A. Let’s take a step back for those who are reading this and don’t have your foundational knowledge. Many of the dreadful symptoms of Lyme disease are produced by endotoxins / biotoxins released by Lyme and other co-infecting bacteria, rather than the bacteria themselves.
Many of the devastating symptoms of Lyme are caused by these poisons and your immune system’s reaction to them…. As a result, this toxic cocktail must be eliminated from your system by a detoxification process. The natural detoxification pathways of our bodies involve a series of biochemical events that convert biotoxins into less harmful chemicals that may be eliminated from our bodies more easily, either through the liver or the kidneys.
One of these critical metabolic steps is “methylation,” which is regulated by the MthFr gene. Anyone with a faulty MthFr gene will have a diminished ability to methylate and eliminate poisons. Among the many crucial metabolic activities that require methylation is the formation of glutathione. Glutathione is the body’s most significant antioxidant and also plays a key role in detoxification… and methylation is a necessary stage in your physiology’s ability to produce Glutathione.
Surprisingly, a range of abnormalities in this gene are fairly widespread, affecting up to 30% of the population.
Now, let’s get back to your predicament. You are correct… your faulty MthFr gene will result in a lower ability to produce methylation reactions, which will hinder your ability to detoxify and heal from Lyme disease.
However, even if you have a deficient MthFr gene, there are a variety of natural formulations that can boost your methylation capacity and stimulate your detox pathways, compensating for your defective MthFr gene! There are also several easy things you should do to avoid exacerbating your methylation deficiency. Rather than going into depth here, I’ve included a link to a wonderful essay that provides a high-level review of the most relevant points.
Go to http://healevate.com/what-is-your-mthfr-gene/.