Methylation Masta

How's your methylation? "Methylation" is a key control dial that permits your body to respond to environmental change. If your body’s methylation is not working at an optimal level, this may translate into many different health issues and accelerate your aging process. Methylation is the only cellular pathway that effects both structural integrity and adaptability of your body. You may assess your genetics along with our knowledge of the methylation pathway to support your optimal body and mind.  To learn more about the methylation pathway, email or call us at the Gottfried Center to test your pathway.

Chemically, methylation is a simple process in which a methyl group (remember CH3?) are added to proteins, DNA and other molecules. This step is often required to keep them in good condition.

For instance, if mood-enhancing serotonin is not methylated, it will become inactive, and this condition is associated with depression. Another key methylation process involves the amino acid homocysteine, which forms when methionine methylates your DNA. Homocysteine must be methylated to convert it back to methionine. If you are a lousy methylator, you can develop problems such as:

• Heart disease and stroke as a result of clumping platelets
• Increased LDL (bad) cholesterol 
• Depression
• Accelerated aging, particularly by damaging telomeres, which help cells divide cleanly
• Dementia and Alzheimer's disease

APO-E Gene and Alzheimer's Disease

Apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) is a genetic risk factor for development of late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Caucasian and Japanese carriers of 2 e4 alleles (i.e., you got a bad gene from both parents) have a 10- to 30-fold increased risk of developing AD by age 75 compared to lucky individuals not carrying any e4 alleles. The gene is encoded on chromosome 19.

More good news: it is associated with a 40-50% increased risk of cardiovascular disease. And fish oil doesn't help - in APOE4s it may raise LDL and lower HDL.

The following is from Medscape authoress Ekaterina Rogaeva, PhD.

APOE Gene on Chromosome 19q13.2

The APOE gene is a genetic locus for inherited susceptibility to late-onset AD (>65 years) that was confirmed in multiple studies. It encodes a lipoprotein involved in cholesterol metabolism and has three common alleles: epsilon 4 (AD-associated), epsilon 3 (neutral), and epsilon 2 (AD-protective). The frequency of the epsilon 2 allele is reduced in AD subjects (~2% versus ~10% in the general population), whereas the frequency of the epsilon 4 allele is significantly increased in individuals with AD (up to 40%). In addition, the epsilon 4 allele is associated with a decreased age at onset: from 90 years for the non-epsilon 4 carriers to ~70 years in patients homozygous for the epsilon 4 allele.

Nevertheless, genetic testing based on the APOE epsilon 4 allele is ambiguous when used as the sole criterion to diagnose AD since not all epsilon 4 carriers will develop disease and epsilon 4 association is not entirely specific to AD. However, in the future, APOE genotypes could be useful in combination with other clinical measures or genetic variations. Indeed, in at least half of AD cases there is no known cause of the disease, suggesting the existence of additional environmental and genetic factors responsible for late-onset AD.

Thyroid Function Linked with Alzheimer's

You don't want your thyroid function to be too high or too low if you're worried about developing Alzheimer's. I love it when we figure out that moderation is the best for our health.

This is the first part in a series I'm highlighting on hormones and the big "A."

This is from a Medscape article by Pauline Anderson & Hien T. Nghiem, MD:

The study, published in the July 28, 2008 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, did not find an association between extreme thyroid hormone levels and Alzheimer's disease in men.

Between March 1977 and November 1979, Dr. Zaldy Tan and his colleagues measured thyrotropin levels of 1864 participants in the Framingham longitudinal, community-based, observational study who had been free of dementia for 3 years (this window of time minimized the risk of inadvertently including patients with early Alzheimer's disease in this study). They later divided these hormone levels into tertiles according to serum concentrations.

Thyroid Function Intricately Linked to Central Nervous System

At this baseline and then biennially, researchers used neurologic and neuropsychological examinations, plus interviews and various other expert sources, to establish dementia status of the study participants, whose mean initial age was 71 years.

During a mean follow-up of 12.7 years (range, 1 - 25 years), Alzheimer's disease developed in 209 participants (including 142 women [12.8%]). After adjusting for confounders such as age, educational level, smoking, body mass index, and various cardiovascular risks, the researchers observed that women with the lowest serum thyrotropin concentrations (<> 2.1 mIU/L) were more than twice as likely to have Alzheimer's disease vs women with mid-range levels of the hormone (hazard ratio, 2.39; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.47 - 3.87; P < .001 for those in the lowest levels and hazard ratio 2.15; 95% CI, 1.31 - 3.52; P = .003 for those in the highest levels).

Short version: Keep your TSH between 1-2.1. In addition to thyroid dysfunction, multiple studies have shown that insulin resistance, high cortisol levels, and decreased estrogen and testosterone levels are associated with the development of dementia.

So prevent insulin resistance (no flour, no sugar, no stress & exercise), normalize your cortisol levels, and keep your estrogen and testosterone in the normal range....