Are you a Mutant? Or, the Myth of the Average Person

The average person should get a Pap smear every year. There is no controversy about this. This is because the "average" person is a woman. But if you are among the 49% of the population that is male this advice makes no sense. You are either male or female, there is no average. 

This same point applies across a wide variety of health issues. 

You either have a gall bladder or you don't. Since the gall bladder helps in fat digestion, someone without one needs to take particular care with fats in their diet. Someone who is diabetic needs to eat differently than someone who is not diabetic. If you have insulin resistance, your diet needs to be different than if your insulin functions well. (I do not want to get ahead of myself, but this will be discussed in the coming weeks.) 

Finally, you either have the MTHFR mutation that effects methylation, which mean it effects your whole metabolism, or you don't. This is not a trivial issue. I have seen various estimates on the prevalence of this genetic defect. It depends on your racial background. Caucasians seem to have it 20 to 40% of the time. Hispanics about 40%. US blacks about 14%. Japanese are about 35%. Since each of us receives one gene from each of our parents, there is the potential of having two copies of this mutation. This is very bad and this effects about 10% of the Caucasian population. 

This image is to remind us how genes work. Having two of these genes, one from the father and one from the mother, is not good., but I doubt it is as bad as the caption implies. Since I will post a presentation on this issue, I will not go into too much detail. This defect raises homocysteine levels. This is one of the markers that your doctor might test for if he fears heart disease. High is bad. This mutation also interferes with the absorbing of the vitamin folic acid, the vitamin that doctors give all pregnant women to reduce birth defects. I have read estimates that it reduces folic acid absorption by 40%. If you have two copies of the gene then it may reduce absorption as much as 80%! 

Before My Morning CoffeeYes, I am a mutant as I have two genes with the MTHFR variation. So this is not an academic issue for me personally. 

I have wondered about this issue in reference to the studies that show little health effect from vitamin supplementation. Someone with two copies of the mutated gene, and who take folic acid, have it building up in the body until it can be excreted. This might be a huge negative factor for vitamin supplements of folic acid for a portion of the population. So if you have this mutation the typical multivitamin may actually be subtly poisoning you. You need a methylated version of folic acid. Like the one I take. (Yes, I complain about the price too.)    You also may need to supplement with coQ10 as that may be an issue for those with this genetic variation. One may also need to limit niacin supplementation for cholesterol control. I have used niacin in the past to raise my beneficial cholesterol subcategories so this is something I am concerned about. 

The only way to know is to have a genetic test done. Sorry, but your insurance company probably won't pay for it, at least mine didn't. The test is about $150. This is not trivial, but the expense of a potential heart attack makes this expense seem trivial. But on the other hand, if your homocysteine levels are normal, I would not get the test. Click here to see a discussion of the test. I had one copy of C677T and one of A1298C so that means that my high homocysteine is genetic. 

So each of us is quite different and what we should do for our health is quite different. As this series goes on for the next year, I will be offering "advice." Mostly what works for me. It may not work for you. The only way to know is to try it and see. It either works for you or it doesn't. There is no average. 

Unless you end up having the same genetic mutation I have, you will not find this presentation as interesting as I did. 



Note that this will be a pattern for my weekly posts. I will assign "homework"-various presentations or articles that I have found of interest. Hopefully you will find them worthwhile.