MTHFR, Folic Acid, and Fertility(Episode 302)

Full Transcript: Episode 302

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Welcome to the Fertility Friday Podcast, your source for information about the Fertility Awareness Method and All Things Fertility. I’m your host, Lisa Hendrickson-Jack. I’m the author of The Fifth Vital Sign and the Fertility Awareness Mastery Charting Journal. I’m a certified fertility awareness educator and holistic reproductive health practitioner with nearly 20 years of experience teaching women to connect to their fifth vital sign through menstrual cycle charting, balancing hormonal health, and optimizing the menstrual cycle without hormones. I’m outspoken about hormonal birth control and its impact on fertility and overall health, because you have the right to know how your body works and how artificial hormones disrupt that natural process. I host live coaching programs to help you achieve optimal fertility and health, because it’s important to have healthy menstrual cycles regardless of whether or not you want to have babies. I’m also a wife and mother of two beautiful boys — I know, I know, I’m a busy girl, but I manage to fit it all in. This podcast is designed to empower you to take full control of your cycles, your fertility, and your overall health, and I’m so excited that you’re here with us today.

Today I’m sharing my interview with Dr. Ben Lynch. We are talking about his new book, Dirty Genes, and it’s a really interesting conversation that we have. I think one of the biggest takeaways that I had after reading the book is that although our genes do play a significant role in how we experience different health challenges, they’re not the only answer, because whether you have a certain genetic situation or not, you can still experience some of those challenges depending on how you’re living your life and the different lifestyle factors that you’re exposing yourself to. So, really eye-opening, really great conversation. Without further ado, let’s jump into today’s episode.

And I’m really excited to be here today with Dr. Ben Lynch. He is the best-selling author of Dirty Genes and a leader in the field of nutrigenomics. He’s also president of Seeking Health, an innovative company providing supplements, courses, and tools designed to help people overcome genetic dysfunction and optimize health. After earning his Bachelor of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Washington, he then obtained a Doctorate of Naturopathic Medicine from Bastyr University, where he now serves on the Board of Trustees. And in today’s podcast episode, we’re going to be talking about MTHFR and other genetic issues that can contribute to fertility problems, and so much more. So, without further ado, welcome to the show, Ben.

Dr. Ben Lynch: Awesome to be here, Lisa.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Well, I’m really excited to have you, as I was sharing in the pre-chat — I had a chance to read your book before our podcast interview, and there’s just so much to get into. Before we get into all the topics, I usually ask my guests what brought them into this field. So I’m curious what brought you into naturopathic medicine, but more so, what made you focus on the genetic part of it?

Dr. Ben Lynch: Yeah, I’m a very inquisitive person by nature, and I was probably one of those annoying little kids who’s always asking the question why, why, why, why. Dad, why? Mom, why? And it led me down this path. It all originally started when — when we get sick individually, we seek help, and I sought conventional methods for various issues, and they basically failed me every single time. I had chronic nosebleeds as a kid — I don’t think I’ve told this story — and they shoved silver nitrate in my nose, and it hurt like crazy. Now I know that was related to my MTHFR and my histamine issues. And then when I was joining the rowing team at the University of Washington, I remember they were doing a physical exam on me, and they checked my blood pressure. It was like 150 over 92, and I’m 19 years old, and they’re like, “What the heck, are you drinking coffee, are you stressed out?” And I’m like, “No, I’m fine.” And I felt fine, but I wasn’t fine — again, there’s the genetic component. So all these things were failing me in my life, and once you start understanding that these things are reversible and you can be in control of them, you have to get the word out. So now I’m on a mission — I’ve learned all these things through trial and error in my own health and my patients’ and clients’ health, my own family’s health, and I feel that I know enough to help a lot of people, and I just want to continue knowing more, because we will never ever know it all, but at some point we know enough to help a lot of people. Now I’m really shifting my focus towards fertility and optimizing the lives of unborn children, because the more I read, Lisa, the more I shudder, truly understanding that most of our future generations’ problems are occurring in the womb as they’re developing. So we have to optimize pregnancies.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: I couldn’t agree more. One of the things that surprised me when I was reading Dirty Genes — a couple of things — one was that at times I felt like you were in my mind, I was like, “How does he know?” So there were, you know, one of the components of the book, you had checklists, but also just the way that you write and talk, I think what surprised me was the emotional aspects of it — how you feel, just how you respond to different situations, and how your genes could be related to that. And also, I thought there would be — I mean, you talk about MTHFR, which my audience is likely familiar with, I did a past episode with Diane Ketty about it, and it’s been one of the most downloaded — but I think what surprised me also is you went through several genes, and how each of them can have a different effect. In many ways it’s very simple to understand, but in many ways it’s very complicated, because to understand each of these genes and then how they can interact with each other, and how they could cause a range of different challenges or not. So I think a good place to start would be for you to talk a little bit about dirty genes, in the sense of — the impression that I got was that you can have an actual issue or not, but the environment can cause an issue regardless. That’s kind of the impression that I got.

Dr. Ben Lynch: Yeah, nailed it. And as I describe in the book, you can be born with what you call dirty genes. Let’s define a dirty gene first — a dirty gene is a gene that is not functioning at its best. There are a few ways you can acquire a dirty gene, but let’s say you can be born with one — you inherit a genetic defect, variant, or mutation, whatever you want to call it, from your mom or your dad, and you’re born with that. Let’s say you’re born with a genetic variation like MTHFR that’s really slow, and that’s dirtied it. Or, on the flip side, you could be born without any MTHFR variants — let’s say it’s homozygous wild type, no variants found — and you look at that and you’re like, “Oh, that’s cool, I don’t have MTHFR issues.” But yet you have high homocysteine, cardiovascular issues in your family, and you’re wondering what’s going on. Then you do labs and your homocysteine is high, you have migraines all the time, you look at your diet and you don’t eat leafy green vegetables, and then you do an organic acids test and your riboflavin is really deficient — so now your MTHFR got dirty through your environment. And then you’ve been told by a doctor to take a bunch of folic acid instead of the activated folate, and now you’ve made it worse. So a lot of people — this is a very important point, Lisa, and I’m glad you started with that — a lot of people will do genetic testing and get their results back and think, “Whew, I don’t have this, I don’t have that,” but yet they might be the sickest people. I like to give a story — let’s say Sam walks into my office, all proud, and throws down his genetic report on my table, and says, “Look, Doc, I have perfect genes.” And I say, “Okay, that’s cool — well then explain why your chart’s two inches thick and you have all these signs and symptoms.”

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Yeah, I think that was one of the main topics or themes that really struck me, because when understanding these genetic issues, it’s like you’re trying to find out if you have one, and you wonder if you have one because you think that’s going to make the difference between whether or not you’re going to be sick. But it’s very possible that your genes could look totally clean, but the environment, the way that you’re living, could dirty them. And to be honest, when I first heard the title of your book, Dirty Genes, I kind of thought, “Oh my goodness, that’s kind of putting it in a negative light.” And as I read your book, I understood what you meant, and it makes perfect sense, because what you’re doing is basically mucking it up.

Dr. Ben Lynch: Yeah. Have you ever heard about the design of the cover?

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Oh no, look at it, got it right here.

Dr. Ben Lynch: Okay, so what do you see? Imagine that’s like the hood of your car or a window — half of it is muddied and dirty, and half of it is clean.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: That’s brilliant.

Dr. Ben Lynch: My wife came up with that concept. The first rendition of the cover of the book had bites taken out of every letter, so the letters of “Dirty Genes” were broken. I said, “No, that’s not my point — I want the cover to look like these genes are dirty, but you can clean them up.” And my wife said, “Just imagine a table that’s dusty, and then you wipe it off.” I said, “That’s beautiful, let’s do that.”

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: I love that. Well, let’s start with MTHFR for the audience members who don’t know what that is, and who think it just sounds like a swear word — but could you tell us the basics of it and how it could impact fertility? That might be a good place to start.

Dr. Ben Lynch: Yeah, so a lot of genes have acronyms for very good reasons — a lot of things that are long become abbreviated into these letters. We have about 18,000 different genes in our human body, which is amazing, and they all have different functions, different jobs. I like informing people and letting them know that genes have work to do — they have certain tasks, and they need the right tools to do the job, and they also get tired and need rest. So the job of MTHFR is to make your body’s number one form of folate in your blood, which then gets into your brain and supports neurotransmitters and other things. So if MTHFR’s job is to make your body’s number one form of folate, you might think, “Well, I could just take folic acid, or I could eat leafy green vegetables or anything else that has folate, like liver.” But MTHFR’s job is to make a specific type of folate, and it’s what your body uses — 80% of your body’s folate in your blood consists of a type of folate called methylfolate. It’s not folic acid, it’s methylfolate. And if you look at methylfolate in terms of chemical structure and compare it to folic acid, they almost look exactly the same — the only difference is a methyl group. And the reason the RDA of folate for pregnancy in prenatal vitamins goes from 400 micrograms to 800 micrograms — it doubles — is because you’re growing a brand-new organ, a placenta, you’re developing a baby, and you’re supporting your own health. So you need that folate, and it supports a huge process in the human body, especially during pregnancy, called methylation. MTHFR supports the production of methylfolate, which then supports methylation. With methylfolate, you’re balancing your homocysteine levels, which is really important during pregnancy — you’re helping produce phosphatidylcholine for your cell membranes, for you, your baby, and your placenta, and you’re helping make creatine for your baby, yourself, and your muscles. In order for MTHFR to function properly, it does not want to have folic acid around — that slows it down and makes it dirty. You also need sufficient vitamin B2, riboflavin. Riboflavin is really important, and if you look at the research on riboflavin, it works just as well as drugs that lower blood pressure. Riboflavin supports MTHFR, which then lowers homocysteine, and high homocysteine causes blood pressure to go up. Lower the homocysteine, blood pressure goes down — that’s what happened to me, because I have a really dirty MTHFR. I was born with it, and my lifestyle made it even worse, and then I got high blood pressure at 19.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Wow, that is pretty profound. I’m sure there’s a lot of people struggling with high blood pressure for whom this could be an issue.

Dr. Ben Lynch: Right. Just to let you know, now my blood pressure is like 110 over 65–70, and I’m on no meds at all — none.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Yeah, that’s powerful. You know, one of the ways to better understand how something works is to understand what happens when it doesn’t. As I was looking through the section, you mentioned some of the issues that can happen if somebody has a dirty MTHFR when they’re pregnant, and there was a list of birth defects — all the worst ones we’ve heard of, including anencephaly, cleft palate, congenital heart defects, spina bifida, and I’m sure I’m missing a couple. So can you go a little deeper into the role of this process in making babies?

Dr. Ben Lynch: Yeah, I mean, anytime you’re making something — even if you’re making a salad at home, or making cookies, or making plans to get from Seattle to Portland on a road trip — there are all these steps involved. And developing a baby, there are a bazillion steps involved, and if you’re deficient in any one of those steps, something’s going to go wrong, or if it’s not going to go wrong, it’s not going to go as well. You might still get from Seattle to Portland, but maybe you left at the wrong time and hit horrible traffic, and you get frustrated. So it’s, we need to start thinking — I believe we take our bodies for granted, and we think, “Okay, I’m pregnant, check, now I’ve got nine months to go and then I’m good, check, done.” But those nine months are a plethora of things that can go wrong and go beautifully right, and it requires a huge symphony of steps to happen that we still don’t fully understand, but we do know core nutrients that are needed, and core chemicals and compounds, and stressors and hormone imbalances and medications that can mess this process up. So I really want people to understand that it’s a multitude of steps, and we need to respect it every single day, and support it as much as we can. And ladies, I really want you to lean on your significant others, your older kids, friends, family, coworkers, and even yourself to take more time out while you’re pregnant, because if you don’t, that’s putting more work on your genes, which requires more nutrient utilization, which then leads to more potential problems.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: You mentioned earlier, folic acid — I think a lot of my listeners are familiar with this, but obviously folic acid is the thing, and we’re supposed to take it, and it’s in everything. I’m not even sure if people realize how many things it’s just in. But you mentioned that folic acid can dirty our genes — did you want to expand on that?

Dr. Ben Lynch: I do. If you’re on Instagram, I highly recommend — a little self-bias here — Dr. Ben Lynch is my handle, and I write about current research findings and things I hear about. There was a paper published this year, in 2020, that said folic acid is actually not helping neural tube defects — neural tube defects were already declining before folic acid was introduced into the food supply. If you look really hard at the statistics, folic acid is not helping reverse neural tube defects at all. That was a huge, monumental paper — I posted it, and it only got about 200 likes, whereas a cat video probably would have gotten a lot more. But let me say this about folic acid: when folate was first identified a long time ago — folate comes from the word “foliage,” which is green stuff that contains folate, along with organ meats — food manufacturers started commercializing food, and they started realizing that women were having kids with congenital heart defects, neural tube defects, spina bifida, miscarriage, and preeclampsia. It turned out that stripping whole grain food of its nutrient value, so it could sit on a shelf longer, was part of the problem. Instead of leaving the bran and husk on, so the B vitamins and natural folate would stay, they synthesized the vitamin in a lab and added it to processed flour to try to compensate. It did seem to help at first, but folic acid does not have the methyl group, and in order to put that methyl group back onto folic acid, it’s a long process — and if you have genetic variations, you can’t do it. Folic acid did its job at the time, but safer types of folate are available now, and folic acid is not the best option anymore. Not enough people are talking about it, and I think public health wants to talk about it but feels stuck, because they recommended it for so long, and now it’s hard to say, “We’re changing course” — not because it was the wrong decision at the time, but because there’s something better available now.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Yeah, I could see that being something they’re hesitant to address outright, since it could potentially do more harm than good. So maybe share with us — what are some of the harms? For the listener who’s never really heard of this, if you have the genetic variant, or even if you don’t, how does folic acid — what harm does it do?

Dr. Ben Lynch: Yeah, so a lot of people think, “Since MTHFR’s job is to make my primary form of folate, methylfolate, if I take folic acid, I’ll slow that one particular gene down — that’s bad, I shouldn’t take folic acid.” And yes, if you’re slowing your body’s ability to make the folate it uses, that’s not good — that’s bad for MTHFR. But what really got me to understand more about this was that the problem of folic acid affects all humans, regardless of genetic variation. Why? Because when they were studying the safety of folic acid before putting it in food, they tested it on mice — not humans. Mice have a gene called DHFR, dihydrofolate reductase, which reduces the type of folate. They gave folic acid to mice to see if their genes could process it and turn it into the body’s usable form of folate, methylfolate. Folic acid by itself has no physiological effect on the human body — zero. It has to be transformed. It’s like getting flour in a bag from the grocery store and giving it to your kid as a cookie — “Mom, that’s a bag of flour, I’m not touching that.” That’s what folic acid is — it has to be turned into something. The first gene that folic acid hits in order to be transformed is DHFR. In mice, it goes right through, no problem. In humans, it’s 200 times slower, and 40% of humans have genetic variations in the DHFR gene that reduce that capacity even further. I know MTHFR gets all the glory — I’m partly to blame for that — but as I kept researching, I started realizing how important DHFR is too. Our human bodies cannot process folic acid very well — only about 220 micrograms can get through per day, which is half the RDA of 400 micrograms. Anything more than that, and the DHFR gene just can’t handle it, so the folic acid stays as folic acid. And a lot of people think that if you swallow a vitamin, it does what it needs to do — but a lot of these vitamins have to get inside your cell to do the job. Folate has to be transported by certain proteins and bound to a receptor to get into a cell. What folic acid does is bind to those folate transport proteins and receptors better than methylfolate does — so now you’re gumming up the very proteins that are supposed to carry your body’s good form of folate, and your good folate can’t get into your cell. Now you’re walking around with brain fog, mommy brain, your kids are struggling in school, you can’t fall asleep, mood swings, and so on. So what do you do? Pull folic acid from the diet and supplements, clean that up, and now the folate-binding proteins can carry active folate from food or better supplementation into the cell, so the cell can do its job — that’s what’s called functionally folate-deficient, and it’s powerful stuff. If you’re hearing this, I really want you to go into your cupboard right now — I don’t care what your doctor says, I don’t care if it’s the top doctor at the Mayo Clinic or the top naturopath — they need to stop using folic acid, and you need to eliminate enriched foods like cereals and energy drinks that contain it. If you consume a bit of enriched noodles at a restaurant occasionally, it’s not going to kill you — the folic acid will clear your blood in about three to five days. You just don’t want to be on it all the time — minimize your exposure.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: I have a question about when you said “functionally deficient” — does that mean that if you have a blood draw, it would show that you have this high level, but —

Dr. Ben Lynch: That’s a beautiful question. What happens is you go to the doctor, they test your blood, and serum folate is this huge pool of stuff — it’s your folic acid, your methylfolate, your folinic acid — whatever type of folate, all lumped together. You don’t know if it’s folic acid or methylfolate. You could call the lab and ask, “Are you testing folic acid or methylfolate?” and they’ll be confused — they don’t know what you’re talking about. You could ask your doctor, “What is serum folate actually measuring — folic acid or methylfolate?” and they’ll look at you confused too. If they say “I don’t know,” that’s actually a good, honest doctor — a lot of labs don’t even know what they’re testing, which is scary. There are good labs now — Doctor’s Data, for example, offers a folate test that looks at the different types of folate, so you can figure it out. But your question is spot-on, because doctors will order a serum folate test, and that’s measuring folate in your blood, not in your cell. So if your serum folate is high, that gives you the impression your folate status is good — it’s not necessarily. If you have a high amount of something, but you don’t have something else that’s needed to use it — folate needs vitamin B12, methylcobalamin — you could have a high serum folate because of low B12. You could also have a high serum folate because you’re taking folic acid and it’s not doing anything — it’s falsely elevated. Other reasons for a high serum folate include bacteria in your gut microbiome producing folate that gets absorbed into your blood. B12 is another factor — if your serum B12 and serum folate are both high, it could be supplementation, the wrong type of supplement, or the microbiome. There are a lot of factors at play. But look at your MCV and MCH — if those are high, at the high end of normal or above, then you are truly folate- or B12-deficient, or both. That’s a folate-or-B12 anemia pattern, and ladies need to know that when they’re pregnant.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: What’s interesting is that this stuff is really complicated in many ways, but what I appreciated about the way you structured the book was that you kept saying this is not an opportunity to go out and take all the supplements right now. So, although it sounds very complicated, what would the first step be?

Dr. Ben Lynch: From what we’ve talked about, the first step would be to identify what contains folic acid — basically everything processed — and stop eating it, before you even think about the supplementation part. You have to know where you are, what your normal baseline is. I had a gentleman message me — he showed me his genetic report, and he’s very prone to anxiety, has a slow COMT, a slow MAO-A, and a very dirty MTHFR — really “rich” genes for anxiety attacks. I told him, “You’re programmed to have these anxiety attacks,” and he said, “Yeah, I’m taking all these supplements to try to fix it.” I said, “Your genes are so sensitive that if you take methylfolate, it’s going to cause anxiety; if you take lithium, it might depress you,” and he said, “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m feeling — I’m yo-yoing, one day I feel great, then anxious, then I supplement more and I’m depressed.” I said, “Your genes are just very susceptible to what you’re consuming, so you have to follow the fundamentals first — eat the right foods, start your day with protein instead of carbs, breathe properly, sleep on time, be in relationships that are healthy for you and get rid of the toxic ones. You have to practice the fundamentals, because supplements alone are not the answer.” A lot of people lean on supplements because they think they can supplement their way out of a poor lifestyle or diet, and sometimes it works, but often it doesn’t — and pregnancy is a time where you don’t want to play that cat-and-mouse game, because you’re affecting not only your own health during pregnancy, but the safety of the pregnancy itself. I’ve heard over and over that “my health has never been the same since I was pregnant,” or “I had to have my gallbladder removed during the pregnancy,” or “I was on bed rest for three months because of placenta previa,” or “my kid was born with a congenital heart defect.” So it really is important that you take all the necessary steps that you can. Life is busy, I get it — you can’t beat yourself up either — but you’ve got to practice the fundamentals.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: I wanted to talk a little bit about fertility specifically — I think we’ve kind of gone over some of it, but especially for women who are trying to conceive and it’s not happening, I’d love to hear what would be the signs to know if this could be related to an issue of genes, both on the female side and the male side.

Dr. Ben Lynch: Yeah, the male side is a big one — about half of infertility cases are due to men, so ladies aren’t alone with this at all. Sperm morphology and sperm health are a huge concern right now, largely because of plastics and phthalates in the environment. Shaving cream, for example, is often full of phthalates for that smooth, silky consistency — guys need to stop using that stuff. Even razors themselves can have phthalates in the strip. Plastic containers in the home affect estrogen and progesterone balance, and high estrogen can lead to PCOS, which is related to pregnancy complications and gestational diabetes, among other things — these things have to be monitored.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: A lot of my listeners are familiar with MTHFR in the sense that they know it could contribute to recurrent miscarriages and pregnancy loss, but no one’s really thinking about whether this could be related to their partner, or could it be affecting his sperm?

Dr. Ben Lynch: Right, so let’s think about the jobs our genes do — that always makes it easier to understand. MTHFR’s job is to make methylfolate, which supports methylation, which keeps your homocysteine levels healthy. If homocysteine is too high, histamine tends to be higher too, and higher histamine in pregnancy — I found a paper on this — is linked to nearly every pregnancy complication you can imagine. I was shocked I didn’t learn that in med school. So if you have MTHFR variants, the likelihood of high histamine goes up. And as you start putting the genes together, it can get complicated quickly. High homocysteine from a dirty MTHFR can reduce your ability to make healthy cell membranes, because it also dirties the PEMT gene. If you have a dirty PEMT gene, your gallbladder may not work well — how many women during pregnancy have gallbladder issues, intolerance to fat, or gallstones? Ninety percent of pregnant women are deficient in choline, which is massive, because bile requires a lot of methylation to flow smoothly, and if bile is too thick, it can’t get through — and bile is needed to keep the microbiome in check, since bile is antimicrobial. Phosphatidylcholine is the main component of cell membranes, including the placenta — if you’ve had a prior pregnancy, you may have seen how doctors examine the placenta afterward; a healthy one looks pink and lush, while an unhealthy one looks dried out, with calcifications. Phosphatidylcholine uses almost 80% of your body’s methyl groups, so if you’re supplementing with folic acid during pregnancy — thinking you’re doing a good job because that’s what you’re told — it’s not your fault, it’s a systemic issue. If you’ve had a prior miscarriage or fertility issue, and the doctor puts you on four milligrams of folic acid thinking that will fix the problem, it can actually make things worse. Let me give you a few examples of how complex this can get — say you’re born with a dirty MTHFR and a dirty PEMT, which is very common, since 90% of pregnant women are deficient in choline. Now, let’s say you’re also concerned about blood flow to the baby, or you’ve had clotting risks or miscarriages — if you have the MTHFR gene combined with a dirty NOS3 gene, that’s an even higher risk for clotting; add a dirty GST gene on top of that, and the risk goes up further. Dirty Genes isn’t a pregnancy book specifically, but if you clean up your genes and they’re all working well, you’re more likely to have a successful pregnancy, because these genes handle fundamental processes in your body. If your hands and feet are cold right now, that’s often a sign of a dirty NOS3 gene, which relates to blood flow — slowing your breathing down and calming yourself can warm your hands up within seconds, and that same blood flow affects how much reaches the baby.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: There’s a lot there. I do have fibroids, detected when I was about 20 — a lot of what you mentioned makes sense given the estrogen-related issues, and because I work with menstrual cycles, a lot of the women I see have similar issues with PMS or heavy bleeding.

Dr. Ben Lynch: It’s fascinating how these genes can affect not just health issues, but your moods, your cravings, how you relate to the world.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Before we finish with the good news of what we can do, I want you to touch on how this could affect male infertility and sperm production.

Dr. Ben Lynch: Great point. If sperm count is low and sperm morphology is poor, it’s actually pretty easy to address. I’ve been researching this because I’m 46, and testosterone levels drop about one percent a year in men over 35 — and men whose sperm isn’t very healthy often have lower testosterone. Mitochondrial health matters too, because the tail of the sperm is where its energy comes from, and it needs enough energy to swim up the canal, touch the egg, and deliver its DNA; if it can’t, it dies before it reaches the egg. To support mitochondria, men need to reduce carbohydrate intake, cut back on alcohol, and be mindful of marijuana use — studies show occasional use isn’t associated with poor sperm count, but chronic, persistent use is. Environmental toxicity is everywhere too — cologne, deodorant, aftershave, and chemicals from driving new cars can lower glutathione levels, the body’s primary antioxidant. Men can take a simple multivitamin with additional glutathione and carnitine, cut back on carbohydrates, stressors, and alcohol, and incorporate high-intensity workouts — short, intense efforts rather than long endurance runs. If testosterone is low, it can be hard to feel motivated to do that, so certain herbs can help support testosterone levels, and losing excess weight matters too, since fat tissue releases estrogen. Some men may also want to talk to their doctor about testosterone support.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Thank you for that. As we bring our conversation to a close, my takeaway is that it’s super complicated looking at all these genes and the possible interactions between them, and even if you don’t have the gene, your lifestyle can dirty it — but you can also stop the effects. So share with us — what can we do, even if a listener feels like this is hopeless, or they’ve already done a 23andMe test and found some of these issues? How do we clean up our genes one step at a time?

Dr. Ben Lynch: People will pick up Dirty Genes, read the whole thing, and think, “Great, now what — I don’t know where to start.” If you’ve read it, I want you to go back through it, and this time you can skim faster or skip to a section that resonated with you. If you read something like, “Try going to bed 15 minutes earlier, because that’s when you get your deep sleep,” put the book down and work on just that one thing. You have to implement — that’s it. It might be easier to start at drbenlynch.com, where there’s an opt-in for “26 Steps to Clean Genes,” a free download where every letter of the alphabet has a brief action step. “A” is a great place to start — “A” is for Avoid. That could mean avoiding certain chemicals, avoiding the news, avoiding saying yes to every extra request at work when you need to protect your time. There’s a great book called Essentialism about identifying what’s truly essential — you can only really work on one priority at a time. I love that book because it also talks about decluttering, like Marie Kondo — clutter and excess can contribute to anxiety, so purging your space can help calm that down.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: That resonated with me too — the idea that if your home is cluttered, it gets into your mind and affects you. So, for the listener, we’ve talked about so much today — what is the one thing you want to leave them with?

Dr. Ben Lynch: I’ve been researching this for a long time, and I do wish I had researched it before my boys were born — thankfully they’re doing well, but the research I’ve done since has been significant. When I looked into whether there are FDA requirements around what must go into a product labeled a “prenatal vitamin,” I was surprised — for infant formula, every ingredient has to fall within a tightly controlled range; for prenatal vitamins, there’s essentially no such regulation. So women go to the store looking for a prenatal, see “folic acid” on the label, maybe pick a gummy because it’s easy to take, and assume they’re covered because it says “prenatal” on the front — but that doesn’t mean it’s comprehensive. A good prenatal is a complex formula with high-quality ingredients, and pregnancy nutrition matters not just for the baby’s health, but for the mother’s own health, and even for future generations — it’s a twelve-month-or-longer commitment if you’re breastfeeding. One thing I’d add: since 90% of women are deficient in choline, I really want women focusing on choline — it comes from eggs and meat. If you don’t eat eggs or meat, phosphatidylcholine supplements, often made from sunflower oil, are an option, or liposomal vitamin C or liposomal products that help support that pathway. Choline supports the liver, supports cell membranes, supports your baby’s brain, and if you’re breastfeeding and having recurrent clogged ducts, adequate phosphatidylcholine can help there too. And it’s not in most prenatal vitamin formulations, because there’s no regulation requiring it. There was research on choline and pregnancy in animal models that found meaningful, sustained differences in offspring outcomes based on maternal choline intake during pregnancy, which really underscores how essential this often-overlooked nutrient is.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: That’s so interesting about choline — how essential it is, and how it’s not really addressed by the standard prenatal regulations at all.

Dr. Ben Lynch: Yeah — while you’re pregnant, you’re likely choline deficient, so it’s worth prioritizing.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: I should probably let you go at some point, because I know we could keep going. Thank you so much for being here — you’ve mentioned your website, so tell us again where we can go, as well as the opt-in you mentioned.

Dr. Ben Lynch: A great place to start, if you don’t want to invest in a book right away, is drbenlynch.com — there’s an opt-in there for “26 Steps to Clean Genes,” a very easy read. Start with the letter A, work on that, then move on. From there you can find Optimal Prenatal, Optimal PC, and other resources at SeekingHealth.com, a company that’s near and dear to my heart because that’s where all my research goes.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Well, the book Dirty Genes is really an excellent read — really well put together and very eye-opening in terms of this link between our genes and our health conditions, our moods, and specific menstrual symptoms we didn’t even get a chance to talk about today. But I think the most important takeaway I had was that even though the book is about our genes, and there’s this idea of biological determinism, you don’t get that sense from the book — because ultimately we can still control our own outcomes regardless of our genes. So thank you so much for being here and sharing that message.

Dr. Ben Lynch: My pleasure — thank you for having me.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it with a friend. I hope that you enjoyed today’s interview with Ben — what a great conversation. It was a real treat to have the opportunity to talk about the gene aspect of fertility, and how our genes can impact the way we methylate nutrients and respond to different situations. There are so many different profiles discussed in Dirty Genes — at times it felt a bit like reading a horoscope, in that we’re talking about health issues and hormonal challenges and scientific information, but also mood and certain tendencies, and how genes can play a role in how you approach your work, your relationships, whether you feel anxious or relaxed. As I mentioned earlier in the episode, one of the things that really struck me was that it’s not that our genes determine everything 100% — you can have a genetic mutation and not have it express, because of the way you’re living your life, and similarly, you could not have a particular gene issue but still develop the symptoms because of lifestyle. So it’s complex, but it’s also simple in a sense, because the foundational way to start addressing these issues is to look at what we’re eating, how we’re sleeping, how we’re moving, and what we’re exposing ourselves to — the very basic things I talk about all the time with clients in my group program. It’s not the entire answer, but especially when you’re charting your cycles, you can actually see how the changes you’re making affect your menstrual cycle in real time, which really speaks to the power we have to impact our own health, for better or worse. I’m excited to hear what you think about today’s episode — we’ll be talking about it in the Fertility Friday Facebook community, so make sure to join us there, and if you know somebody who would benefit from today’s episode, please share it. Thank you all for tuning in to the show, for spending some time with us today, and for being part of the Fertility Friday community. As always, until next time — be well.