Suzy Cohen, has been a licensed pharmacist for over 30 years and believes the best approach to chronic illness is a combination of natural medicine and conventional. She founded her own dietary supplement company specializing in custom-formulas, some of which have patents. With a special focus on functional medicine, thyroid health and drug nutrient depletion, Suzy is the author of several related books including Thyroid Healthy, Drug Muggers, Diabetes Without Drugs, and a nationally syndicated column.

7 Medicines That Mess Up Your Methylation

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You’re methylating right now! It’s a methylation process which simply means you’re turning folate (vitamin B9) from your food, into something else called SAMe. It’s the process called “methylation” and SAMe is your body’s head honcho, the CEO if you will!

It’s important to note that SAMe is not just formed from folate. Vitamin B12 plays a critical role in this conversion too. This pathway helps transfer methyl groups necessary for numerous metabolic processes, including the synthesis of neurotransmitters and DNA.

SAMe stands for S-adenosylmethionine and drives hundreds of chemical reactions in your body. If you ate a salad for lunch, you’re turning that folate into SAMe as we speak. Well, let’s hope… because SAMe helps you get rid of poisons so-to-speak … more specifically, it plays a critical role in phase II liver detoxification. The biggest mistake you could make is thinking that methylation problems don’t apply to you because you don’t have the gene mutation, what we call the genetic SNP (pronounced “snip”).

Nothing could be further from the truth. As a pharmacist and a Functional Medicine practitioner, I assure you that your medicine has the capacity to mess up your methylation! Then toxins from phase II liver detoxifiction back up. Needless to say, I am a big fan of SAMe.

Don’t think you make poisons in your body because you eat well and exercise? Wrong! Your cells churn poisons out as metabolic waste products probably a million times a minute! You better hope and pray your methylation pathway is up to snuff because if you don’t methylate, toxic by-products build up all over your body.

This equates to pain, depression, inflammation, elevated homocysteine, cognitive dysfunction, depression, higher risk for neural tube defects and much more discomfort. If you have the genetic snp it’s a one-two punch for health problems galore.

These are the primary offenders of methylation. While having a genetic SNP (like MTHFR mutation) can affect methylation, it’s also crucial to clarify to all my readers that people without these mutations can still experience methylation issues due to lifestyle factors, dietary deficiencies, or other health conditions. So in summary, medications hinder your methylation pathway, whether or not you have a snp.

These are the Primary Offenders

brief explanation of how each of the mentioned medications can interfere with the methylation process by affecting nutrient availability or function:

  1. Cholestyramine:
    • This medication binds to bile acids in the intestine, which can also lead to decreased absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (D, A, E, K) and folate. Since folate is crucial for the methylation process, its deficiency can lead to impaired synthesis of methionine and subsequently, SAMe, reducing the body’s methylation capacity.
  2. Birth Control or Hormonal Replacement Drugs with Estrogen:
    • Estrogen-containing drugs can affect the levels of various B vitamins including B6 and B2 (riboflavin), and also magnesium. These nutrients are co-factors in the conversion of homocysteine to methionine, an essential step in the methylation cycle. Depletion of these nutrients can thus impair the cycle.
  3. Proton Pump Inhibitors (e.g., Nexium, Prilosec, Prevacid):
    • By reducing stomach acid production, these medications can decrease the absorption of several key nutrients including magnesium and B vitamins, which are vital for the methylation process. Low stomach acid can particularly affect the absorption of vitamin B12, an essential cofactor in methylation.
  4. Antibiotics (e.g., amoxicillin, doxycycline):
    • Antibiotics can disrupt the gut microbiota, which plays a role in the production and absorption of several B vitamins including vitamin B12. This disruption can hinder the gut’s role in forming methylcobalamin, a form of B12 used in methylation.
  5. Ibuprofen:
    • As a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, ibuprofen can impair kidney function with long-term use and reduce the renal absorption or increase the excretion of important nutrients such as folate. Folate is directly involved in the methylation cycle, and its depletion can directly block methylation.
  6. Blood Pressure Pills like ACE Inhibitors:
    • ACE inhibitors can increase the urinary excretion of zinc. Zinc is a necessary cofactor for the enzyme methionine synthase, which is required to convert homocysteine to methionine in the methylation cycle. Less zinc means less activity of this enzyme, thus hindering proper methylation.
  7. Nitrous Oxide:
    • Exposure to nitrous oxide (used as an anesthetic, commonly in dental procedures) can oxidize and inactivate vitamin B12, rendering it useless in the methylation process. Since B12 is essential for converting homocysteine to methionine, its inactivation leads to an accumulation of homocysteine and a reduction in effective methylation.

Understanding these mechanisms can help in managing the effects of these medications on methylation, potentially through dietary adjustments or supplemental intake of depleted nutrients. This can also serve as a guide for discussions with healthcare providers about managing side effects and maintaining optimal methylation function.

Nerve Pain, Numbness or Fatigue are Clues

There are hundreds of other medicines that hinder your ability to methylate, snp or not!
You may not have your genetic details or tests yet, so here are clues to poor methylation: Nerve pain, numbness or tingling, chronic fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, depression, mood swings, attention problems, cervical dysplasia, miscarriage, brain fog, weakness and lots of allergies.

If you’re concerned about the other medications and lifestyle choices that might be interfering with your methylation process, please refer to my book, Drug Muggers. It’s a book intended for the smart consumer, and according to my mom, this book should be in every pharmacy and doctor’s office in the world, lol. 😂

If you enjoyed this article on methylation, please share it. You should also read my other article which is extensive,  click here: Methylation problems lead to 100’s of diseases

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