Transcript
keyboard_arrow_downRoger Deutsch
Thank you all for joining our webinar this evening, entitled Exploring The MethylDetox Profile. This intended to be a practicum, really, about understanding questions that no doubt you have been receiving, and will receive, about methylation and detoxification, and the genes involved in that process.
I think it’s interesting in this time, this post genomic era, that we’re making new discoveries. This cycle of methionine and homocysteine metabolism has been an area of very intensive investigation lately. It’s an area that’s of great interest to people, healthcare providers and their patients. So it’s a great area to us to service the needs of people to understand their biochemistry more deeply.
Many years ago a physician from Harvard named Kilmer McCully discovered the association between homocysteine and cardiovascular disease, and other degenerative diseases, and hypothesized… It was called the homocysteine hypothesis. He took a lot of heat for that. In fact, he basically had to leave Harvard because of that. It interfered tremendously with new drugs coming on the market for treating high cholesterol, and so forth.
At the time, it was very simple. He proposed that a mutation in the methyl methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene was responsible for elevated homocysteine, which was pathogenic. The treatment for that was to supplement with vitamin B6, folate and B12. It’s very simplistic, and I know over the many decades… I read that book decades ago, and in that time I have been to many meetings where homocysteine has been discussed, and there has been a back and forth as to whether or not homocysteine levels are that meaningful.
It was confusing. People weren’t really sure. There was conflicting information, and now I’ve met Dr. Celeda, and understand that there’s a great deal more to the process than just that one gene. There are many genes involved, and there are many steps involved in these pathways. That’s what he’ll be speaking with us about this evening.
We’re also joined by Jim Hoover, who is our Sales Director as Cell Science Systems, and he will be able to speak about the implementation or the logistics of utilizing the tests in your practice. We were going to be joined by a couple of other panel members. They unfortunately couldn’t make it, and they send their regrets. But I think, anyway, we have a full program tonight, and I want to turn this over to Dr. Calida… Celeda?
Dr. Dino Celeda
Celeda. Actually, it’s ‘Chelida’, but…
Roger Deutsch
Celeda? Celeda.
Dr. Celeda
…Yeah.
Roger Deutsch
He has a lot to tell us tonight, so.
Dr. Celeda
Well, thank you very much. Roger, Mr. Deutsch.
Roger Deutsch
It’s actually Roger.
Dr. Celeda
[laughs] Yeah.
Jim Hoover
You can still call me Jim.
Dr. Celeda
Oh, yeah. Thank you, Jim. Yes.
What we want to talk today is about homocysteine methylene pathway. I am gonna skip everything, kind of where we are. Mr. Deutsch said already everything. So far what we’re gonna show in the seminar, the objectives, are actually what we are talking about, homocysteine, methionine, MTHFR, identify the most important genes involved in the methionine homocysteine cycle, and that’s what Mr. Deutsch said. There is more to that than only MTHFR so far.
We’re gonna look at the different mutations and the different genes, which control this methionine homocysteine cycle. We choose to call it methionine homocysteine cycle. We’re gonna show you later on why.
Then we’re gonna see how these mutations impact the homocysteine levels. But, you see, genetic testing only tells you something, kind of what is wrong, but, and this is the new thing… Genetic testing was done in the past, only revealing the SNPs you have. But it should also be done something about those SNPs, because you can’t actually cure your DNA. You can go over that, and to give… In a lot of cases, personal intervention, according to the genetic result. What can be targeted? Nutrition. Gonna come to that later. Later targeted supplementation so far.
And what is very important… When you provide this targeted nutrition or targeted homocysteine, or even targeted treatment, you can monitor, or you should monitor, the process of your treatment by using different markers from the blood, and here we recommend you use homocysteine levels in the blood. There are more markers for that, but we are going to come to that later on.
Okay. So, yeah. This is the whole thing. This is the homocysteine cycle, and kind of how it effects other metabolic pathways. The homocysteine cycle, or the homocysteine methionine cycle, doesn’t stay alone. It is involved in methylation. That’s actually the major part of it. But, also, it is involved in glutathione synthesis, and this is a very important part.
Roger
Reasonable to say that glutathione is perhaps the most important of the three enzymatic antioxidant enzymes in the system.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, yeah. It’s very important, because it’s actually the phase two detoxification, what is a conjugation reaction, what we say… And glutathione aplasia, the most important part… Also very important what we did a lot in Germany, metal detoxification. Detoxification of metals.
Roger
Bottled water.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. Bottled water. The Romans died, the Romans had problems, because they had too much lead in their water. So, no, glutathione, especially the enzyme glutathione, transfers A1, but also T1, which has a deletion in the population. A lot of people don’t have this enzyme. Genetically, it plays a very important role in detoxification.
Roger Deutsch
I know you’re going to… I don’t want to jump ahead. When you use the term deletion, I know you will have to explain, what do you mean?
Dr. Celeda
The gene is not there.
Roger Deutsch
Okay.
Dr. Celeda
The gene is not… Deletion, it’s a special kind of a SNP.
Roger Deutsch
The gene is not there?
Dr. Celeda
The gene is not there.
Roger Deutsch
Okay. Where is it? Or, nucleotide is not there?
Dr. Celeda
[laughs]
Roger
Okay. I’ll let you do it.
Dr. Celeda
But you see, this is glutathione synthesis. The whole methylation pathway also has an impact on mitochondria, also in connection with the glutathione, and what we said in detoxification. So what we also postulate, kind of, if you see on my talk, I’m not from the states, I’m from Germany… But what we postulated in Germany is always you have to look everything as a whole, and not only one or two specific genes.
So this is actually what I wanted to say with this chart. Kind of, like, let us go shortly and define what actually a SNP or a mutation is, or a genetic polymorphism. It’s very easy. The DNA is made out of four bricks, or four of what we call nucleotides. Adenine, cystosine, thymine and guanine. A special sequence of those four nucleotides creates a specific gene.
So, for example, TACT stands, let’s say, for MTHFR, which is normal. But then this is a SNP single nucleotide polymorphism when this C is replaced by an A, okay?
Roger Deutsch
So these are like zeroes and one, in binary code in computer.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, that’s exactly it.
Roger Deutsch
Except much more complex. So a combination of all those four nucleotides makes up the whole
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. You laugh about it, but I studied at University of Heidelberg, and we were actually looking at that as a binary code. I actually did my PhD at the Human Genetics department, specialized in Applied Physics so far.
Okay. But you see this is kind of what we have here. 94% of the population, if you’re guanosine, which is the normal biotype, and 60% of the population have this guanosine replaced by thymidine. This is a single nucleotide polymorphism.
But, now, what is the deal about it? It’s very easy. Each gene codes for an enzyme, and here we have, well, a red blood cell, and the blood cell, which is effected by sickle cell anemia, and this is the case in sickle cell anemia, we have a SNP. This is the oldest example of a SNP.
The fact is, the following, here you are a beautiful round shaped red blood cell, and here you have a sickle shaped blood cell. This sickle cell comes only through that, that there is a SNP.
Roger Deutsch
One gene? One gene is responsible for it?
Dr. Celeda
One gene and one SNP in this gene is responsible for that.
Roger Deutsch
It’s not always the case that one gene, or a disease, is related to one gene.
Dr. Celeda
Exactly.
Roger Deutsch
It can be many genes, but this is an example, a textbook example.
Dr. Celeda
This is an example, and I would say, Roger, it is one of the very few examples where one SNP effects something like that.
Roger Deutsch
Right.
Dr. Celeda
And so on. Normally it’s a cascade of genes and SNPs in those genes.
Jim Hoover
Everyone understands. This is a very easy one for everyone to comprehend.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, very easy, and kind of, what does it do to sickle cell anemia? It bounds less oxygen to the red blood cells, and it’s the same kind of also in the MTHFR gene when we have there a SNP. The production, or let’s say… It doesn’t’ function properly. It doesn’t function to 100%. Let’s make it in this way.
Roger Deutsch
You can infer some protection against malaria, which is…
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, well, that’s how sickle… When we talk about it, that’s how sickle cell anemia got, actually, manifested in certain regions, because it’s a protection against malaria.
Jim Hoover
Really?
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, yeah. That’s what it is. Okay.
A little bit more how to interpret genetic results. What did we say again? Homozygous is positive. This is for the SNPs. When you have a homozygous positive SNP you have, from both of your parents, inheritance this SNP. This means you inherit actually two DNAs from your parents, one from father, one from mother. When in both DNAs from father and mother it’s a SNP, we talk about homozygous positive.
It’s a genetic kind of like as deprivation minus minus, but this is Gregor Mendel.
And then homozygous, it’s, again, for the following thing. One DNA from one of your parents is a SNP. The other one is normal. Here we talk about that 50% of the DNA has a biotype and 50% has not the normal biotype. Yes?
Roger Deutsch
Clinically, yeah, it means that the enzymes there, the genes encode for the enzyme. But there’s a bit of a compromise. One parent contributes a gene that has a single nucleotide polymorphism…
Dr. Celeda
Exactly.
Roger Deutsch
…A SNP, or a mutation, and the result will be the enzyme that performs a function and a particular step in the homocysteine methionine cycle is compromised. It’s not dysfunctional, but it’s just not functional optimally.
Dr. Celeda
It’s not functional optimally. Let’s say in this case, to give you a hint, in this case, you can say, “Okay, it’s functional in between 80% and 90%.”
Jim
Okay.
Dr. Celeda
Something like that.
Jim Hoover
But it still needs to be addressed in some manner. This is something that’s not ignored.
Dr. Celeda
You have always exceptions from the rule. In some cases it is only working to 60%, you know?
Jim Hoover
Okay, but there’s a way to monitor that. We will get into that.
Dr. Celeda
But we also, we are looking for relevant SNPs here, and we also then see it on the lab report, okay?
Jim
Okay.
Dr. Celeda
Now comes the green homozygous negative. Again, it’s plus plus. Both alleles. This means from both parents, from father and mother… Have no SNP regarding this mutation site. So the enzyme regarding this mutation site is 100% normal. Okay?
So this is how we come, how also we put these colors on. Red, homozygous positive. Yellow, watch it, homozygous plus, minus. Green, everything is fine.
Okay. Again, what are we trying to do with our functional genetics? This is very important. This is actually how functional genetics we understand, and how we also applied it for a couple of years back in Germany. This was a test, kind of test to individuals’ current status, and how can you test an individual’s current status or personalized status only through SNPs, and then also test the corresponding metabolic markers in blood?
This gives kind of an example, why is it out of shape? Okay.
Second, target. According to those results, you can do a targeted personalized intervention with supplementations according to the individual results of SNPs, and also with corresponding markers of blood. Why do you need these corresponding markers of blood? Like, in this case, homocysteine. Just to monitor progress.
In the past it was always, take this pill or take folic acid, and it’s going to be better. Yeah, sure. But when this person has a SNP somewhere else, it’s not gonna be better. So you really, what we recommend always, monitor your treatment. Monitor the progress of your treatment, and even kind of so that you can also see when something is going out of hand. You can see it.
Jim
Right.
Dr. Celeda
Monitor with homocysteine levels.
Roger Deutsch
In this case we’re talking about monitoring serum levels of homocysteine.
Dr. Celeda
Yes.
Roger Deutsch
It shouldn’t, obviously, be too high. Also, it should not be too low.
Dr. Celeda
Too low, yeah. Well, too low is also… But we can come later to that. Kind of like we always say, or said it. Take the gold middle so far. Too much is not good. Too low is not good too.
Roger Deutsch
Right.
Dr. Celeda
Okay.
So right now the genes, what we are looking at right now, here is, to give you a short, short description of that, is MTHFR. Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. We are looking at the common SNPs. Very well known. C677T and A1298C. So, everyone knows that.
The next gene is not so very well known, but it’s, to my belief, very important. It’s the so-called methionine synthase, and what does it says? It actually synthase methionine from homocysteine by using vitamin B12. We’re gonna come later on the chart where we can show you everything, all the pathways t goes.
Jim Hoover
This is MTR, right?
Dr. Celeda
This is MTR. Then we have the MTRR, 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate-Homocysteine Methyltransferase Reductase. These two genes work together.
Oh, I see. I see.
Jim Hoover
That’s pretty good. You can say that.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, I was practicing in front of the mirror, you know. But you see, these genes work together. We call it, in science, in the so-called ping pong reaction, and we are going to later come to that.
Then you have COMT, okay. We know COMT. Catechol-O-methyltransferase. We are also looking at the most important mutation sites, the Val108/158Met mutation site and the Ala52/102Thr.
Roger Deutsch
Now, those are shorthand for certain amino acids?
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. You see, exactly what we said. Three nucleotides. Code for one amino acid. When one of these nucleotides is replaced, it codes for another amino acid.
Roger Deutsch
Right.
Dr. Celeda
And an enzyme consists of animo acids. So when the amino acid sequence is not proper, then you get the enzyme out of shape. Okay?
Roger Deutsch
Yeah, and some amino acids are hydrophobic, and some are hydrophilic.
Dr. Celeda
Exactly.
Roger Deutsch
So that gives their rule in solution… I mean, we’re 96% water. So it makes the peptides either go towards the water or away from the water, and gives the enzyme its confirmation.
Dr. Celeda
Let’s make it in this way. It doesn’t develop the proper hydrogen bombs. Hydrogen connection bombs. That’s what it is, and blah, blah. This is biochemistry. My God.
Jim Hoover
Another time.
Roger Deutsch
Another time.
Dr. Celeda
The last gene, what we have falls in the cycle, or… It’s also a very important gene, and not so very well known. It’s S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase, and this gene is actually very much involved in methylation. It is very involved for the so-called methylation potential, what we’re gonna come later on.
Roger Deutsch
And methylation is important for everything.
Jim Hoover
Right.
Dr. Celeda
It’s important, and especially, this actually shows you how you can methylate so far. Okay.
Roger Deutsch
How prevalent are variances in that AHCY?
Dr. Celeda
AHCY? Yeah. They are. Let’s say it in this way. They are not so much like in the MTHFR. But when they are there, they are very important.
Roger Deutsch
Okay.
Jim Hoover
Okay. I think you’re going to get into, also, further, is what conditions these are more prevalent in, and the conditions associated with. Okay.
Dr. Celeda
Okay. Last but not least, you can monitor right now with homocysteine, which is a very useful marker for monitoring all of the genetic SNPs and the targeted supplementation in blood. Okay. Back again. That’s our whole cycle in some form. We are gonna look only at this one.
Roger Deutsch
So those are the key genes in this methionine?
Dr. Celeda
These are the key genes…
Jim Hoover
Which you’ve just discussed.
Dr. Celeda
…Which we just discussed. I mean, there is one or two more, but there are not so many SNPs in there. But these are actually the key genes, which make up the whole homocysteine methionine cycle, what we prefer to call it, or a detox, homocysteine detox. Or, let’s say it this way. The methylation potential. The methylation so far.
You see it’s not only one gene, it’s a cascade of genes, which actually rule the whole cycle. This whole cycle, what we say, homocysteine methionine cycle, that’s only one task. Actually, to create homocysteine, like here, and then to create methionine, and methionine and homocysteine only differ in this group, CH3, and it’s the so called methyl group.
Jim
Okay.
Roger Deutsch
Can I disagree for a second and ask you a question away from the chemistry? Homocysteine levels can increase by virtue or consumption of foods that contain a lot of homocysteine?
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, it can alter that.
Roger Deutsch
Okay.
Dr. Celeda
But, you see, most likely they increase, but most likely also they increase from improper… Yeah.
Roger Deutsch
Improper metabolism.
Dr. Celeda
Improper metabolism, and you see, I mean, the only thing here, what we say, methylation, it only… The whole cycle is actually concerning only the CH3. That’s the whole story behind that.
Roger Deutsch
That’s the only difference between the two molecules.
Dr. Celeda
Yes, exactly.
Roger Deutsch
Is the methyl.
Dr. Celeda
Is the methyl.
Roger Deutsch
So methionine becomes a methyl donor?
Dr. Celeda
Methionine is the methyl donor. Homocysteine, actually, when methionine gets this metal group away, it turns into homocysteine again.
Roger Deutsch
Okay. So it’s recycling of homocysteine?
Dr. Celeda
Exactly. That’s why we are talking from methionine homocysteine cycle.
Roger Deutsch
So you have a double whammy if something is not working. You might have the accumulation of too much homocysteine, which can be immunogenic and…
Dr. Celeda
Oh, yeah. Sure, sure, sure.
Roger Deutsch
…Pathogenic, and you compromise, then, methylation, which is necessary for gene expression and for detoxification.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, sure.
Roger Deutsch
So that’s what we’re talking about?
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. That’s what we’re talking about.
Roger Deutsch
Okay.
Dr. Celeda
We’re seeing that’s the reason why it’s so important to look at the whole cycle, and not only at one gene. Kind of like we said before, only one gene, the effect of one SNP in one gene, sickle cell anemia, and there’s another one in phenylketonuria, PKU, yeah. This is actually… My doctor father, Dr. Professor in Heidelberg found that out.
Roger Deutsch
Oh really?
Dr. Celeda
Yes. That’s why I wanted to say it.
Roger Deutsch
Right.
Dr. Celeda
Okay. Let us go through this whole cycle.
Well, let’s go to folic acid here. We all know folic acid. Folic acid goes to two other enzymes, which are genetically controlled, but which are not so right now important in our cycle, and folic acid is converted to 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate-Homocysteine Methyltransferase, and now comes the first player in this whole gene. MTHFR. Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. MTHFR is only the task to convert 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate in 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate, okay?
So when you have genetic mutations here, SNPs in these mutations, what happens? What we said before, your enzyme is not working correctly. Not efficiently. So what is the consequent of that?
You might have less than 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate-Homocysteine Methyltransferase here. What you need… So what do we do? We supplement it. It doesn’t make much… It makes more sense to supplement 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate-Homocysteine Methyltransferase in this case, when you have SNPs, then a supplement foric acid.
Then you have no SNPs here in the MTHFR. Then we can say, “Okay, supplement folic acid.”
Roger Deutsch
Is there a disadvantage of taking a supplement if you don’t need it?
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. [laughs] Yeah, it can be.
Jim Hoover
Cobalamin versus methylcobalamin. Anything along those lines.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. Well, now, it can also be kind of in the… There are new investigations, what I have say… For example, when you take too much folic acid, it can affect your natural killer cell activity, and this is onto so good. Yeah?
So it’s always
Roger Deutsch
Yeah, it’s a question of balance.
Dr. Celeda
With alcohol, everything is a question of balance.
Jim Hoover
Too much alcohol and you lose your balance.
[laughter]
Dr. Celeda
Yes. Exactly. That’s what we have to point out. I just have to mention, last Friday a person came to me for consult, and she brought with her a bag like this is full of supplements, and she goes to me, “I’m feeling sick.”
I thought, “Sure you’re feeling sick. Look at all the supplements you’re taking so far.”
It’s a question of balance, and to bring this balance into order, we look at those SNPs.
Jim Hoover
Okay. Personalize what we’re doing. Good.
Dr. Celeda
Okay. Let’s continue on.
You have this 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate, and then comes the methionine synthase, and methionine synthase reductase. This methionine synthase takes the methyl group, this methyl group, from 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate, attaches to vitamin B12 and creates methyl cobalamin. Again, you see methyl group, methylated vitamin B12. This group goes to that, and methyltetrahydrofolate becomes tetrahydrofolate.
[coughs]
Sorry.
So, in the next step, the methyl MTR methyl synthase takes homocysteine, yeah, here, remember? See that? And produces, attaches this methyl group from 5 methyltetrahydrofolate to homocysteine, creating methionine. See? There is the methyl group again.
[crosstalk]
You see, this is a cycle.
To point that out, MTHFR is only the start of this whole cycle. It’s only the start. So MTRR is also working together with methionine synthase in so called ping-pong reaction, because methionine synthase is doing that constantly. Constantly creating methionine from homocysteine, sometimes the methionine synthase gets inactivated, or what we say, oxidized.
Then the methionine synthase reductase have to reduce it or active it again, yeah? So you see, even that nature made two genes for that, two enzymes. You can see how important this step is.
Roger Deutsch
Right. Very interesting. We don’t need to go into the specifics of it, but I’m going to assume there’s a lot of information in this scientific literature…
Dr. Celeda
Oh, yeah. Sure, sure, sure, sure.
Roger Deutsch
…About if this snippet… Okay.
Dr. Celeda
We’re gonna come later on to all of the so called COMT inhibitors like quercetin. We’re gonna come to that later on.
Roger Deutsch
Right.
Jim Hoover
I think we have a list of those, yeah.
Dr. Celeda
In scientific literature, quercetin is known since 1919 in the pharmacological literature that it’s a COMT inhibitor.
Roger Deutsch
And you helped us put together this… And we have a literature section.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, sure.
Roger Deutsch
That’s a good guide for people to view.
Dr. Celeda
I am both delighted to create that.
Jim Hoover
It’s a great piece. Yeah.
Dr. Celeda
Thank you.
So, okay. But let’s go further on. You see, methionine, again, methionine, see, donates its methyl group to other S-adenosyl, which comes from ATP, yeah?
Okay. S-adenosyl 3 phosphate, adenosyl, and creates S-adenosylmethionine, yeah? Yeah? This S-adenosylmethionine, together with COMT, then does the methylation Yeah.
Roger Deutsch
COMT also plays other roles in terms of metabolism, of balancing neurotransmitters.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. COMT stands for catechol-O-methyltransferase. That means COMT, that’s the so-called O-methylation. But it’s very important. You have a lot of methylating enzymes. A lot of methylating enzymes. I have here a list. I can show it so far.
You have O-methylation. You have 5-hydroxy, O-methylrase, transferase, you have acetylserotonin, O-methyltransferase, you have beta, homocysteine methyltransferase. I mean, I mean, you have a lot of methyltransferases.
Roger Deutsch
So if someone is listening now, and they are interested in really drilling down into the biochemistry, they can contact you.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, sure. But what I wanted to point out, like I said, we have a lot of methylating enzymes. But, very important. All this methylating enzymes are getting its methyl group from SAMe. That means this cycle is universal, yeah, that’s the reason why it’s so important.
Roger Deutsch
Right.
Dr. Celeda
We’re gonna also talk about hypomethylating, hyper methylation, or you call it over methylation, under methylation, but the fact is, this end cycle is very, very important.
Jim Hoover
We have lots of people interested in over methylation. We’ll get to that in a little bit.
Dr. Celeda
Yes.
Jim Hoover
Okay. Very good.
Dr. Celeda
When you have SNPs in COMT, let’s say here, then we recommend SAMe for, because, kind of, like, to give COMT a more and more SAMe in order to do the methylation. But this cycle is not over right now. SAMe, when it’s methylating, is becoming, or S-adenosylmethionine, when it’s methylating, is becoming S-adenosylhomocysteine, and here we are again at the homocysteine.
Roger Deutsch
Okay.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah? In the next step, and this is the AHCY, what we were talking about before, adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase. What is this AHCY doing? It’s converting adenoyslhomocysteine back to homocysteine.
Roger Deutsch
Okay.
Jim
And [crosstalk] continue.
Dr. Celeda
And the cycle completes and continues from the beginning. Very easy, yet? But it’s not so easy.
Jim Hoover
It shows the importance of addressing any genetic dysfunction that you had, that you have to pinpoint what it is and actually have there be design for that.
Dr. Celeda
But now comes the big thing. Okay. That’s the reason why we are looking at this gene.
The ratio between s-adenosylmethionine and S-adenosylhomocysteine makes a so-called methylation potential.
Roger Deutsch
Okay. Why is that? [crosstalk]
Dr. Celeda
Very important. SAMe and SAH, let’s say it in this way, have to be in a specific ratio. Normally eight parts of SAMe, two parts of SAH. Yeah? This is the optimal methylation potential, according to literature.
When you have too much SAH, S-adenosylhomocysteine, this effects methylation potential. Why? Because the affinity of S-adenosylhomocysteine to, let’s say, block methylation, is much higher than the affinity of SAMe to perform methylation.
Roger Deutsch
That could really gum up the whole works.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah.
Roger Deutsch
Gene expression depends entirely on methylation.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. That, to my belief, it’s more important to measure the methylation potential than the homocysteine levels, and we are gonna have that shortly. We are working, our R&D departments, are working on that, that we can also offer the methylation potential. You see, now it makes sense, especially when we talk about over methylation, that you control these SNPs here and control all of the methylation potential.
Jim Hoover
So maintaining that ratio is really what the goal is for realizing that?
Dr. Celeda
This is very important.
Roger Deutsch
And the SNPs have a significant impact on that.
Dr. Celeda
For sure. These SNPs in the AHCY gene has an impact on that. What can also have an impact on that, also very important, let’s say it this way… Your COMT is good. You have no AHCY kind of mutations, and still your methylation potential is upped, and you know that you are…
…Really needing methylation, that something is going on in the body. You see, you can use the methylation potential not only to monitor the proper balance, but also to see, okay, what can be going on in the body?
Methylation potential is also very, very important, for example, when you are on specific drugs, or when you get L-dopa. L-dopa is used specific, also in Parkinson’s. Then, for example, when the doctor prescribes L-dopa, they have to use COMT inhibitors like entacapone or tolcapone so far. Very, very important.
But we also say in the lab reports, be aware of that. Then don’t give SAMe.
You see? I mean, that’s just a very, very important thing so far.
Roger Deutsch
I know this is a little bit tangential, but I was once visiting with some folks in India who were current generation of a long line of people practicing in manufacturing ayurvedic remedies, and they feel that there actually are some herbs, old ayurvedic herbs, that will treat Parkinson’s.
Dr. Celeda
Sure. This whole thing isn’t, I mean… I’m from Europe. My grandfather, he studied medicine, and he studied medicine, well, in Austria, and in his times, when you studied medicine, you had to study also plants. How do you call it?
Roger
Botany.
Dr. Celeda
Exactly, botany, in order to know kind of what is implicating so far. I still have his diploma so far.
Jim Hoover
Just quick on this then. So homocysteine levels, if they are high or abnormal… Or, I’m sorry. Let’s say their homocysteine levels are in range, and you still possess genetic mutation here. I guess that’s one thing to monitor. If someone has normal homocysteine levels, are you done? Is your work complete? You’re still addressing the mutation, though, where it is existed as far as what the gene is expressing, correct? Or, how do you do that?
Dr. Celeda
When someone has normal homocysteine levels so far, and then you should also, for example, look what we say, also at the methylation potential. You look at the genes. I mean, when someone has normal homocysteine levels, according right now to normal standards, he’s fine.
Jim Hoover
Whatever the reference ranges are for the tests you’re doing? Right.
Dr. Celeda
Yes. It’s fine. But then again, I would recommend also to look at other things to be on the sure side. By the way, genetic tests, you only have to do once in your lifetime. That’s about it. The genes, the SNPs, are never gonna change. Never. But let’s… What I..? Oh my, we talk a lot. Let us continue in this whole thing.
Jim Hoover
It’s all good stuff.
Dr. Celeda
And then also, to make it very, very clear, homocysteine is not only involved into this whole homocysteine methionine cycle. No, homocysteine is the major template for glutathione synthesis. You see, when we are talking about glutathione, we are just right now in the phase two detoxification, very important. Very important chelation. We did, in Germany, a lot of chelation therapies, applied it to metal intoxication so far, and then also glutathione ratio.
Roger Deutsch
Yeah. What I was mentioning before is that we’re getting more and more metal contamination. Fossil fuels contain metals, and coal would contain a lot of metals. We know it has gone into a lot of the water supplies, and I think the Flint, Michigan case is just the first case. But from what I understand, there’s actually thousands of municipal water supplies that are contaminated with metals.
Dr. Celeda
You see, the fact is also…
Roger Deutsch
That would explain a lot.
Dr. Celeda
…That’s what I did with Dr. Peter Franklin. I mean, he was owner of King James Medical Hospital in Cleveland. He passed away two or three years ago, and we were discussing a lot. He was right. He actually postulated no metal. There is no metal that which is not toxic. Even gold is toxic too, to a certain degree. Silver is toxic. Nickle is toxic. Mercury toxic, so far.
There is no metal that is nontoxic, and that is a reason why we need the glutathione transferase, the glutathione, in order to get rid of that. Yeah.
Roger Deutsch
So what if someone has… Which gene is the most important? Maybe that’s wrong. They are all important. Is that the answers?
Dr. Celeda
You mean here in our methylation cycle?
Roger Deutsch
Yes.
Dr. Celeda
All of them.
Roger Deutsch
All of them?
Dr. Celeda
I would say all of them.
Roger Deutsch
So you can’t take one out of context.
Dr. Celeda
Well, what you can do is the following thing. You can test the most important genes. What I would recommend is MTHFR, MTR and COMT, okay. But then, when you have normal levels, okay, fine. But then to have a clear picture, I would also recommend to test AHCY and MTRR. But then you can make a basic of the three genes.
Okay? Good.
Here are the genes again on the side, but I am going to go to the next picture. Here are the genes with the mutation sites.
Jim Hoover
We’re gonna talk about those. Yeah.
Dr. Celeda
Here are actually things…
Jim
Ah, good.
Dr. Celeda
…Are kind of from blood, what you can use to monitor the progress. This is sure homocysteine levels, folic acid levels, 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate, vitamin B12, methionine levels, methylation potentials. Very, very important. Vitamin B6. Here are the targeted supplements, what you can use. Folic acids, 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate, methylcobalamin, SAMe, NADH, inosine and vitamin B6.
These are actually the most important supplements involved in that, and according to the SNPs, or according to the appearance of the SNPs in what genes you can do targeted supplementation.
Roger Deutsch
And I guess it’s useful for people to know that you have created these recommendations, and they are incorporated into the test report.
Dr. Celeda
Thank you for that, but I get my knowledge from biochemistry books so far.
Roger Deutsch
Yeah, but you’ve gleaned them from the literature.
Celeda: Yeah. Because, you see, all the… For oxidative stress, everyone says, “Yeah, take vitamin C.” No, for oxidative stress, the most important thing is take manganese. Why manganese? Manganese is a cofactor of super oxidase too.
Roger Deutsch
Right.
Dr. Celeda
This is known in biochemistry, but thank you, yeah. I took the knowledge and put it from biochemistry together. Okay.
So, again, this is the whole cycle to give you an idea, and we were just looking at the small portion. This site of the mitochondria is a totally whole portion. Detoxification by glutathione is a whole portion, but we’re going to come in, I hope, in later webinars, to that. Okay.
Roger Deutsch
Very good.
Dr. Celeda
Good. Last but not least, finally, we want to represent you here a lab report, what we created, and you see we also made it in the following way that we created a lab report in a kind of way that you have the whole cycle in front of you.
Roger Deutsch
So it shows you right there if there’s no SNP, no variation on those genes?
Dr. Celeda
Yeah.
Roger Deutsch
In this case, COMT is normal wild type. Homozygous is normal. The yellow ones, MTR and MTHFR are…
Dr. Celeda
It shows Roger, the following thing. You remember what we said? Plus minus, minus minus, plus plus. We gave to everything that’s okay, the color green.
Roger Deutsch
Right.
Dr. Celeda
Here, if on the first site you have a green color, okay, you see there are no SNPs. Then the second one, plus, 50-50. 50% of the enzymes are good, 50% are not, are yellow.
MTR, like here. Red. 100% of the investigated gene, according to the investigated mutations within the gene, it’s not good.
Roger Deutsch
Yeah. The mutation is inherited from both parents.
Dr. Celeda
Exactly.
Roger Deutsch
That’s not good.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. So you see it on the first glance what is wrong so far.
Roger Deutsch
That might impact the amount of supplementation?
Dr. Celeda
It might impact the amount of supplementation.
Roger Deutsch
But you have to monitor. That’s the whole key.
Jim Hoover
Identify it first, and then…
Dr. Celeda
It gives you, let’s say…
Roger Deutsch
Guidance.
Dr. Celeda
…It gives you guidance, because you also have to take into consideration how the nutrition of the person, and so far the whole lifestyle of the person. It gives you guidance by watching, you have to be very careful.
Roger Deutsch
And then, for example, B12 people need intrinsic factor in order to utilize it. So there may be other factors that determine how…
Dr. Celeda
Exactly. Yeah.
Roger Deutsch
…You can’t a priori say, “This is the right amount for this profile.”
Dr. Celeda
That’s exactly what you say. That’s actually a function of genetics. Not only give blind something, because the SNP is there. Monitor it. Very important. Monitor it.
Jim
That’s what’s important about this whole… In genomic insights, what we’re doing is, the resources we can use from the personalized intervention therapy.
Dr. Celeda
Exactly.
Jim
…And also having you as a resource too to help out the interpretations of the results and supplemental recommendations.
Dr. Celeda
Exactly. We only can give kind of like ideas, ranges, but the doctor, or let’s say the health care practitioner, knows his patient and can add to that. We are giving recommendations, yeah?
Roger
That’s terrific. Well, I know there’s a lot more detail to the story that you could elaborate on, but for now you’ve done a very good job of giving us the framework to this understanding.
Dr. Celeda
Thank you so much.
Roger
You’re welcome. Thank you. We had a number of questions that have come in.
Dr. Celeda
Maybe we can just show all the… This is not only the lab report. This is the first page. The other pages, just to give you an impression…
Roger
Sure.
Dr. Celeda
…We are doing an interpretation, what is homozygous, what is heterozygous, what you have to be aware of when kind of, like… Here with MTHFR, when you are taking antifolates, antifolates are something like, even when the MTHFR is good, you can create 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate, so when the person is on antifolates, you have to use 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate.
Jim
This is very helpful information.
Dr. Celeda
Very helpful information. Here at COMT, very important at COMT so far, or kind of, we are giving you quercetine how it can inhibit your COMT action. But we also say here, when you are on, let’s say, medication, or like we said before, entacapone and tolcapone, and L-dopa, be aware. Don’t give SAMe, because, actually, L-Dopa…
Roger
Will inhibit COMTs?
Dr. Celeda
…No, no. COMT is not allowed to inhibit L-dopa because it’s a medication so far. So all these things, what we are saying… And I had a case like that about two weeks ago. I said, kind of, “I’m not your doctor, but I can tell you scientifically, don’t use it. But please consult your physician. Please consult your physician.”
Roger
And now physicians can consult you if they [crosstalk]
Dr. Celeda
Sure, sure, sure. But, you see, this is also since because this is actually… Kind of, right now, we are moving into this case of epigenetics. How, actually, this can influence everything so far, and this is what we have to say in a lab report in order to make the physicians and the healthcare practitioners aware of it.
Roger
Yeah. The genes guide you, but it’s not absolutely a cut in stone. I mean, genes are different from stone. Stone is pretty immutable. Genes have a way of expressing, not expressing, and it’s much more intricate orchestration of processes. So you have to always apply a clinical judgment…
Dr. Celeda
Oh, yeah. Sure.
Roger
…To therapy.
Dr. Celeda
Here we also… Whole discussion about hypomethylation and hypermethylation. I’m sure there’s hypermethylation. I”m sure there’s hypomethylation. But in cases like that, where you are on L-dopa, you have to consider things. You can’t say, “Okay, now give SAMe,” or when you are on the hypomethylation, no, you’re not allowed to give SAMe, and your COMT is not good.
You see, it’s always a question of the individual.
Roger
Who should have this test? What are the conditions?
Dr. Celeda
I would say everyone. Like we stated before, you saw the connection to all those cycles.
Roger
Right. Everybody benefits from optimum gene expression.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. We are not only talking about methylation. We are talking about oxidative stress oxidative stress, or actually kind of defeat the counteract for mitochondrial oxidative stress. We are talking about phase two detoxification, conjugation with glutathione, which is one of the major phase two conjugation enzymes or pathways. I mean, it affects everything.
Let’s say it this way. When you are young, or when you are healthy, you don’t feel it. But this can add up to chronic conditions later on.
Roger
Right. Okay.
Dr. Celeda
So as soon as you do that, it’s better. Again, a genetic test is only to be done once in your lifetime.
Roger
That’s why you like to use the term lifestyle genetics.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. Lifestyle genetics… I mean, lifestyle genetics, yeah.
Roger
We’re not diagnosing. You’re not diagnosing, and our lab is not diagnosing a disease.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. We are not diagnosing a disease. We are actually… And this is a very good word, what we had in Germany, kind of making your aging, or when you’re aging, kind of guarantee you a good lifestyle in old ages. What we saying Germany, die healthy.
Roger
We say that in English too.
Dr. Celeda
You’re gonna die, but don’t stay the last five, six, ten years in bed.
Jim
The quality of your life.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, exactly.
Jim
What we’re looking for is the improvement for that, and then really, potentially, identifying patients where they are having issues. Instead of throwing more pharmaceuticals at them. Maybe there’s something you can do from a supplemental standpoint, or from a functional medicine, you can step in, address a genetic SNP that potentially, maybe they just need more folic acid in their diet, versus going in and taking a higher medication to reduce their cholesterol, or whatever the case may be.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. Because, although what you say, pharmaceuticals… I mean, we have this whole thing, pharmacogenomics. I mean, this is a huge thing, and people…
…Are taking drugs, which, according to their genetic picture, can counteract.
Jim
It’s important, yeah.
Dr. Celeda
There’s a number. About 40,000 people die in the United States yearly from drug abuse.
Roger
More.
Dr. Celeda
More.
Roger
More. More like 200,000. That’s what the reports are.
Dr. Celeda
This is official number. There is a big, big number, which is not known.
Jim
So true, yes, reported. You never really know.
Dr. Celeda
The best example is Viagra. Viagra, when you have… In your phase on detoxification, SNP 3A4, I think. When you have there, a SNP, you take Viagra and you have a risk for heart attack.
Jim
Right.
Dr. Celeda
So people doing that should know that.
Roger
Like Jack Nicholson, the character he played in…
Jim
…Like, he’s still with us. What are you saying? If you’re listening Jack, we apologize for your early demise.
Roger
The character portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the Hollywood film, As Good As It Gets.
Dr. Celeda
You see, I know a patient from Croatia, which I had. He had this problem. He was about 68. “Doctor, every time I take Viagra, my head gets red.”
I go, “Don’t do that.”
Jim
It’s like when you’re going for laughing gas for dentistry work as well.
Let’s see what else we have here maybe on the slides, and then we’ll maybe have time for some questions. I don’t know how we’re doing here.
Dr. Celeda
Okay. Last but not least, we were showing you right now the interpretations.
Jim
Oh, this is good.
Dr. Celeda
Here we’re gonna give you also recommendations, so we’re gonna give you recommendations of targeted supplementations so far.
Jim
This is important, yeah. So this is a big part of the report, that we actually identify the supplements that the patient should be using based upon the genetic SNPs that are shown in their test.
Dr. Celeda
And here we have, again, additional information, where we are talking about also watch the glutathione always, vitamin B6, which is a cofactor in the glutathione pathway, L-cysteine, L-glycine, L-glutamaic acids are recommended. Very important. These are the amino acids glutathione is made of.
L-cysteine, you should be very much aware of that, and we are also gonna have a test in the future before L-cysteine in the very near future.
Too low L-cysteine levels are not good. Too high are also not good. So far, so you have to be careful about that.
Jim
So we’ve sampled reports, if anybody would like… Just please contact us at the lab.
Dr. Celeda
Here, again, we have homocysteine and the serum, 11.63 so far, which is considered to be… Also in Europe it’s considered to be very close to the borderline. Here in the states we are using the recommendations of the National Heart Associations. They say 15 to 30. But, you see, again, this is kind of like one interpretation. The doctor has to do his own interpretation. Okay.
Jim
Yeah. Thank you for that.
Just want to get into ways that you can send the specimens into the lab. We do now have buccal swabs that are available. All you have to do is just go and order those. We still have the sodium citrate tubes, which can be used for the genetic testing, and then, if you would like to have the homocysteine test done as well, that’ll need to be connected in a gold top tube, which will need to be spun as per the normal lab procedures. The genetic only test, though, you can either do the blood in the blue top or in the swabs. They are available, again, at no cost. One of our accounts, who request those… Dino is there any preference as far as the two mediums? Getting blood versus the swab?
Dr. Celeda
Well, to my experience, and I have been doing that since 1998, whilst Buccal swabs, or, let’s say, saliva, or cells from the mouth are much, much better for DNA expression to my experience and whatnot. Only to my experience. Also to the experience of other labs. What’s very important, they are much more stable. When the saliva, let’s say, that the Buccal swab is dry, then you immobilize all these enzymes which can degrade DNA.
Jim
Right. Okay.
Dr. Celeda
So to my belief or to my experience, and also to the experience of my labs I had before in Germany, we switched to swabs in the year 2000.
Dr. Celeda
Two swabs, yeah.
Jim
And it’s non invasive. I mean, it makes collection very easy. Unless you are already drawing blood from the patient, we have the swabs available for you. Okay?
Dr. Celeda
Exactly.
Jim
Anything else?
Jim
Okay, and we just get into… Yeah. Basically, here’s the profiles we have that are already prearranged. We have the five genes in homocysteine in the advanced methyl detox profile, and also we have the three genes in homocysteine in the basic methyl detox profile. So advanced and basic are basically just difference in two genes that are not in one versus the other. So three genes and homocysteine in the basic, and give genes in the advanced.
We do have individual gene testing available as well. So let’s say, if you’ve done MTHFR in the past and just want to go back in and test for COMT, or AHCY, MTRR, we do have individual genes, which are available.
Again, with or without homocysteine and homocysteine by itself. So any of the values that you do need to have that are relative to this test, and to find out the information that is relative to you as far as how your genes are functioning, we do have mostly the combinations that are covered that would be important to you as per our offerings with the lab. Okay?
Roger
Should we open up to some questions?
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. Let’s do that.
Jim
I think that’s it for the slides. Yeah.
Moderator
Okay, great. We have a number of questions from both before the show and during.
We actually had a number of questions related to homocysteine itself, one asking, “What does it mean? What is the impact of high homocysteine?”
Also another question in the opposite direction of, what about homocysteine being too low, and what are the impacts of that?
Dr. Celeda
Okay. Good, good.
Very easy. Let me go a little bit back, kind of taking this homocysteine. I kind of explain it very, very easy. Where do we have it?
Okay. Homocysteine here. Homocysteine. When you have high homocysteine levels in the blood, you have hit a social group. This social group is highly reactive. So this is also highly reactive, for example, when you have high oxidative stress in your system, in the blood. This actually converts then homocysteine, or makes it… Oxidizes it. So far, makes it electrophilic, and what does it does, then? The homocysteine actually creates plugs, yeah? So far.
Roger
Immunogenic I think, as well.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, everything. Homocysteine is actually acting as a radical tool, yeah? Yeah. So it creates plugs so far. It attacks the system so far. This is when you have high homocysteine levels.
Roger
Damages
Dr. Celeda
Oh, yeah. Yeah. That’s the reason why you also should do chelation therapy with ADTA, mild chelation therapy to get rid of those, that’s also one cause, not only metals, but also, I am sorry… I am not an expert, but this has been done in Germany a lot of times to get rid of the plugs. When the homocysteine is too low, you see here, glutathione synthase. I mean, it can also be that the glutathione synthase is running high.
Jim
Too high, yeah.
Dr. Celeda
Too high, and you have to detoxify them for a lot of reasons. You can find that out. For example, when you do a glutathione ratio, yeah? Glutathione ratio means oxidize glutathione to reduce glutathione. Then you see normally where the body detoxifies, what we are also going to have in the future. Also, kind of, you’re working on that too.
So you see everything… A lot of things, what we say in Germany, fish in dark waters. Do a test.
Jim
Yeah. You get the information and address that by doing the test and finding out where to target.
Dr. Celeda
Exactly.
Roger
Very good. Especially in Caribbean water.
Dr. Celeda
Okay, yeah.
Jim
Another question.
Moderator
Absolutely. This is a bit of a follow on question. How often should one retest homocysteine?
Dr. Celeda
Oh, that’s a very good question. First, we are a lab. We don’t know the person. We don’t know the patient. A doctor or the healthcare practitioner knows it better, but in the average, I would give a hint. Let’s say in the order of two to three months. It can also be in the order of two to three weeks. It depends on the physician, on the healthcare practitioner. He knows the patient.
But I would say at least after two months.
Roger
If someone comes with very high levels of homocysteine, you might want to monitor more frequently.
Dr. Celeda
More frequently.
Jim
Makes sense, Yeah.
Roger
See how they are progressing.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, exactly.
Jim
Normalize. Sounds good.
Moderator
This is more of a question specific to our laboratory. What kind of support is available to providers in the form of perhaps a post-test consultation?
Jim
Okay. Well, I think the great advantage we have is actually Dr. Celeda in house making an appointment for follow-up consultation on any of the test results, or even prior to testing, if there’s any questions. Certainly available via email, or call your representative to get in contact with Dr. Celeda so that we can go ahead and set up a consultation prior to testing, or post results.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. Sure.
Moderator
We may have addressed this during the presentation, but I was asked again. Is there a recommended age where it makes sense to begin to look for this?
Dr. Celeda
Well, what we can say… I mean, your genes are never gonna change. As early as possible. You don’t have to have a disease. I mean, you can also do it in prevention. Again, the SNPs are never gonna change so far. Don’t wait until it’s too late, or what do you say in the states, so far?
Moderator
Here’s a question from just a moment ago. Are you familiar with any research that, I guess, discusses the differences in folic acid and other folates?
Dr. Celeda
Oh, folic acid and other folates. I’m sure there’s a lot of research about that. I am more than happy to answer this question, but it’s gonna take about an hour. There’s a lot of research there, and this is also actually clearly organic chemistry. Folic acids and folates. But this person can call me up. Then I can tell him, really, what it is. No?
Jim
Okay. Yeah. Please email us or give us a call at the lab, and we’ll go ahead and get that answer for you. It seems like it’s gonna be a little bit more in depth.
Dr. Celeda
Sure, sure. There is a lot of misunderstanding between folic acid and folate. To tell the truth, also, it’s the fault of the internet, which is providing very much the wrong information.
Moderator
Thank you. How does the information from this test, the MethylDetox Profile, help those utilizing chelation therapy?
Dr. Celeda
Well, what we said right now before on the other question. When you have plugs created by homocysteine through oxidative stress, when homocysteine itself gets a so-called radical so far, then what we recommended in Germany… I mean, I’m not a doctor, but I’m a scientist. But I worked with the German Chelation Therapy Association. Yeah. They use that in order to treat those plugs, so far.
This is kind of like the major thing, what I can say.
Jim
To a buildup of these plugs, you’re saying chelation therapy..?
Dr. Celeda
No, to reduce those plugs.
Jim
To bring back the balance.
Dr. Celeda
Because ADTA, what they are using chelation is ADTA, and this ADTA is kind of, like, gets a lot of also radicals. We don’t have to go into the biochemical structure of ADTA, but it’s a very powerful chelation agent. Powerful but moderate. It just doesn’t do everything.
But there’s a lot of things through chelation, and the chelation therapists know it better, also according to mineral supplementation before and after chelation.
Roger
There’s protocols.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah.
Roger
So would this help somebody in terms of…
Dr. Celeda
Oh, yeah. Sure.
Roger
…Monitoring the… I mean, knowing about certain SNPs, is that going to impact the decision?
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, sure. It’s going to impact. I mean, we did chelation therapy in Germany also with MTHRF and also with some genes, but we also used it for that glutathione S-transferase genes too, and we developed in Germany protocols according to those SNPs so far.
Roger
Okay. So there are protocols that have been developed?
Dr. Celeda
Oh, sure.
Roger
Are they using those protocols in the U.S.? Do you know if there’s any talk between the..?
Dr. Celeda
Well, they are using it, to my knowledge, in Mexico. We did a lot of seminars for the University of Mexico. It’s used, yeah.
Roger
It’s interesting to point out that chelation therapy as been controversial for a number of years, but recently there has been an NIH sponsored study that’s been completed that shows that it works. So.
Dr. Celeda
It works.
Roger
There’s still resistance to it, as there would be. But…
Dr. Celeda
I mean, it’s not the answer to all the questions. But, really, it works, and normally what you have to, you have also to, in chelation therapy you have to do challenging tests and blah, blah, blah, with DMPS, DMSA and all this stuff. I mean, it’s a very sophisticated treatment, and then it’s much more involved into that, and only giving ADTA.
Jim
It has an effective application.
Dr. Celeda
Oh, sure. That’s the reason why you should go to a very good doctor who is doing that.
Jim
Actually, in general.
Dr. Celeda
In general, yeah. In general.
Moderator
We have another question pertaining to high homocysteine. The question asks, “Are there any physical attributes or signs that might reveal to a provider that high homocysteine is at play?”
Jim
So you mean, like, a physical presentation?
Moderator
Some sort of indicator that would inspire one to look into it.
Dr. Celeda
After certain, why, you’re gonna get high blood pressure.
Roger
Yeah. You’re gonna have damage to the arteries and then build up of plaque, and then high blood pressure.
Dr. Celeda
But you shouldn’t wait for that. I mean, just measure your homocysteine in your SNPs, and then you know for sure.
Roger
Yeah. It’s easy enough to measure.
Moderator
Could you, I guess, expand on the symptoms of over methylation?
Dr. Celeda
Over methylation. Yeah. We are here again at this question. Over methylation so far. Symptoms of over methylation.
What can the symptoms of over methylation be? Kind of, they just shut off your whole genes, all of the DNA repairing enzymes. But when you do that, I mean, it’s too late.
But the fact is…
Roger
Is there much risk of over methylation?
Dr. Celeda
…I mean, I speak open. Over methylations right now came into fashion so far, like, a couple of years ago, under methylation. Sure, there can be risk of over methylation too. That’s the reason why we suggest also look into the methylation potential, and look into the whole homocysteine cycle.
You can have over methylation, but it can be harmful. There’s also scientific literature of over methylation when you have had helicobacter pylori. Sure, it can be. But from taking normal dosages of SAMe, normal dosages, not like the person I told you before who came with a whole basket.
Jim
Yeah. More is not necessarily better for any instances.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. Normal dosages, yes.
Jim
Back to body balance.
Dr. Celeda
SAMe is very, very much also involved, or used, by practitioners for neurological conditions other than, for example, depression.
Roger
Right, depression.
Dr. Celeda
Depression and all this stuff. When you use SAMe in moderate dosages, actually, nothing can happen. But still we can do the methylation potential.
Jim
What about increased oxidative stress and reactive oxygen species? That is something, that would be something you would think would be apart of the methylation that would be a concern. Is that..?
Dr. Celeda
When you have over methylation you don’t have, actually, anything in your body. The genes are shut off.
Jim
Okay.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah, sure. Then you have oxidative stress. Sure. But, you see, to reach that point is high. Under methylation is also very important, because when you under methylate…
Jim
Yeah, you balance.
Dr. Celeda
…When you under methylate, for example, then your genes are not shut off.
Jim
Well, you don’t want your genes to shut off.
Dr. Celeda
This is the first step, actually, to aging. We are also talking about cancer in aging.
Roger
We introduced testing of telomere length, and that’s very complicated.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. Sure.
Roger
That would be a good thing to look at to see if there’s… That would be a good indicator.
Dr. Celeda
Could be telomere length. There are a lot of things, which you can look upon.
Again, what you say, when you are under methylating, it’s something what has to do with age, because all your systems, with age, are going slower and slower due to mitochondrial oxidative stress, and so far.
Jim
Okay.
Dr. Celeda
But I am more than happy to answer this question on the phone too.
Jim
Yeah, and we’ll get the answer there. Yeah.
Dr. Celeda
You can discuss about that for hours.
Moderator
As we pass the hour mark about 15 minutes ago, this will be the last questions for this evening.
Dr. Celeda
Okay. Oh, already.
Moderator
It asks, I guess, why choose the MethylDetox Profile over other methylation oriented tests?
Jim
What I would say is, really, just because of what we offer differ than anything else that’s in the market, and a lot of that is really just, again, it’s the interpretation of the results and supplementation recommendations we give. It’s the value added service that we have that isn’t just throwing the results out to someone. It’s really incorporating that into helping the doctor’s office, adding to a service, versus making them take an extra step.
This is actually, basically, an unpaid service we would provide additionally to giving the test results to these patients, these patients who have the potential to have their therapy intervention with just a supplement, versus having to go down a more dangerous road of going on a chronic pharmaceutical pathway of titrating up because they are not getting results for a certain condition that needs to be addressed, that we could potentially intervene with just a supplemental recommendation.
So I think that’s what our leg-up is, and what we offer that’s unique, a product that we have versus what’s out there.
Certainly other products out there are good in what they do, and they certainly aren’t to be disregarded in that sense. But we give extra value to what we have, basically, for the input that we have from Dr. Celeda, and then also doing the extra step in showing where you should intervene and how you should do it.
Roger
And we also have a strong group of people who are very dedicated. This is a number of people that are involved here behind the scenes. But we follow… We’re a specialty lab. So Cell Science Systems takes very seriously the importance of reporting out valid information, and providing good customer service and the professional consultation.
Jim
Yeah. We’re empowering doctor’s offices and other clinics with this information, so it’s not so intimidating, more than anything else.
Dr. Celeda
Yeah. That’s also what I want to add. You are free to do whatever, but what I think, and it’s a lot of those things in the past. Right now we are looking at the most important genes and the most important SNPs right now, and yes. I mean, you get a clearer picture, because in such accumulation, you’re not gonna get it somewhere else.
Roger
So that’s been very interesting. There’s a lot more to discuss. We’ll be continuing with future webinars and future information.
Jim
More developments.
Roger
And developments as they come along. So thanks to everyone for your participation.
Jim
Thank you
