Hi, everyone. Welcome to the FAKTR Podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Riddle. Thank you for tuning in today. In our last episode, we delved into a discussion with doctor Robert Silverman about longevity and health span, touching on the lifestyle habits, nutrition best practices, and supplementation that can decrease inflammation and support a healthy gut microbiome. Today, we will learn more about key biomarkers you should monitor that can be early indicators of broader systemic issues. We will also talk more about how the gut truly acts as a second brain, and how dysbiosis can lead to chronic inflammation and impaired cognitive function. If you're interested in doing everything possible to age well and are eager to help your patients do the same, then this episode is for you.

Let's cue the intro music and dive in.

Let's take a look to the future. Methylation. We could have a whole webinar in methylation. It's the addition of a methyl group. Its primary role is to recycle amino acid homocysteine to keep its levels at a healthy optimum range. To methylate appropriately, it provides DNA repair, protein function, and gene expression. What's the problem? Well, the process of methylation occurs in every cell of the body, and it occurs billions of times a second. Approximately 50% or more of the population can't methylate correctly due to the fact they have something called an MTHFR variant.

We all have the gene, MTHFR. Let's say it correctly. Let's not be like some biohackers on Instagram. We all have the gene. We just have a variant. We can over methylate or we can under methylate. So MTHFR gene mutations cause the gene to work less effectively. Dysregulation of this gene is typically associated with hyperhomocystemia, cardiovascular disease, neural tube defects, and impaired cognition.

Also, the inability to methylate appropriately causes issue with proper detoxing, issues with hormone balance, immune function, and a lot of autoimmune conditions like fibromyalgia. Yes. Fibromyalgia is an autoimmune condition because it wears away the dorsal root ganglion and nerves. Hashimoto's very common thyroid and lupus. I put this slide in for a reference slide. So essentially, here are some of the variants that you could have if you're over or under methylate. If you have both variants, you're homozygous. If you have one variant, you're heterozygous.

So my metaphor of methylation, let me sit back in my chair and just go through this. Your body is like a car in an assembly line. It's ready to rumble. It's ready to move out and do its action. However, what does it need? It needs properly pressurized tires. So just to finish that assembly line, the pressure of the tires too high or too low, The car is not gonna run efficiently and not run-in alignment. So, therefore, you need to correct the pressure of the tire. So the real question is, how, doctor Rob, do I handle my inability to methylate properly? Simple.

Now the real question is, what downstream effect did your inability to methylation occur? Did it occur an increase in histamine, which leads to small intestinal bacteria overgrowth, leaky gut, etcetera, etcetera, mass cell activation. Now that's the question. But I will tell you this, delving into the certified functional nutrition world, like Jessica said, testing and not guessing. Leaky gut is something everybody should test for, but it is usually not will cause resolution. It's something that caused the leaky gut that is. So lasers for longevity, I believe it is the modality of the 21st century and beyond. I have not used the device that affects the mitochondrial complexes complexes 1, 2, 3, and 4 like a good quality low level laser. Any interest in that? Again, feel free to reach out to me.