You now know that gut byproducts that increase the levels of stress hormones—phenols, aromatic amino acids, and aldehydes—will tend to cause anxiety and many other symptoms that are often found in people with methylation problems. When these SULT, COMT, ALDH, and other methylation-related pathways are blocked by gut problems, we simply lose our tolerance for stress. When stress chemicals rise inside the body, people with a gut-based methylation problem will not be able to clear these chemicals from circulation fast enough. This is a recipe for poor sleep, anxiety, worry, panic, pain, and more. But after reading this chapter, you know it doesn’t have to be this way. In the protocol that follows, I share a program that can dramatically change the gut in as little as 10 days.
Clearly, the issue with gut health and methylation is a complex one, and it can have a huge impact on our health. It is a fact that our gut microbiome provides us with important nutrients that we otherwise wouldn’t get in our diet. Yet it is also true that an excess of or the wrong kind of yeast and bacteria can upset our methylation cycle and make us sick. There is a reason that seasoned practitioners look first at the gut to make sure that is working properly.
If we are getting too many phenols and aldehydes, or too few aromatic amino acids from our gut into our body, we will not be able to optimize methylation by using supplements. In cases like these we must heal and balance the gut first. Healing the gut is simple, but it takes hard work. It requires effort, focus, discipline, and of course the right advice, supplements, and diet. This strategy has been the most promising in treating methylation issues that don’t respond well to B-vitamin therapy. When methylation supplements give you a bad reaction, look to the gut as the origin of your methylation problem.