The Wellness Rebel Podcast

The #1 Cause of Depression: Undermethylation | Ep. 18

• Season 2 • Episode 18

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After decades of research and working with tens of thousands of people in the mental health population, Dr. Walsh from the Walsh Research Institute finally narrowed down the 5 most common causes of depression. Today, we're going to talk about the TOP cause that he and his team uncovered- and how nutrient therapy can fix it!

In this episode you'll learn:

  • What surprising common root-cause ADHD, chronic depression, anxiety, OCD and autism share
  • Why 'Undermethylation' is the top cause of chronic, dark-cloud, low serotonin-type depression
  • How the MTHFR gene plays a big role in the Methylation Cycle
  • Exactly how I'm helping my clients in Mood Alchemy to address this type of depression and which nutrients I use


☀️ Learn about Mood Alchemy

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Instagram: @nourished_by_nature_wellness




This podcast episode is for educational and informational purposes only and solely as a self-help tool for your own use. I am not providing medical, psychological, or nutrition therapy advice. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat any health problems or illnesses without consulting your own medical practitioner. Always seek the advice of your own medical practitioner and/or mental health provider about your specific health situation. For my full Disclaimer, please go to https://www.nourishedbynature.co/disclaimer



SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Wellness Rebel Podcast, your cozy space for all things holistic mental wellness and alternative healing wisdom. I'm your host, Annika, from Nourished by Nature Wellness. Let's dive in. Alright, you guys. So today we are going to talk about the number one cause of depression. And I know that kind of sounds like clickbait, but um this isn't clickbait. This is real. This is real scientific evidence that we have that's been backed up decades of research from the Walsh Research Institute. Um, we could get super like sciencey nerdy and just kind of get boring and dry. And that's not what we're gonna do today. I'm going to walk you through what methylation is, how it's connected to the MTH of our gene, which I'm sure by now, if you've been in the holistic wellness space for a few years, you absolutely have heard about, maybe even tested yourself for. We're gonna talk about what goes wrong when the methylation cycle isn't working, how that relates directly to depression, anxiety, OCD, ADHD, even autism. We're gonna talk about how we can use nutrient therapy to fix this glitch that's happening in the body. It's not methylating properly. We can use nutrient therapy to support that process. And in that way, we can support depression and anxiety naturally. I'm gonna read a quote from Dr. Courtney Snyder's blog. She's an amazing holistic psychiatrist. I just love her. Absolutely love her to death. I've had her on the podcast before. Um, but I'm just gonna read a quote from her blog. She says that in Dr. Walsh's years of experience, he says that more than 80% of people with ADHD and depression report significant improvement within three months of doing nutrient therapy, and that more than 70% can eventually wean off psychiatric medication without a return of symptoms. That's kind of an incredible claim to have. But Dr. Walsh is the founder of the Walsh Research Institute. They have been on the scene for decades and solving even things like bipolar schizophrenia, really incredible work that they're doing over there, you guys. Um, so I just wanted to highlight that first. That's where I'm drawing all this information from. So the Walsh Research Institute does have data on more than 30,000 patients over the decades. This has been decades and decades of collecting information on the population of people who have mood or mental health imbalance concerns. And so they have been able to compile all this evidence and put together the five biotypes of depression, which is incredible, absolutely incredible, because now we know that we can put everyone kind of in that pie chart of what is your depression type? Because something that's gonna work for someone who has an undomethylation depression type may be very different than someone who has too much copper in their body, and that's causing the depression. So this is incredible. But today we're gonna be talking about the number one cause. So they did a study, and in that study, they found that 38% of the people coming with chronic depression were actually had a biochemical imbalance called undermethylation, and that is what I'm gonna talk about today. All right, so let's talk about methylation. Let's touch a little bit on that MTHFR gene. So the MTHFR gene is important to us today in this episode because it kickstarts a very crucial pathway in your body called the methylation cycle. Methylation is simply the process of donat donating a methyl group. It's like a tiny spark plug in the body to over 200 functions in the body. Okay, so just with that information that you just now heard, now you know the methylation cycle is important. The MTH of our gene is a big important part of this whole cycle. It's like the blueprint to the cycle. So we know now if methylation's not happening properly, or if there is a SNP that's actually causing problems in the body and slowing that methylation cycle down, we can have problems. What does a methylation cycle do? That's really the most important thing for you to know today. This is what it does when it's working at around 100% and it's actually functioning properly. Number one, it turns the nutrients you eat into actual usable fuel. That's important. Just like you can't have your yummy cup of coffee in the morning unless someone picks those beans, dries those beans, roasts the beans, grinds them, extracts them in hot water, and then you can pour your lovely cup of coffee. Same thing. We have to have the methylation cycle to extract those nutrients and vitamins and minerals that we eat into usable active forms of those vitamins and minerals. So already, hopefully you're getting a picture of how important the methylation cycle is, right? Number two, the methylation cycle helps us produce serotonin, dopamine, and melatonin. Kind of important when we're talking about optimal mental wellness. Okay, the methylation cycle also helps you detox chemicals and heavy metals. My goodness, detox and liver detoxification is very important, especially nowadays. It helps you repair DNA, helps you break down histamine, and it helps you balance hormones like estrogen and progesterone. Okay, so now you know how important the methylation cycle is. And again, it is related to the MTHFR mutation. So if you got yourself tested, you got your family tested, and you're like, wow, I definitely have a genetic mutation or SNP on my MTHFR gene, doesn't mean that you have a slow methylation problem, doesn't mean that you actually will have issues necessarily. Um, if your other genes are working and, you know, they're taking up the slack. You might be doing great, especially if you're eating really well, you're taking good care of your body, um, clean diet, you know, all that stuff. Um, but it does mean that you're more vulnerable. So it's quite possible you're not methylating properly. Okay, so all of that to say, now we understand that methylation cycle is important, number one. If it's slow and not working correctly, which could be because of a genetic SNP, or it could be because you have a gut infection like candida, lots of toxins, lots of stress on the body, and that methylation cycle is just slowing down because of all that. Now, if it's slow and it's not working properly, you will have low activity at your serotonin and dopamine receptors. Okay, that is all the science I have for you today. I hope that wasn't too much. I hope you're still with me. You're gonna move on to now what does it look like if I am undermethylating? Okay, so I'm just gonna briefly go over the most common symptoms that we'll see if you are not methylating properly. All right, so since we are talking about low moods, I will bring that up first. So with undermethylation, we will often see low moods, often chronic, chronic depression, like people who have been depressed since they were even kids. And it's really sad to see, but it's really common. And so that can be because of undermethylation. Now, you're doing all the right things, right? Maybe as an adult, you're meditating, you're spending time in prayer, um, you are doing all the things to relax that you can think of, you're doing the breath work, um, maybe you've tried medications and therapy, and it's like, why isn't any of this sticking? Well, if you are someone who has the root cause of undermethylation or one of these other five biotypes, you can be doing all the right things. And in fact, I want to kind of just pause and say you are doing all the right things, but there's just something keeping your body from being able to come back into that parasympathetic state. Parasympathetic is that rest and digest state, right? That's where we want to be most of the time. You're calm, you're able to connect with people, you feel safe, alive, present, grounded. Everything's balanced, everything's good. You know, you can take um the ups and downs of life's of life because you and yourself are centered and grounded. Now, if you have undermethylation and maybe it's been your whole entire life, your body hasn't been able to provide the uh biochemical support that your nervous system needs. So your brain's struggling because it doesn't have the serotonin and the dopamine. So now you're having feelings of super negative, perfectionistic burnout, feeling like maybe there's just no point anymore. Really dark thoughts like that, which are very normal if we're in this state of the shutdown, overwhelm, freeze response. Okay. And so that's just simply your body saying, I'm overwhelmed. I don't see a way out of this. This is too much. That's all your nervous system is saying. And again, there's so many reasons for your nervous system to be communicating that to you. Um, but one of the big reasons is something like this you're nutrient deficient. You don't have what your body needs to make neurotransmitters. And it can be as simple as that. And most of the time it is as simple as that. And then your nervous system's like, oh my gosh, I can regulate again. We can come back into the parasympathetic state. I'm not in this freeze shutdown state of depression. You might have seasonal allergies. The reason is because when you're not methylating properly, that histamine is supposed to be broken down by the methylation cycle. That's like very, very basic part of the methylation cycle's process. It breaks down histamine. A little bit of histamine in the body is awesome. Too much can actually act as a neurotransmitter. It can upset your moods, it can just make you feel miserable if you have too much histamine. So that is a very common cause or a very common symptom of your methylation being too slow. Next is perfectionism, feeling really perfectionistic. Um, and so that's a good kind of clue. Um, you may have headaches or migraines, you may have low pain tolerance, hard time turning your brain off at night, there may be dark intrusive or negative thoughts. Of course there is with low serotonin. Why wouldn't there be? Um, you can have OCD tendencies or rigid routines and habits. You may experience ADHD on a spectrum. Same thing with autism. You may experience autistic um traits, behaviors with undermethylation. Um, you might be more prone to addictions, always tired and hard to wake up in the mornings because there's a lot of fatigue if your methylation cycle is not working, because you're not extracting all the nutrients and vitamins and minerals you need from your food for one thing, right? So you could end up feeling really tired. You also might be really sensitive to medications or even supplements. Because think about it, if your detox is slowed, well, your liver's job is to detox out the um, you know, metabolic waste from medications and flush that out of your system when your body's done using it. But if you can't, then you're not detoxing those out fast enough. And you could have way more reactions to medications and even natural things like supplements than the next person. And lastly, you could have a decent or even a good reaction to SSRIs if you're undermethylating. But if you're undermethylating, you can have a very adverse reaction to benzos or benzodiazepine medications. And I'll tell you why, because benzos can lower your serotonin and dopamine if you're undermethylating. In kids, which I want to just touch on. In kids, undermethylation can look like OCD behaviors, ODD or oppositional defiant behaviors. We see that a lot in kids. And it's not fun for them either. I know you might look at that child and be like, oh my gosh, they're so bratty, but it's not fun for them to always, always be in such an angry state. And that's that can be because they're they're undermethylating. There can be so much histamine in the body, such low serotonin and dopamine, that they're just reacting to authority in a completely different way than they would if they were methylating properly. Um, there can be anger and rage outbursts. There can be autistic spectrum traits and behaviors in kids. Oh, you guys, this is so interesting. Okay, so over 98% of the 6,500 autistic children that were in the Walsh Research Institute case studies, they were undermethylated. 98% of 6,500 autistic children were found to be undermethylating. Okay, so we already know there's definitely a link. Um, and I'm not going to get into all of the science behind that, but now we know undermethylation is linked to autism. We can improve that their quality of life if we can help them methylate properly. So that seems really important to me. And I wanted to bring that up because I think it's really relevant. Like there's so many conversations about what causes autism, but I think it's important to go back to methylation because if they're not detoxing, like then of course they're holding on to more heavy metals. So let's move on to now that you understand, wow, these are the traits that I can see if my child or myself or a friend that I know is undermethylating. And so that gives us a really good idea. Um, but now you're probably like, well, how do we fix this? And I'm so glad you asked, my friend. I'm so glad you asked. I'm gonna walk you through what I actually do for my clients when we identify undermethylation. Again, I'll run a whole blood histamine, which isn't like super helpful 100% of the time, but if you have really high histamine, then I know that your body's not methylating correctly. Um, we can also do a methylation panel. This shows us in real time, which is different than an MTHFR genetic panel because genes don't change, right? Um, but if we do a methylation panel, that can teach us or show us if you're methylating right now in real time. And that panel, there's a couple. Um, the one I use is by doctor's data. Okay, so that's the testing. All right, so important nutrients for undermethylation. This is what we've been waiting for. This is how to fix methylation with nutrient therapy with the Walsh protocol. And so I'm just gonna share hypothetically what I may do with a client who is coming to me with undermethylation. Um, I'm going to refrain from sharing specific dosing only because all of us, each single one of us, is so different. Someone might need to start on a really low dose and then slowly titrate up. Someone might be able to start at a higher dose. Um, everyone's so different. That's the only reason I'm not going to give specific, like, do this only because, um, not because I'm trying to gatekeep because I think that's dumb, but because I want to stay in integrity and not tell you to do a specific protocol that's not custom for you. But I am going to share exactly what nutrients I use and how I might do this with a client. So someone's coming to me, we identified they're undermethylated, maybe we even did a whole blood histamine and they had really high histamine, or we did a methylation panel and we could see, yep, you for sure are undermethylating and you check the boxes for an undermethylator. We know that this is a root cause for all those symptoms that you have been suffering with for years, maybe since you were a little kid. So we're gonna start with a methyl donor, something that gives you more methyl to help speed that cycle up, right? That's either gonna be a supplement called SAM E or a supplic supplement, sorry, supplement, a supplement called methionine, which is an amino acid. We won't use both of these at the same time, you guys. We will use one or the other. I usually just muscle test first to see which supplement tests really good for you. I love muscle testing. It's um an energetic way to just tune in with your body, and your body will tell me, yes, that resonates good, or no, there's another option out there. Let's not do this one. This isn't the best supplement for me. So that's what I do in my practice, but you can try one or the other and see which one makes you feel better. I usually tend to start people with methionine, that's just me personally. Um, either way, I'd start someone maybe on 500 milligrams of methionine and then maybe treat that up to twice a day if they felt good on it. So those are the methyl donors. Those are the important hard hitters really gonna help support the body, start speeding up methylation. How long does that take? Well, it's obviously dependent on you and your unique body, but usually around two months, we're seeing improvement in symptoms and like a resolution symptoms by month six. Um, everyone's on a different timeline. But that's why I use amino acids. So say someone's like, oh my gosh, I I feel really depressed. I need to feel better now. We'll bring in 5 HTP or tryptophan or GABA, whatever it is that they need to start feeling better emotionally, um, while we're fixing undermethylation. Okay. Next, we would want to do B6 andor methylated B12, they are both really important for mood and energy and just helping our body make serotonin. Um, so those are the main big ones. That's not too much, right? That's not too crazy, um, which I really appreciate. There are bonus nutrients. So depending on if you have lots of anxiety or OCD symptoms, I might suggest you take inocital in the day for an anxiety and at night to help you sleep. This will also help to alleviate OCD symptoms. And you might need to take quite a few grams, like build up. Um, but inocitole, oh my goodness, amazing if you're an undermethylator and you feel anxious, or you just have those kind of obsessive, compulsive tendencies, and you really want to soothe your mind and soothe those thoughts before bed so you can sleep better. So that's inocitole. It's uh considered a type of V vitamin, but you can buy it in just powder. It tastes really good. It's one of those ones that like it doesn't taste bad. It's like a sweet powder. Vitamin D, important if that's low on your blood work. NaC is great for OCD tendencies. Again, it helps also with brain inflammation. NAC is absolutely fantastic, wonderful for the immune system, helpful for liver detoxification, all of that jazz. But that's a big one for um undermethylation with OCD tendencies. And then electrolytes. Minerals, minerals, minerals are so important. Magnesium gets super depleted when we're stressed. Um, and you will be stressed if you're undermethylating. So magnesium, um, even things like calcium, but getting a good electrolyte, I like optimal electrolytes by seeking health. That's a great one. Um, tastes really good. I like that there's lots of potassium in there. Um, but yeah, things like calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium, super important. So, food as medicine, I think should always be first, even before supplements. We want to be eating organic as much as possible, since undermethylators aren't detoxing very well. Filtered or spring water for the exact same reason. And I'd I'd suggest emphasizing quality protein and healthy fats. Okay, so let's talk about things to avoid as an undermethylator. And we're just gonna wrap up with this because I think it's important to talk about a tiny, teeny tiny controversial subject, which is methylfolate. So this is what will typically happen. You go to a functional medicine doctor, they will tell you that you have the MTHFR gene, they'll probably test you for it, or they'll just say, hey, you probably have this. 40% of the population does. We're gonna give you some methylated folate, which is B9, the active version, which logically sounds great because that is giving you methyl, which should speed up the methylation cycle and fix things. Well, it will speed up your methylation cycle, which is good. So you might start feeling good at first. If you're undermethylated, and this only applies for if you're undermethylated and you have anxiety or depressive type symptoms, low serotonin type symptoms, you will start feeling worse, more anxious, more irritable, maybe just more, even worse depression can happen if you're taking methylfolate and your serotonin's low, which I mean it usually is when we're undermethylating, right? So that can be an issue. I just want you to know that because that's what you'll see when you when you Google this. You'll go online, you'll type what to do if I have the MTHFR SNP, if I have one of those SNPs, and that's the instant answer. And it's not for everyone. I just need you to know that. Um, you also definitely need to avoid folic acid. Folic acid can just gum up the whole methylation cycle for those who are undermethylated, who have an MTHFR genetic SNP, but it's really not good for anybody because it's a synthetic version. That's just not, it's not the best option for people in general. All right, you guys, thank you so much for sticking with me to the end. So hopefully now you understand what methylation is, if undermethylation is possibly a part of your symptom picture, and what we can do with nutrient therapy to resolve that issue. I'll see you on next week's episode, and until then, have a wonderful rest of your day and take good care of you. I'm so excited to announce my new program, Mood Alchemy. This program utilizes advanced nutrient therapy and labs to get your anxiety and depression unstuck in three months and keep it that way. Go to nourishby nature.co to book your intro coaching call with me. And that will also save your spot in the program if you decide you'd like to move forward and actually join Mood Alchemy. So book that call to save your spot and get ready to transform your mental and emotional health for good.