many other diseases. Its impact on the central nervous system makes some of the symptoms resemble conditions like A.LS., brain tumours, Guillaine-Barr, M.S., and Parkinson’s Disease.
Untreated late-stage Lyme disease is when someone does not receive treatment within a specific time or does not fully recover from the standard treatment of antibiotics, such as doxycycline or amoxicillin.
Treating late-stage Lyme is often a longer treatment of intravenous antibiotics.
Recovery is said to depend on the amounts years, the co-infections, and the level of late-stage complications. Sadly some untreated symptoms can be life-threatening.
My Own Story Around Untreated Late-Stage Lyme Disease
At the age of 14, I was bitten by something what appeared to be very similar to a bulls-eye rash. I had a lot of swelling in my legs, feet, and ankles which meant I couldn’t wear my shoes and go to school. My GP identified it as some sort of strange insect bite but didn’t know what.
Over the next few years, I would begin suffering from a lot of odd unexplained low-level health challenges, including a lot of bladder and kidney infections, light sensitivity and just a general feeling of being unwell.
I had keratitis and some eye issues, plus a few other rare eye phenomena supposedly related to a rare medical challenge known as parry rombergs disease that I was diagnosed as a child, which appeared to be congenital.
At the age of 19, after being an unfortunate victim of mercury toxicity, where a dentist accidentally put mercury up my root canal instead of my tooth.
My health quickly and seriously declined, initially appearing as a very seriously debilitating flu and a whole host of other rare medical symptoms.
Suspected Late-Stage Lyme Symptom
Over the next 30 years, I would experience bouts of extreme exhaustion, brain fog, muscle weakness, and tremors, suffer chills, fevers, strange rashes, constant sore throats, throat infections, and so many stomach issues and what appeared to be like menopausal flashes (even though I was only 21 years of age) .
Aswell as all sorts of weird eye and neurological issues.
I went from a young fit active 19-year-old who walked several miles a day, had 2 jobs, loved to dance and sing, with many hobbies. Too within a few days hardly was able to lift my head.
Even though I recovered a bit from this initial episode, I struggled to get any stamina back, I would have constant relapses and a low immune system, prone to all sorts of virus, bacteria, and digestive issues.
At 21 I was diagnosed with M.E. and at 22 I got so ill, that I had no choice but to give up college and return home to be looked after by my parents and siblings.
In my late twenties, I was hospitalised after what appeared to be very large welts all over my body and joints, rheumatic fever, and what I was told was rheumatoid arthritis. Even though the symptoms seem to disappear.
One of the doctors at the time suspected I had Lyme Disease because of the amount of unusual symptoms I had that were not associated with M.E. or rheumatic fever, but for some reason, it was never mentioned again until my 40’s.
Eye Complications Of Late-Stage Lyme Disease
I became very much a medical mystery, especially to eye specialists all over the UK who would come to examine me eye in research and clinical studies. My specific case was included in a medical research publication.
A long list of eye complications including dangerously low eye pressure, a hypotonic eye, choroidal folds, retina detachment issues, optic nerve damage, light sensitivity, dilated pupil, keratitis alongside a hole in my eye.
Now although I thought the hole in my eye, seemed to be directly related to the mercury injury I suffered. As it was in line with the very nerve that went down that tooth.
I would later find out that many of the other eye conditions and rare eye symptoms I had not usually seen in someone so young were seen in certain co-infections of Lyme, especially untreated late-stage Lyme disease.
Over 30 years I had so many strange symptoms and other chronic health conditions that didn’t add up, a massive amount of abscesses in the bone cavity above my mouth, cysts, and a benign tumour.
A fatty liver when I hadn’t drunk alcohol since my early twenties, when I didn’t eat meat, rarely ate fatty foods being mostly vegetarian and lactose intolerant.
I developed sorts of weird and wonderful allergies, and sensitivities to all sorts of things from perfumes, household toxins, foods, and alcohol intolerance, and became very unwell if I consumed processed sugar...
In my 40’s began to develop jerking movements, extreme hyperacusis in one ear, a complex movement disorder; myoclonus dystonia, chorea, and so many other symptoms that would be too long to mention.
Doctors and Medical Experts were baffled with my weird and wonderful symptoms and chronic health conditions until in my late 40s while I was on holiday with a friend in the medical profession. Did he seriously begin to question some of the symptoms I had?
He questioned if it could be Lyme Disease. After taking a quiz I was shocked to discover that out of 350 symptoms related to Lyme disease. There were less than a handful of the symptoms I hadn’t suffered from, since I had those bites.
Challenges Around NHS Lyme Testing And Treatment
I would discover that according to worldwide Lyme Experts the NHS Lyme test was not fit for purpose and most likely would not be able to detect Late-Stage Lyme Disease.
I was advised by a variety of health professionals to get tested abroad, which did suggest I had late-stage Lyme and quite a few of the co-infections which very much aligned with many of the symptoms I had been suffering from for years.
Especially the very rare and unusual neurological and eye symptoms and a persistent unexplained cough I had since my teens.
Sadly even though some of the Doctors I saw agreed that it appeared to be highly likely it was Late-Stage Lyme Disease.
Unfortunately due to UK guidelines I was not allowed to be treated by late-stage treatment of intravenous antibiotics and was given no help or hope.
Now at the time, the testing I chose to get was the Elis-spot and the PCR. Interestingly, when I submitted my results to an infectious disease doctor in the NHS I was mocked at the time because I went for a PCR test.
And was told at the time a PCR test would never be used to diagnose any virus or disease in the UK because of its level of inaccuracy. Hmm, extremely interesting when we look at what was used to test a certain virus over the last few years.
Now because of this, I looked into PCR testing at the time, and let’s say what I learned was interesting.
What I Learned Living With Untreated Chronic Health Challenges
On one level I was very disappointed I was not allowed to be given the recommended intravenous antibiotic for late-stage Lyme here in the UK. Even though my GP and a couple of specialists felt it was too late to make any difference.
I was told by neurologists and GPs that I had just to live and accept my symptoms and life situation, by this stage I had become housebound due to the severity of sound sensitivity that was triggering non-epileptic seizures .
Like most of the health challenges I had, I was rarely given any support or help.
Out of this situation I learned young how easy it is to take our health for granted. How quickly and how easily our health can be taken away.
But also how important it is to take as much self-responsibility for our health and well-being as we can. Most people today put their health and well-being at the lower end of their priorities.
Living with any chronic, life-changing, or life-limiting health condition is extremely challenging. But it can also teach us great gifts, and help us value life itself on a level that so many other people cannot.
I spent a large part of my life being gaslighted and judged, by so many medical professionals, healers, and therapists that on some level I became tainted by what was supposed to be healthcare and well-being support.
But I thank god, that I aligned with a holistic approach to life and my health early on. I honestly believe if I hadn’t taken a more natural approach, and started to live a more clean healthy life, I wouldn’t be here today.
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