Let’s Talk About…Methylation, Glutathione, and Vitamin B12
The Methylation Pathway seems to be linked to many chronic diseases, including the autism that many children are diagnosed with. A “pathway” merely describes a factory that produces a product. The Methylation factory produces glutathione similar to the way a Ford Factory produces pick up trucks. Just like a truck factory requiring numerous steps to produce a finished product, the Methylation factory has lots of steps required before producing the finished product: glutathione.
Glutathione is very important in maintaining and restoring physical health, and even mental health. We know that children with autism tend to have lower levels of glutathione when compared to neurotypical children. We also know that families that genetically tend to have lower amounts of glutathione, that is, their factories just produce lower amounts of glutathione, also tend to have problems with schizophrenia, alcoholism, bi-polar disease, depression, attention deficit disorder, constipation, and autism. Glutathione is essential for protecting cells from toxins – it is our master anti-oxidant, and seems to play in FOCUS, CONCENTRATION, AND LANGUAGE.
We can actually increase our body’s ability to produce glutathione….even if we are genetically challenged! Dr. Jill James proved that we can increase the production of glutathione by supplying our Methylation factories with necessary key ingredients.
Methyl B12: this is vitamin B12 in its “methyl” form. It can be given with a nose spray, subcutaneous injection, or orally. It seems to work best for some in a nose spray (if the child tolerates it) or subcutaneous injection. Dosing is variable based on age and weight, and how you are going to administer it (intranasal or subcutaneous).
Vitamin B6: aides in the production of glutathione.
Folic acid: this is a B vitamin that works as a cofactor in the Methylation factory. This can be combined in the B12 injection or in the nasal spray. For some children this can be rather activating and can cause hyperactivity, and thus will have to be removed.
Dimethylglycine: also known as DMG. DMG also supports the Methylation pathway as a “methyl donor”.
Trimethylglycine: also known as TMG. TMG is DMG plus another methyl group. Again, we are trying to provide the assembly line of the factory an “incentive” to make more glutathione.
Methionine: an amino acid that can be considered the “chassis” or the starting molecule that can eventually be transformed to glutathione
N-acetyl cysteine: also known as NAC. This is precursor for cysteine and glutathione
In addition to providing supplements to aid in the production of glutathione, you can also supplement glutathione directly. It can be given as an IV infusion, inhaled with a nebulizer, rubbed in as a cream, and orally (which I usually do not recommend since it seems to enhance the growth of yeast).
Improving the function of the Methylation pathway impacts many functions of the cell, right down to how DNA is read. What the parents report, and what we are commonly after, is the improvement of language! It appears that when we improve glutathione production, many children can make significant improvements with focus, concentration, and language.
And that’s my approach to Methylation.