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Click here to support Love and Support for the Turcottes organized by Turcotte Fund All of us will miss Jason and the impact he had on our lives, but the ones who will miss him most are Heidi, Jack, Olivia, Kaela, and, of course, Cassie the dog.  Jason adored his family and they were his priority.  He also touched so many lives and unselfishly gave himself to Dynamo, his athlete...

MTHFR first came to my attention when I read an article written by two of my most beloved Emory recruits (Thomas Roos and Andrew Roos upon their graduation from Stanford Medical school - following post) They were using this gene to try to predict injuries in athletes (see article below). When I saw that Calcium was a "player" in the process it connected the dots on a few things:
1) I was tested for MTHFR when getting ready to have babies. It's standard to check for critical genetic mutations like CF. They told me I had 1 "bad" or "not the normal wild type" copy of MTHFR c677 and I should just take a vitamin/supplement that ad folate in it (rather than folic acid which must be broken down to create folate). Vitamins taken, babies arrived. All was right with the world.
2) C677 is considered a "marker" for heart disease. While I had not yet had any heart issues but know to be mindful of health and exercise, my father had already had a massive quadruple bypass, that no one saw coming, and his health was now deteriorating from peripheral arterial sclerosis (like in his legs). No amount of diet, exercise, weight loss, medicine, could help - calcium seemed to be killing him. "I guess it's just bad genetics" was the only answer he was given.
3) I went back to my doctor to get the exact mutations I carried - c677T AND a1298C - the second by it's self is not yet prove to be life threatening but it amplifies the affects of the c677T when present. It turns out my father ALSO has these same mutations.

I called Thomas Roos to get a better understanding if this was the same MTHFR he wrote about in his article, and it was. He said it will still be quite a long time before they can do testing/prediction on how MTHFR affects ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE. Many of the effects of MTHFR really hit you harder as you age, but I am SURE from living in my own body as a swimmer for 20 years there are effects on athletes that can have a negative impact on performance (maybe a good side-effect here or there too...)

Even though we are years away from knowing how it affects athletic performance, it would make sense for a child or young adult who has MTHFR variants (even if they are not yet showing symptoms) to seek treatment on balancing their systems ... in other words why wait for someone to prove that it can hinder sports performance to do something about it.

It's proven to have major medical impacts later in life - it's a double bonus to 1) make adjustments and learn about it when you are young and 2) it being healthier will always make you swim faster - and possibly avoid the pitfalls we have yet to find.

Histamine Intolerance, MTHFR and Methylation - MTHFR.Net Given the prevalence of the MTHFR polymorphism, it only makes sense that the general population is also very susceptible to histamine intolerance.