Guest Episode
February 5, 2022
Episode 54:
Methylation & Supplements with David Stephan
Listen or watch on your favorite platforms
David Stephan is the VP of Truehope Canada, and we will discuss a hot topic within the nutrition and supplement world, Methylation.
All right.
Good morning,
David.
Welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for being with us.
How are you today?
I'm doing really well,
Simon.
How are you?
I'm good.
Thank you very much.
Let's kick things off with a basic introduction
about what is methylation and why it's an important
talking point these days?
Perfect.
Yeah.
Methylation is really a process that takes place in
the body where,
you know,
for heavy metals,
they can be converted into a form that's more
mobile and they can be removed from the body.
So for detoxification,
it's extremely important.
The regulation of proteins,
the regulation of DNA,
it really has a widespread role in our entire
health when we're talking about methylation.
And so when we're looking at achieving optimal
health,
many times when there's a disease,
we'll boil it right back down to potentially a
methylation issue.
And it's really become quite a buzzword over the
last about eight,
nine,
10 years here,
where we've developed a lot more information and
knowledge on the matter,
especially in relation to vitamin B9 or folate or
folic acid not being properly converted into methyl
tetrahydrofolate.
And so when that begins to take place,
we end up with dysfunction in the body,
and that's happening a lot.
And so there's been this big,
I call it a craze,
the methylation craze,
where everybody's kind of jumping on that bandwagon
and they're trying to treat the symptom of poor
methylation.
And so I think what we're probably going to get
into today is actually addressing the root; almost
nobody is addressing the root.
And that's a major issue because we can band-aid
one symptom,
but quite likely that dysfunction is spread
throughout the body,
and we're finding dysfunction in other aspects of
methylation,
not just with the vitamin B9 or the folate
pathway,
but also in other pathways.
And so if we don't correct it at its root,
we're just going to be constantly trying to plug
holes in this dam where we're just leaking out and
we're in a state of dysfunction and not able to
maintain our health.
Yeah,
certainly.
I think when you look at trying to really
understand,
diagnose,
and then begin treating something that's quite
specific,
like methylation; and not having the ability to
process key nutrients.
And then we've already briefly chatted about the
functions of methylation are involved in the
regulation of mood,
production of different hormones,
even with digestion and detoxification in the liver,
you know,
like the functions of methylation are necessary.
You know,
they,
they happened like billions of times every second,
you know,
just,
just happening constantly.
And for somebody who,
you know,
might be experiencing certain symptoms and going to
a doctor,
the fact that methylation occurs in so many
different parts of the body,
basically,
basically,
basically in all systems,
you know,
somebody could be getting a poor,
incorrect,
incorrect diagnosis,
getting the wrong drug,
wrong medication,
and then,
you know,
not really ever getting on a path to understanding
their,
their condition.
Therefore,
it just makes it quite tricky to,
to understand.
And as you say,
like the,
the awareness of methylation is increasing.
I think that's probably got to do with our,
our incredible understanding and knowledge of
genetics.
That is just,
just gone wild in the last decade,
which is fantastic to understand.
But in regards to,
you know,
the actual methylation factor,
we hear about very specific nutrients in,
in the process of methylation.
Can you kind of touch on that a little bit more
for me?
Yeah,
absolutely.
So we're hearing a lot about vitamin B9.
It just seems to be where the methylation is being
myopically,
you know,
coming,
kind of,
kind of coming to a crux in a sense.
Where that's the only concern that people are,
are having.
But you have three B vitamins that end up getting
processed to make them actually usable in the body.
And that's vitamin B6,
B9,
and B12,
right?
And so what you'll see many times is,
you know,
the vitamin B6,
it has to be converted in the body for many of
the pathways into pyridoxine 5-phosphate.
Or you'll see it abbreviated.
P5P.
You're not finding that too much being put into a
supplement form.
But what you are seeing is the B9 and the B12
being put into a supplement form.
And so you'll see that coming in as methylfolate,
or if they expand on it,
methyl tetrahydrofolate.
And then methylcobalamin.
Now what this is doing,
it's bypassing the,
the methylation pathway issues.
So if somebody isn't methylating properly,
then by taking that,
now they're able to get that ingredient that they
need and they're able to function.
Right?
But when we look at the whole spectrum of what's
going on in the body,
methylation is required for,
for many minerals in order for them to be able to
be functional,
to be in a usable form.
So example,
you would never find anybody,
I'd hope you'd never find anybody going and
consuming sulfur in its raw form.
Right?
First of all,
it'd be really stinky.
And second of all,
it would be toxic to you.
However,
we require sulfur.
We require a fair bit of sulfur every day for the
production of,
or the,
well,
I guess,
yeah,
the production of strong joints and connective
tissue.
For the formation of that,
you need to have organic sulfur.
It plays a significant role in all sorts of areas
of the body.
It's a natural anti-inflammatory.
So when you go and get it in supplement form,
you're not buying sulfur that's yellow.
Like what many people are familiar with that has
that rotten egg smell.
You're buying a white,
mainly odorless powder in the form of methyl
sulfenylmethane.
So it's already gone through a methylation type
process in nature to make it available to us.
So now it's in a usable form.
But that goes for a lot of the nutrients that we
consume on a daily basis,
including amino acids.
Methylation processes will take place to convert
those amino acids.
Vitamins and minerals.
And so it's a process in our body that's
absolutely crucial for taking raw form nutrients and
turning them into a usable form that the body can
actually take and do whatever functions it needs.
Millions of different functions,
literally.
Whether it be,
you know,
muscle tissue formation to the production of
hormones and neurotransmitters.
If you're not methylating.
You're not going to have the proper hormones and
neurotransmitters being produced in the body to
regulate mood as well as to ensure that everything
else is functioning appropriately.
That the right messages are being sent and
received.
What factors actually reduce our ability to to
methylate?
There must be.
I mean,
when we're talking about specific nutrients being
necessary for the whole process to happen,
on my mind immediately as a nutritionist goes to.
Okay.
You might be just nutrient deficient.
You might not have those particular nutrients coming
in on a regular basis,
giving your body the ability to even make the
process happen.
So what other factors are there that somebody might
look at in their own life in their own lifestyle
that might be blocking them from this very,
very vital biological pathway?
You know,
if we were to take a look at it from a very
holistic approach,
you have environmental toxins that will create
dysfunction in the body.
And that can that can break down methylation
pathways.
You have stress,
you have,
you know,
I can speak from experience here,
inflammatory issues.
If you're eating highly inflammatory foods,
certain oils,
certain proteins that are causing inflammation in
the body,
that's going to create a state of dysfunction and
it's going to begin to break down different
pathways like that,
where they just won't function.
It's going to draw nutrients out of you that
should be going elsewhere.
And then now we're going to get to the nutrient
aspect,
because even with environmental toxins.
Yeah.
your body should be able to deal with that
appropriately.
High levels of stress,
your body should be able to deal with that
appropriately and should be able to alleviate that
stress as well as undo any of the damage that's
occurred from that stress.
And in relation to inflammation,
well,
we should be avoiding things that cause inflammation
in our lives,
generally dietary,
but your body should be able to also deal with a
certain level of inflammation effectively,
but it can only do so when it has all the
nutrients necessary to allow for your body to
perform every function at its highest level.
And as soon as we go into a nutrient deficient
state of any particular nutrient,
you're going to begin to see dysfunction that's
going to manifest as disease in the body.
And so it's extremely important.
And this is the missing link in almost all of the
dysfunction and disease that we see today.
It's a nutrient deficiency of one sort or another.
And so it's very important that we're getting all
the nutrients that we need to allow for our body
to do what it needs to do.
I heard a saying recently,
the more that you know about the body,
the less you want to interfere with it.
And it's so important when we begin to see what's
taking place in the body and how complicated it
is,
really the last thing you want to do is begin to
actually try to intervene with any particular
processes,
very,
very targeted or myopic.
You want to take a look at the whole of it and
say,
okay,
what does my body require to thrive?
Proper diet,
nutrition,
and then obviously,
a good,
healthy lifestyle,
some exercise,
and all that.
But when we're looking at what we're putting into
our body,
we want to make sure that we're putting clean food
in that's nutrient-dense.
And then,
obviously,
due to farming methods,
agricultural practices that have taken place over
the last 150 years.
And I educate on this often,
and it's always how I start off my presentations
showing the issue with our food,
and that even though you may be choosing a healthy
diet today,
it's extremely deficient in many of the key
nutrients that we need to thrive.
So it's so important that we make sure that we're
getting the nutrition that we need,
that prevents genetic mutations,
that prevents the breakdown of these methylation
pathways.
And when you look at a lot of the meth or all
of the meth,
all of the methylation pathways,
they require certain nutrients to ensure that the
methylation process takes place.
It's not just happening magically that the body
says,
'hey,
you know,
you need to methylate,
methylate.' No,
no,
it actually requires certain nutrients.
So if we take a look example at the vitamin B9
methylation pathway,
the main culprits for the lack of methylation is a
deficiency in choline,
a deficiency in methionine and a deficiency
obviously in vitamin B9 itself,
because you can't methylate something that you don't
have.
And so with those key nutrients,
you have the basis for methylation right there.
So nutrition really comes down to the root of
almost all of these issues.
Yeah,
it's so easy to become nutrient deficient these
days,
like anywhere in the world,
pretty much.
And you just throw in the fact that so many
people have got quite poor digestion.
You're not actually going to be able to grab the
nutrients from your food like you would have done
when your nutrition,
when your diet and your digestion were working a
lot more effectively.
And then it's kind of hard to avoid stress,
whether you're like kind of deliberately experiencing
it,
or it's just happening to you kind of
unconsciously.
That obviously is going to create a pathway of
inflammation.
And we know that when the body is in that
sympathetic state,
it's going to put certain processes on hold while
it deals with this 'threat' that's coming at you.
So,
you know,
and you throw like a high sugar diet into that
whole,
that whole mess,
you know,
we're talking about high exposure to environmental
toxins that are just constantly coming in.
The body's always having to fight and really kind
of scrape the barrel of the resources that is
being given.
And that's obviously when something like a broad
spectrum micronutrient comes into the conversation,
which we'll of course get into.
But we hear so much about the genetic factor when
it comes to methylation,
especially the MTHFR gene.
Are you able to elaborate on that a little bit
and tell us kind of what that is?
Because you know,
it's again,
big topic when it comes to methylation is the
genetic factor.
Absolutely.
And you know,
whenever we begin talking about genes,
it's always a bit of a touchy subject because many
times the walls come up because we've been trained
in our society that as soon as we deem something
to be genetic,
it means that we're powerless to change it.
That we're basically a lifetime customer to treating
the symptom rather than actually able to correct
the root.
And that's actually really far from the truth.
The expression of our genetics is actually many
times rooted in methylation issues as well.
And so,
when we're talking about now this buzzword that
I've seen for last just over a decade,
epigenetics,
it's the buzzword that identifies that we are not
powerless,
but that we can actually change the expression of
our genes.
And that if there's some poor genetic makeup that
we all come with,
for me and my family history,
it's bipolar disorder.
However,
you don't see me struggling with bipolar disorder
at all.
Why?
Because I've changed the environment within my body,
which allows for me to no longer have this genetic
disorder that,
you know,
is part of your family line,
and you are just doomed to struggle with it for
the rest of your life.
And you better get on some medications for that,
right?
Not not so.
And so when we're taking a look at this,
you know,
we're able to correct these things.
And I don't know the full function as to why
we're able to do this.
But this is what we've begun to see in the
science; will soon catch up with it,
I'm sure,
just like when we first came out with our
supplements,
the Empower Plus,
which was showing profound results.
In a wide variety of mental health conditions.
At first,
there was no science to back it up.
It was very novel,
it was new,
people didn't understand it,
the doctors scoffed at it.
However,
you know,
within a few short years,
the first studies began to roll out validating what
thousands of people had already seen in their own
life.
We're now starting to see that in relation to the
methylation issues,
especially with the MTHFR gene mutation that takes
place where people aren't able to methylate.
Appropriately,
and it doesn't just come down to making sure that
they have the choline and the methionine present
with the vitamin B nine to ensure that it becomes
methyl tetrahydrofolate,
but rather that there's a genetic mutation that's
preventing that,
that enzyme reaction that converts the vitamin B
nine.
What we've begun to see is that people who take
the Empower Plus are such that over a period of
time,
even if they've tested positive for the MTHFR gene
mutation,
even though they've tested positive for that,
we've seen in many instances where people have
actually had a correction of that,
they go back to get tested,
and it's not there anymore.
Now,
the first thing that we have to liken it to is
in our experience with hemochromatosis.
And hemochromatosis is an issue in the body where
it can no longer deal with iron appropriately.
So you end up with a buildup of iron.
And this goes back to,
you know,
talking about the methylation issues in relation to
the conversion of minerals to make them into a
usable format.
So they're not building up in a toxic form.
And what's interesting is with hemochromatosis,
that's exactly what you end up with with iron.
And so,
you can't eat iron-rich foods.
Many times people who struggle with hemochromatosis
at a high level will need blood lettings on a
regular basis,
where basically the blood is being drained out the
iron-rich blood as it builds up,
and then they have to create new blood.
And new blood obviously isn't as iron-rich,
so it doesn't become as toxic to them.
But that's an incredible band-aid solution to a
major issue,
because your body should be able to process the
iron.
But when we look at the root of it,
there's two genetic mutations that have taken place
in order for the hemochromatosis to become a
disease,
to become that dysfunction in the body.
So,
there's already two genetic mutations that have
taken place.
What we've seen by giving Empower Plus,
which actually has iron in it,
it seems very counterintuitive to the treatment of
an iron,
an overabundance of iron in the body.
What we've seen is when we deal with this
situation,
very specifically,
starting off very slowly with the Empower Plus so
that the body has time to correct the issues
before getting too rich in iron.
What we see by applying this protocol,
starting off,
basically one capsule per day for a week,
two capsules per day for a week,
and so on.
And you slowly build it up.
So you're going really slow.
And if somebody is extremely sensitive,
then you expand it further where it's one capsule
per day for two weeks,
two capsules per day for another two weeks.
And so we go about it very carefully,
very slowly.
But what we see by the end of this protocol being
put into place is that these people no longer have
the hemochromatosis.
Yet that,
the issue was rooted in two genetic mutations.
So what that's telling us in relation to both the
correction of the MTHFR issue,
as well as the hemochromatosis issue,
is that nutrition is having an impact on correcting
genetic issues.
It's really quite phenomenal when you think about
it.
However,
it's really quite simple and makes a whole lot of
sense because we were not designed,
we were not made in a state of imperfection to
have all of this dysfunction,
all of this chaos going on in the body.
We were made in a state of perfection,
in essence,
where our bodies are just supposed to thrive,
as long as they have all the nutrients they need,
as long as you're not in a continual,
stressful,
traumatic situation.
And as long as you're not being bombarded with
environmental toxins,
day in and day out.
Yeah,
we certainly have this predisposition to methylate
less well with certain genetic mutations,
absolutely.
And I think it's very fascinating the fact that we
can use by providing the body with a broad
spectrum of nutrients in very specific forms and
very specific quantities,
that the body is going to be able to grab that,
use it and take care of a lot of these
imbalances.
Dr.
Andy Roark Yeah,
I mean,
as I said before,
you know,
we can't expect to really fix something within our
body using kind of anything externally,
we just have to be able to give the body the
resources it needs to be able to do the thing it
does,
which is to heal and make you feel awesome.
That's what it's designed to do.
And when we can step out of the way of it,
in within nutrition,
but also as well,
psychologically,
you know,
like it can be incredibly stressful,
to have a diagnosis,
to have a disease,
to try Dr.
Andy Roark to try and fix it.
And you know,
you're again,
you're like,
you're deep,
you're deep,
you're digging yourself a deeper hole to climb out
of because of that stressful factor.
And we know what stress does to our genetics.
And again,
if you are predisposed,
if you have a predisposition to something like
this,
it's just going to make it more and more
difficult.
Can you touch on the fact within the kind of like
the supplement industry,
and you know,
these,
these genetic mutations,
especially with the MTH?
If our gene,
we're talking about like different forms of folate,
you know,
we've got methylfolate,
and then folic acid.
Can you touch on the difference between that?
Because I know,
I know,
working as a nutritionist,
I've had a few,
a few clients come to me and say,
Listen,
they can't take supplements.
And it's going to be one of my primary
recommendations,
but they can't take supplements,
because that just,
it just does not agree with them.
And a lot of them have put purely put it down to
the fact that it's my genetics,
there's nothing I can do about it.
It's just,
you know,
my mom had it and my grandma had it.
And I can't take supplements.
So like,
they're completely rigid in this,
in this whole situation.
And there's no,
there's no,
there's no communicating with some of these people,
because it's just so,
you know,
it's great to be able to blame something.
We kind of like to do that as humans,
it's great to be able to blame something,
as long as it's not me and my actions,
we love to be able to blame something,
even if it's like,
you know,
our genetics,
and we know of epigenetics,
it just doesn't quite work like that.
So can you please touch on the supplement industry
and the different forms of folate?
Like that we might be trying to consume?
Absolutely.
Yeah,
you know,
it's really unfortunate that the narrative that we
tell ourselves as well as that we're telling
others.
So,
you know,
professionals - you'll go to maybe an alternative
doctor of sorts,
or even the doctor - many times,
it's a very disempowering narrative that's being
given,
where it's like,
you have no control over the situation.
And it leaves you just kind of hopeless,
where okay,
well,
I guess I gotta kind of go around.
This way and try to,
you know,
band-aid the situation,
deal with the symptom over here,
but never will I be able to deal with the root
of the issue.
And it's unfortunate,
that narrative that's being told.
But when we take a look at the supplement
industry,
this is this is part of the issue that we're
coming up against,
where we haven't really seen the full potential of
proper nutrition.
Because we don't put the nutrition into the proper
forms when we're producing,
you know,
the healthy products that we're producing,
we're not actually producing it.
You see,
there's processes that take place within nature,
within healthy living soil,
that's just filled with bacteria cultures filled
with,
you know,
larger organisms,
worms that are,
you know,
basically creating worm castings,
or they're breaking down the minerals and
micronizing them for the plants to be able to
uptake them more readily.
The bacteria is helping break it down,
there's fungi,
there's all sorts of stuff that's taking place in
healthy soil,
it's filled with is the minerals are being broken
down appropriately they're being uptaken by the
plants readily at that point you eat those plants
where the soil hasn't been tampered with and that
is mineral rich soil you're getting extremely
mineral rich food and you're getting it in the
form where it can actually be therapeutic so in
the supplement industry what we've seen is we've
seen poor vitamins and extremely poor minerals,
minerals that we can't actually even process in our
bodies being given to us in a pill form and so
we're not seeing the therapeutic effects from it
we're not seeing the correction on a large scale
in relation to genetic dysfunction within our bodies
because you're taking something that's really inert
that's sometimes actually taxes the body more so
than it actually helps to invigorate the body but
when we go and take a look at the supplement
industry in the approach that's been taken with The
methylchloroquine B vitamins; this has become
somewhat problematic,
however.
Many people attest to this,
and it's also been very good in dealing
specifically with the symptoms of a lack of
methylation.
So if somebody has the MTHFR issue and they go
and they get a B vitamin complex that has the
vitamin B9 and the vitamin B12 that's already in
its pre-methylated form,
they're going to notice that they're not taking the
B vitamins that are already in its pre-methylated
form; they're going to notice some some significant
results from that because all of a sudden they're
getting a higher level of these methylated B
vitamins that they weren't seeing that they weren't
getting before,
and it's empowering a lot of different pathways
right.
So if we were to take a look at this if somebody
isn't methylating vitamin B9 into methyl
tetrahydrofolate and we were to take a look at two
different biochemical pathways,
neurotransmitter pathways for the regulation of mood;
if we were to take a look at two different
biochemical pathways,
neurotransmitter pathways,
we're talking about the tryptophan pathway that that
ends up in melatonin eventually.
That process you end up with serotonin for the
regulation of mood many people.
recognize serotonin as a key word in relation to
mood dysfunction especially with you know medications
being put out there like selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors your your modern SSRIs right it
has an impact on on the serotonin preventing it
from being reuptake and broken down so you have
more serotonin floating around it can be dangerous
for some people you can end up with serotonin
syndrome too much serotonin however when we take a
look at that pathway you have tryptophan and
through an enzyme reaction it converts into 5
-hydroxytryptophan now as part of the enzyme reaction
you have iron methyl tetrahydrofolate
Vitamin C,
Vitamin D,
and Vitamin B3: You have those five key nutrients
that are part of the enzyme reaction in order to
convert tryptophan into 5-hydroxytryptophan.
Now,
if many people that have depression will go to the
health food store and once again here we go to
the band-aid fix; they're now bypassing the the
initial conversion and they're going straight to the
5-hydroxytryptophan,
not asking the question: 'Why is my body not
producing 5-hydroxytryptophan?' Well,
it could be because of an iron deficiency,
it could be because of a Vitamin C,
D or B3 deficiency,
or it could be as simple as just this: they're
not in that.
Situation they're not in that situation,
they're not in that situation.
The folic acid or the folate that they're getting
in supplement form or food form,
they're not methylating it into methyl
tetrahydrofolate because if that ingredient is not
present,
that enzyme reaction does not take place.
The conversion of tryptophan into 5-hydroxytryptophan
doesn't take place and if you don't have
5-hydroxytryptophan then you won't have the
opportunity through another enzyme reaction that
requires pyridoxine 5-phosphate or P5P,
the activated form of vitamin B6 to then convert
through the enzyme reaction into serotonin.
So,
that's why many people when they go to a health
food store,
struggling with depression,
they'll be recommended 5-HTP as one of the
solutions; and for some of them,
it's very beneficial.
However,
you're bypassing a crucial step: you're not
addressing the root of the situation; you're not
going right back to the the state of dysfunction;
you're just putting a band-aid on it,
and this is becomes problematic because if you go
and you bypass that step and you go to 5-HTP,
which then becomes serotonin,
which then becomes melatonin; so we're talking about
sleep disorders as well.
If you bypass that step and you don't correct that
Part of the pathway you're going to have
dysfunction in another pathway,
and that's the tyrosine pathway where you end up
with L-DOPA,
dopamine,
norepinephrine,
epinephrine.
Right?
So now we're talking some very crucial
neurotransmitters here,
um,
and epinephrine being not only a neurotransmitter
but a hormone as well,
where you're going to end up with dysfunction,
and what we see is the exact same enzyme reaction
from tyrosine into L-DOPA where it requires iron,
methyl tetrahydrofolate,
vitamin C,
D,
and vitamin B3.
If you bypass that step in the serotonin pathway,
then you're losing out on the proper production of
dopamine.
As well,
because it's not going to work for you,
you're going to end up with a rooted issue.
It requires the exact same ingredients and so the
dysfunction in one pathway would be the dysfunction
in the exact same pathway as well.
And what we see when you end up with dopamine
issues is a lack of feeling rewarded in your life;
you just don't get that kind of high naturally on
life,
and so many times you'll find addictive behaviors
accompanying that that particular issue to try to
stimulate the production of dopamine artificially,
right through an external means um,
through that kind of stimulus.
And so that could result in
You know,
drug addictions.
It could result in gambling addictions.
It could even result in social media addictions
where people are constantly getting that reward
where somebody's liking you know their post or
whatnot and it just stimulates the production of
dopamine.
Um,
but you should naturally be producing that dopamine
at the proper rate.
So going back to the,
the supplemental form for many people,
it's been a good thing to be able to take those
methylated B vitamins.
But once again,
we're not dealing with the root of the situation.
Going back a step further,
the question must be asked: why are we not
methylating and many Times coming down to well,
I got a gene mutation,
nothing I can do about it.
Not correct the expression of your genes largely is
dictated by the nutrients that you consume on a
daily basis,
and so it's so that we go back to the root of
the situation.
So,
we're not trying to apply a band-aid situation.
Because here's what what can happen for somebody
like myself if I take 5-HTP,
it's disastrous.
And the reason why is because I'm already producing
enough 5-HTP that I just feel great on a daily
basis.
I don't struggle with depression,
I don't struggle with mania,
I don't struggle with anxiety,
I don't struggle with any of those uh type of
mental Health conditions,
my body is in balance in that sense because I'm
consuming uh a wide spectrum of nutrients that are
in the proper form that my body can actually
assimilate and it can go and produce the various
hormones and neurotransmitters that it needs to be
able to thrive on a daily basis.
So now when I sidestep a process like this and
and inject in the middle of this pathway,
I go right to the 5-HTP and I consume that.
I end up with an overabundance of serotonin,
which the body,
to protect itself,
will actually begin dumping it,
converting into melatonin.
I become extremely sleepy; extremely sleepy.
It's it's part of the the
Protection or protection mechanism built into the
body now,
if somebody's already methylating at the appropriate
rate or methylating to a degree and they go and
consume these these methylated B vitamins that are
typically uh not found in nature um it's not
really natural to be consuming it orally these
methylated B vitamins you can find trace amounts of
methylated B vitamins in certain foods but it's not
how we're supposed to be getting the methylated B
vitamins we're supposed to be um creating them
rather than taking them and so if somebody goes
and takes those those methylated B vitamins and
they go into a state Of over methylation,
many times the symptoms can be just bad or
sometimes even worse in a state of over methylation
compared to a state of under methylation,
and so and that can manifest actually and we've
seen it many times especially with uh with people
taking our supplements because all of a sudden
their methylation pathways are becoming empowered
where methylation processes are taking place and
they'll go and consume um additional B vitamins
that have these methylated uh vitamin B9,
B12 and all of a sudden they're they're going into
a state of anxiety uh if if it's if they persist
with it and they don't recognize What's going on,
it can become psychosis uh it can many times
manifest um as uh suicidal ideations which is not
good um the the very reason why many people are
taking our supplements is to prevent themselves from
ever another suicidal ideation again and yet here
if they're taking these these uh methylated B
vitamins it can put them into that state so people
need to be very aware and very cautious if they
know they have the MTHFR gene issue yes they can
they can take these these methylated B vitamins
likely without any issues and in fact they'll
probably see some great results from it but if
they're also correcting the root Of the situation,
the root of the dysfunction by taking all of the
other nutrients that they need in order to empower
methylation; then they should be very cautious about
how long they're consuming those methylated B
vitamins for because it's only gonna be a matter
of time before that dysfunction is corrected in the
body and they go into a state of over-methylation
by consuming these methylated B vitamins.
So just to kind of give a quick context to that,
uh,
it's easily identified at this point in time; we've
got 36 ingredients in the Empower+ and vitamins,
then you've got three amino acids and three
antioxidants.
Now,
out of the three uh amino acids,
one of them is methionine,
which is actually a methyl donor.
Methionine,
methyl donor,
okay it's actually built into its name and so um,
out of those 36 ingredients that are found in the
Empower Plus,
it's easily identified at this point in time and
it'll only probably grow over time as our knowledge
grows,
that 12 out of the 36 ingredients,
one third of the ingredients are crucial for
methylation in the body,
so when you begin to actually address it from a
very holistic approach rather than trying to take
one ingredient here,
one ingredient here,
one ingredient here,
but you're actually giving Your body a whole gamut
of ingredients of nutrients that are going to
assist with the methylation pathway.
You're going to expect at some point to see a
complete correction in that methylation pathway and
the dysfunction associated with under-methylation
disappearing,
and that's what we've seen in many instances.
There have been some instances that I'm also aware
of where people haven't quite seen the full effect
in relation to methylation,
and so that's that's where you know perhaps other
things need to be looked into what else is
possibly going on?
Is there a detox that's necessary for the system?
There's been an accumulation of toxins.
Is there perhaps an overuse of methylation,
and the dysfunction associated with under-methylation,
and the dysfunction associated with overuse of
antibiotics as a child,
where now they have impaired digestion and they're
not able to actually break down and assimilate the
nutrition into their body like they should be able
to.
And these are issues that we've dealt with
long-term just in relation to correcting mental
health conditions,
where many times we've had to dive into gut health
and correct the issues there,
possibly with maybe an overabundance of candida
overgrowth.
Where it's robbing the nutrients,
so you may be putting them in your mouth,
but they're not going to be able to do that,
so going into your system because there's something
else that's that's getting to them before you have
a chance to get to them,
so there's other factors involved there as well.
However,
what we are seeing for people that are actually
assimilating the nutrition and it's going into their
body and it's having a profound effect on their
mental health.
We're also seeing that uh it's largely if not
entirely correcting these methylation issues which
many times mental health conditions can be rooted
in a lack of.
Methylation,
yeah I think you've put a couple of things in
there.
I think you've put a couple of great examples in
regards to how even the natural health industry can
slip into a conventional band-aid model of just
trying to,
as you say,
sidestep very very important pathways that the body
has to do in an incredibly synergistic balanced way
and it certainly can support somebody in the short
term but it should without question be used with
caution and be used with a plan of trying to fix
and trying to get to the bottom of what the real
root problem is.
I think that's a really important point and
probably an area of the natural health
world that could definitely um could definitely
improve on i've got to ask you in regards to just
the supplement industry in general because
ingredients obviously massively important because i
you know i've tried so many different supplements
before my no before becoming a health professional
and afterwards as well to find out what works what
doesn't and what doesn't and what doesn't and what
doesn't and what doesn't and what doesn't and
there's obviously a big difference between a company
that you know sources their ingredients well and
there's obviously many different steps and processes
along the way
of actually sourcing them and getting into a
capsule get them into a bottle there's so many
steps that go along the way and if you don't have
that quality control the product and the end user
can you know it can actually be detrimental to
somebody's health in the end if that supplement
isn't isn't treated well and it's a really
important thing to do and i think that's a really
important thing to do and i think that's a really
important thing to do and i think that's a really
important thing to do it's obviously incredibly
poorly regulated um industry in some countries i
believe in canada the the um to correct me if i'm
wrong
but the actual like the the safety and the
cleanliness of certain facilities is actually quite
um rigorously checked i might be wrong on that one
but i know in many other countries where we're
getting products from overseas maybe china we're
unable to actually see these facilities and see
what ingredients are going into them and how
they're being processed how they're being processed
and how they're being processed and how they're
being processed and how they're being made and i
think i think that's a big thing can you can you
touch on like basically like good supplement
companies and bad ones really well you know
That's quite an interesting topic because,
yes,
Canada has um very high standards; in fact,
it's overly regulated to the point where it has
eliminated a lot of the business that was coming
in from other countries where they just weren't
willing to jump through those hoops.
So there we had a lot of problems with that and
I think that's a really important thing to do.
And I think that's a really important thing to do.
And I think that's a really important thing to do.
We've seen uh,
we've seen a massive reduction in the amount of
products that were available on health food store
shelves due to the over regulation and it just
Wasn't uh,
it was too cost-prohibitive for these U.S.
companies to jump through these hoops for such a
tiny market when they had 10 times the market
available to them right there and they didn't have
to go through all these hoops; however,
there is a positive to it as well,
and that's in relation to the high standards that
are that you know,
that products are going to be clean; they have to
uh,
go through uh regular testing um,
and so there is that aspect as well,
so that you do know what you're getting,
you know what it says on the bottle,
you're getting in the capsule right,
so,
so there is a benefit to that; however,
it's been slightly overdone.
Here in Canada,
to the point where it's eliminated a lot of the
the therapeutic natural health products that were
available to us,
and that's not a good thing because access is
crucial when it comes to health.
So,
um,
in relation to uh poor supplement companies versus
not poor supplement companies or good supplement
companies that actually produce therapeutic results,
many times it's not seen in the regulations um
that are applied,
it's not seen even by what's uh listed on the
label um especially when it comes to mineral
supplementation.
And so I'll go back you know 20-26 years here um
when we first began doing what we were
Doing,
uh,
it got the attention of a lot of medical
professionals and they were just shaking their head
because nowhere in the literature was it being
identified that mineral supplementation had really
any significant impact on mental health conditions
and yet all of a sudden we're doing a major focus
on mineral supplementation with the addition of
vitamins because it works synergistically,
just like when I,
you know,
I laid out in that that certain uh pathway there
with tryptophan or the tyrosine pathway that the
enzyme reactions really are um in the present
they're taking place in the presence of you know
vitamins.
And minerals working synergistically together,
and the same thing in relation to if you were to
trace down all the different methylation pathways,
and all that you just see the synergistic effect
between all of these various nutrients; um,
working together really like omega fatty acids,
amino acids,
vitamins,
and minerals.
Really,
you can't do without any one of them,
and not have the others not be able to perform
their full duties right; they all work
synergistically in the body.
So when we take a look at this,
all of a sudden we're correcting mental health
conditions using mainly mineral supplementation with
the addition Of uh vitamins and a few amino acids,
but the focus was on the minerals,
and it didn't make sense to anybody.
And the reason being is: is what we were doing is
we were doing something that was so um out of the
norm; we were putting a high level of focus on
the bioavailability of these minerals,
that they were coming into the system in a form
that the body could actually uptake.
Because you know if you go and grind up a rock,
you know that's all mineral; then you were to take
that rock dust and consume it,
you could do an assay in the laboratory and find
out how much of each mineral that you're getting
out of that powder.
But the fact of the matter,
Is it's not what you're eating,
it's what you're absorbing that's going to have an
impact on your body.
And rock for mineral is not easily absorbed,
however most supplements like when we get when we
get our minerals um when we source them out we're
basically getting them we're getting them in a
pharmaceutical grade which just means that they have
they've met the rigorous um purity standards and so
you know it's not a pharmaceutical company that's
sitting there manufacturing or something like that,
it's just called pharmaceutical grade.
And I think it's a bad term myself because
pharmaceuticals really have very little.
to do with minerals,
but so it comes in in a form that we know that
it's going to have an impact on our our ?? is
basically a ???????? OTP para wie infrastructure
where we thought the mineral it in plastic we can
just use that mineral and and produce it here we
know it's pure however it's basically useless it's
rock form mineral it's what we do to it thereafter
that actually makes it therapeutic that actually
makes the body can recognize it and do what it
needs to do with that nutrition and so we go
through a rigorous process of micronizing those
minerals making them into a able to get right you
know pass through cell membranes through the blood
brain barrier,
all that type of stuff but then further to that
we're chelating those minerals; we're putting it
through an organic process,
where by the time that we're done with it,
those minerals in their very small size now are
bound to an organic molecule; so basically you get
these two molecules attached you've got the minerals
and you've got this organic molecule.
Similar to what would be taking place in the soil
with all the bacteria cultures and the fungi and
all that,
there's a breakdown on the minerals and organic
process that takes place,
where it's basically now wrapped in this this
chelating agent that your body recognizes and it
pulls it in.
Now,
what's what's interesting about that is not only
does it increase the absorption and assimilation of
that mineral into the system into your body,
but it also then that chelating agent can act as
a detoxifier and bind up to heavy metals when it's
done on the mineral.
And it by binds up to heavy metals and helps pull
them out of the system.
And we actually see this many times where people
will take our supplements and they begin to notice
initially a therapeutic effect,
but then they go through many times a detox crisis
where all of a sudden,
you know,
a week into taking the supplements Or maybe a
little more,
they're all of a sudden removing toxins from their
system and they're experiencing the symptoms of
that.
Why?
Because they're basically taking an oral chelator
that's delivering these minerals where they need to
go in the body and then it's also pulling out
medications and heavy metals and whatnot.
And um,
talking about good supplement companies versus bad
supplement companies,
I don't know if there's good and bad,
but there's you know,
let's put it in these terms: there's therapeutic,
and then there's just supplement companies that you
take because you read the label and it made
you...it made it made you feel good that you were
actually investing into your body but you didn't
really see any effects so yeah health canada make
sure that that it's all pure and all that that
you're not you're not you're not you're not you're
not you're not you're not you're not you know the
facilities are clean testing's taking place what's
in the capsule is actually on the label um however
that doesn't change anything in relation to its
therapeutic value is it from what we've seen so i
know that true hope go spends a lot of money time
resources development in the whole process of you
know getting the getting the ingredients from a raw
Form and then processing them,
and then it goes through many other stages and
steps to get to the actual capsule.
But what are most people doing?
What are most other companies doing,
like you know there's you can get supplements from
Costco,
you can get them from you know some really poor
outlets,
Walmart for example,
and you know they might have some they might have
a lot of different brands.
And there's obviously vitamin C that you can get
that's probably a bit more expensive from a you
know a local health health food store.
And then you know they they don't have those local
health food stores don't carry the same brands that
Walmart does or
Costco does so,
what's that all about,
yeah?
So basically,
what you'd anticipate to see if you were going to
Costco or even worse Walmart and grabbing a
multivitamin supplement.
Right,
I'm not going to name any names but you know you
can get a very broad spectrum multivitamin mineral
supplement that has just about as many ingredients
- sometimes even more ingredients than what our
True Hope Empire Plus has.
However,
when you take it,
you don't see the same effects as what you would
see; not even close to the same effects,
in fact.
You'd be hard-pressed to even be able to identify
any effects outside of placebo if you're
anticipating.
you might,
you know,
create some effects for a short period of time,
but it'll be short-lived.
And so um,
outside of that uh,
there's generally no identifiable uh effects,
no scientifically validated effects to these vitamin
mineral supplementations that people are taking from
from places like Walmart,
and so the reason being what you'd expect is just
like when they get those pharmaceutical grade
minerals,
so they're pure,
coming in.
What they would probably do with them is take them
in that form,
they would throw them into a large mixer with all
the other ingredients at the proper ratios,
and then it would just go into Encapsulation: It's
that simple,
there's no processes happening,
there's no conversions taking place with those
minerals to actually make them usable by the body.
Now the issue with that is not only are they not
absorbable and going to create a therapeutic effect
but many times it can be quite a bit taxing on
the system where the system is trying to assimilate
this foreign um mineral and when I say foreign,
the body needs that mineral but it's in a foreign
form; it's not in a form that you would find
being uptaken into a plant that you're now
consuming through a fruit or a vegetable,
it's in a much different form that The body is
trying to deal with and so it can actually be
quite taxing on the body,
especially with what little absorption may take
place.
It can actually create some major disruption in in
the system where the body's now trying to handle
it,
where it's actually creating more issues than um
benefits.
Yeah,
I mean,
I mean that makes sense,
of course.
I mean we would primarily get off our nutrients,
vitamins,
and minerals from the food that we would consume,
obviously.
We've got depletion in soil and our food just
isn't what it was anymore,
I think everyone can agree on that now.
But when it comes to the taking a poor so let's
call it a supplement
that has done the very basics to just get through
the approval process because that's kind of what it
would take to just start a supplement company right
it's just you know tick the boxes and just do the
bare minimum to get through it's basically how i
got through school with that attitude anyway
different different story but it didn't really serve
me particularly well at the beginning but you know
you know i got through school when i graduated you
know but like it has to come to a point where
like we're consuming these products that aren't
necessarily going to give us a therapeutic effect
and we obviously have detoxification
Pathways to get rid of the things that aren't
supposed to be on our body through um,
through the liver and through urine and through
feces.
We're going to get rid of some of these things,
but I have to,
I have to assume that the body is going to,
because I know what it does when it has an
abundance of foreign unusable elements.
It's going to wrap them up and store them to
protect the body from itself,
so what it can't get rid of,
it's going to have to wrap up in fat and store
somewhere,
and that's a problem,
and that's a problem.
If you continue to do it,
and it's a problem if,
for example,
you were to do a detox or you to lose a lot of
weight,
or Something you know,
fat breaks down,
opens up,
and all those ingredients that have been stored up
are boom into your system and you're going to feel
it,
yeah,
so absolutely,
yeah,
yeah.
I mean,
can you,
can you touch on that a little bit in regards to
you know why it's so important to have to first
of all use a very well established supplement
company that does its does its homework and and
you know really really raises the bar when it
comes to the quality of their product,
and yeah,
it's so so important to have that bioavailable,
um,
identical to what you would find in nature if you
were going to be consuming food because you know
the Standard of Empower Plus and True,
true hopes flagship product it's food most other
most other supplement companies multivitamins are
very far from what you would find in nature that
we would naturally consume exactly you know so I'll
I'll use an example to identify how crucial it is
first of all to be taking a therapeutic supplement
or a supplement that uh in the proper form that
your body can recognize and actually put to use
versus one that's not,
and so before jumping to that example though I'm
going to pose the question when people go to the
store to buy a multivitamin mineral supplement are
they going there to save Money are they going
there to incite life transformation,
right?
That's the question that needs to be asked,
because yeah,
you can go buy a supplement for a third of the
price at Walmart that has very similar ingredients
to the Empower Plus,
but yet,
you may have saved yourself that money,
but you didn't get in any of the benefits.
In fact,
you may have actually taxed the system and you may
have saved yourself that money,
but you didn't get any of the benefits.
More um,
if it if the tablet was actually able to break
down uh in your system right?
If it was able to get past that barrier in the
first place which many people will uh,
that that run Businesses for um porta potties and
stuff when they screen everything they filter
everything out that a lot of times these tablets
are still coming out in their whole form,
okay so but if it's able to break open in the
system and you actually absorb some of it,
uh you might have a problem on your hands.
So,
what's the motivation as to why you'd want to be
taking a supplement is it to actually create
substantial uh health benefits that you can actually
recognize or is it to save yourself a few bucks
because you're not saving yourself any money by
buying something that doesn't work in the first
place.
When we take a look at um what we've done from a
very scientific approach for many years,
we started off with a support center where we
would actually track people's symptoms.
We would track how much supplementation they were
taking,
how much of the empire plus they were taking,
what other supplements they may be taking,
how much coffee they were drinking,
antibiotic use,
and how much sleep they were getting.
We were looking at all of these different factors
and identifying patterns,
and we were doing this with thousands of people
actually tens of thousands of people,
and so we had a very broad,
a very uh open,
um large study taking.
Place with a massive amount of people and that's
the scientific approach that we were taking for
many years,
we still do it,
and we are taking it on a really long path.
What really was our focus and the reason why that
was our sole focus for the first basic decade of
us operating was to identify these things and to
figure out what will ensure that people will have
success in overcoming these mental health conditions.
One of the patterns that we identified was
interesting because there's a saying out there,
'more is better.' What we came to realize is that
statement is a major fallacy in relation to
nutrient supplementation or
Can be especially when it came to the minerals.
So people would be taking the Empower Plus,
which is 36 ingredients,
16 minerals,
14 vitamins,
right?
And it's got the calcium in there.
It's got magnesium.
It's got phosphorus in the proper balance.
It's got boron.
So it's got these bone building materials in there.
But they're in a proper balance with each other
and they're in the proper form that your body can
actually use them.
What we saw is where people,
and this is generally where the issue was,
but we've seen it with other things,
people taking an additional multivitamin and all of
a sudden they're getting less results than they
were before.
But where somebody is concerned about their bone
health and so they go and get a calcium supplement
or calcium magnesium supplement,
right?
And they start taking it alongside the Empower
Plus.
Now,
the body's getting more now.
It's getting the Empower Plus,
plus it's getting all of these other minerals in
much greater quantities.
And what we would generally see almost every time,
almost every time,
is that it would counteract the therapeutic effects
in their mental well-being by disrupting the
balance.
Now,
if it's affecting the mental well-being,
which is much easier identified in a very short
period of time,
it's also going to be negatively affecting every
other system of the body that's going to take
longer to be able to identify and manifest in
disease.
But mental health,
we know it,
right?
We know,
hey,
I'm feeling great today or I'm not feeling very
great today.
There's nothing physical that you can see different
about,
about them,
right?
But you can tell,
or they can tell by tracking their symptoms that,
hey,
yeah,
I'm doing really well.
So it's a very responsive indicator in the body as
to what's going on,
what kind of dysfunction,
because our mood all of a sudden rapidly
deteriorates,
right?
And so that's what we were seeing,
is that by people taking more,
they were seeing less.
Taking more,
seeing less results.
Spending more money,
seeing less results.
It didn't make any sense.
So we,
that's actually what the motivation was for us to
produce our own bone health supplement.
That when we would have control over what form
those minerals were in and make sure that they're
in the proper balance.
So two main factors to it.
So we're sitting there,
we're chelating these minerals,
making sure that they're bioavailable in the system
and making sure that they're in the same balance,
the crucial balance with the calcium,
magnesium,
and phosphorus.
And then we added,
you know,
a few other minerals to it as well,
like selenium,
and then balanced forms of zinc and copper.
And the proper balance and boron,
and then vitamin K2,
vitamin C,
and D.
So a very broad spectrum,
appropriate bone health supplements so that people
who were so concerned about their bone health
wouldn't counteract the effects of the Empower Plus
by taking more and creating some kind of
dysfunction in the body.
So that's the other thing too,
is it's important.
When we take improper forms of minerals,
it can have a devastating effect on our system.
That,
that rate there showed,
you know,
Empower Plus on its own,
awesome.
It was working,
having that effect.
They introduced another mineral supplement and all
of a sudden they're getting less results total.
Yeah.
Another great example of how that kind of holistic
methodology in regards to providing the body with
nutrition and then adding too much,
like too much can obviously be a problem,
like using kind of like a grenade effect rather
than like a pinpoint sniper effect when it comes
to treating the body.
And I think it's very important that,
well,
I just,
yeah,
I think most people who go and buy a multivitamin
because they've been told it's good for them,
they will go and buy like the cheapest one that
they can kind of find.
And a lot of those people don't actually know that
there's like this whole other level of multivitamins
and products that you can actually go out and buy.
Like you've got this like cheap stuff right down
here and then you've got like the,
you know,
the premium stuff that's available,
usually a completely different store that I don't
even know exists yet.
You know,
usually like we're talking about a supermarket and
then you've got like a,
you know,
like your local health food store that,
you know,
have very well-trained individuals in who will be
buying very,
very specific products and have a bit more of
awareness in regards to,
you know,
if you do have,
you know,
the bone issue in calcium is just like the most
classic possible example of,
you know,
the wrong way to deal with bone health.
You know,
it's like,
you know,
you can look at the primary consumers of calcium
on the planet and the osteoporosis rates,
you know,
it's just like boom,
right?
The correlation there is just absurd.
Just to kind of finish up though,
I'd love to ask your opinion in regards to
somebody who does have methylation issues,
be that from a genetic predisposition or another
reason,
stress,
poor diet,
whatever that might be.
But somebody,
so somebody who doesn't methylate very well,
but they want to use a broad spectrum micronutrient
and Power Plus to rectify that.
What's the,
what's the protocol?
What would you recommend as,
like a starting dose?
Because obviously our product works so incredibly
well for a wide range of psychological disorders,
but we know it can also enhance your performance
if you're an athlete or if you're just,
you know,
want to just feel even better than you already do.
You don't,
you definitely don't have to have a diagnosis to
be able to get the benefits from this product.
But if you're somebody who has a specific
methylation issue,
how would you recommend bringing that into your,
into your lifestyle?
Perfect.
Yeah.
So there's a number of ways to do it.
A number of recommendations I'd make,
but to keep it quite simple.
Yeah.
First of all,
get on the Empower Plus.
Now,
one of the objections that most people are going
to have that have the MTHFR issue is that it
contains folic acid rather than methylfolate.
But don't let that be a deterrent because your
body will,
will convert folic acid absolutely appropriately if
it has all of the other nutrients necessary.
So like the other 12 nutrients in the Empower Plus
that are specific to methylation,
right?
So it's,
so that's one thing is overcoming that objection
because that objection is,
is created through a lack of knowledge,
if that makes any sense.
Because nobody,
well,
not nobody,
nobody that I've seen,
maybe there's other people out there that are doing
it,
but not that I'm aware of at all.
Nobody that I'm seeing is actually going right to
the root of the issue and trying to correct the
methylation issue.
Instead,
they're trying to just bring forward a band-aid
solution.
And they're saying avoid folic acid,
take methyl tetrahydrovoid,
right?
So that's the first thing is don't let that be a
deterrent,
get on the supplement.
For the first bit though,
what you can do,
but do so with a great level of self-awareness is
you can get onto another methylated vitamin B
complex and go onto it with the anticipation that
it's only going to be for a matter of time before
you're off.
So,
you start at the regular dose and over the period
of about three months,
slowly reduce yourself off as your body is getting
better at methylating.
The indicator that you're into over-methylation is
basically agitation,
anxiety,
psychosis,
suicidal thoughts,
all that.
So if you start to actually feel mentally unwell
and you're on that high level,
not depressed and down low,
but you're on the higher level,
anxiety,
agitation,
just an overactivity of brain function,
then know that you're probably over-methylating.
Reduce or completely come off of that vitamin B
complex that has the methylated Bs.
The other thing that they can do if they want to
make it possibly a little bit more simplistic,
if they're in the States,
it's easier this way.
If they're in Canada,
we don't supply a methylated form of the Empower
Plus on the store shelves because it would be
disastrous because most people would gravitate
towards that with the misinformation or the lack of
information.
And so if they started taking it,
it'd be counterintuitive for their mental well-being
and overall well-being and they just wouldn't feel
as good,
most people.
And so what we do have though out of the States,
they can order directly online for part of the
transition period is they can get the methylated
form of the Empower Plus where it has the methyl
folate and the methylcobalamin.
And they can take that,
but once again,
it's a time-based thing because your pathways,
your pathways,
are going to begin to correct quite likely for
most people are going to correct over time.
And once you start methylating appropriately,
you don't want to be taking additional vitamin Bs
that are methylated because now you're
over-regulating the system rather than allowing the
body to regulate appropriately.
So those would be kind of the protocols.
You get onto the full dose of Empower Plus over
the period of about a week.
And then you just do a kind of a weaning off of
the methylated,
the vitamin B complex if you choose to go that
route.
Or as I've heard the way that it's been put for
others that have overcome these issues is you just
push through the first three months,
basically.
And you can anticipate by the end of three months
that there will likely be a major change,
if not an entire change in that whole methylation
issue that you were struggling with in the first
place.
Amazing.
And I know our incredible micronutrient support team
is incredibly well-versed when it comes to
psychotropic methylation,
medications; but is this methylation issue something
that they could support with?
It's a little bit new.
I did a training session with the support team
back in 2018 on the methylation issues that we
were seeing.
It was actually entitled,
the presentation was entitled,
The Methylation Craze,
because that's really what it was,
right?
Yeah.
And people latching on to just a small amount of
information,
not seeing the big picture.
And when we did that,
it was interesting because a lot of them were not
trained on it at that time.
It was pretty new as to identifying the resolution
of issues that we were seeing.
An example,
one of the support team members said,
you know,
well,
I was just actually on the phone with somebody
last week about their methylation issue.
And they said to me,
I think the methylation issue is gone.
And I said,
no,
that couldn't be,
right?
When in reality,
it probably was gone.
And so,
you know,
there was different areas of the company that were
identifying the issues,
but it hadn't been streamlined communication yet.
And so he's like,
so quite likely based on,
you know,
other people's examples of actually being tested at
one point,
showing they have the MTHFR issue and then being
tested again three months later,
and they no longer have the MTHFR issue.
So he had this recognition,
this support team member,
and he just said,
wow,
this is quite likely that person was correct in
saying that I think the methylation issue is gone.
And it probably was.
And so I'm not sure how streamlined they've been
in getting that information out because they are
extremely knowledgeable in relation to psychiatric
medications and custom tailoring programs for people
to help them come off and avoid the withdrawal
effects.
They've really honed in on that for the last 25
years.
But in relation to the methylation issues,
I'm not sure how well-versed they are,
but I think they have a good understanding that
the methylation issues are able to be eradicated
through proper supplementation.
Yeah.
I think if they were about to immediately answer
any questions,
they would soon be able to pull that information
together and advise appropriately.
So I think that's definitely a method that if
people do want to ask questions and they want to
start using Empower Plus as a way to rectify
methylation problems,
then they could certainly get in contact with
Micronutrient Support to assist them and support
them on that journey.
David,
that was awesome.
Thank you so much.
I think that was a great introduction.
In regards to methylation,
we covered many different topics and even covering
the importance of recognizing how the process of
making supplements isn't as easy as it might look
on the shelves.
So I really appreciate that and I really appreciate
your time today as always.
Thank you for having me on,
Simon.
Blessings to you.
Awesome.
Well,
thank you so much for listening,
everybody.
This is True Hope Cast,
the official podcast of True Hope Canada.
If you are excited to check out Empower Plus,
you can visit truehopecanada.com and you can find
me on Twitter,
you can find out all that information there.
And I really recommend you check out our science
page because True Hope is an incredibly unique
company in regards to the publications that we
actually have.
You can visit truehopecanada.com,
check out the science page,
and we have all of the publications categorized by
disorder.
So it's a really informative,
really quite advanced area of our company.
So I recommend you go and check that out.
But don't forget to subscribe,
and we'll see you next week.