Methylation imbalance shows itself in four personality types that can help you predict how you might react to different supplements and pharmaceutical drugs. Knowing your type can give you a shortcut in your journey to balance your methylation, but still always start with the steps in the MTHFR and Methylation Roadmap in the FREE TOOLS section of the website.
If you haven't taken the Methylation Archetype Quiz, do that first.
The Achiever and The Athlete Methylation Personality Types Are Linked
Achievers and athletes are very similar types, with a tremendous overlap in terms of personality and typical response to supplements. These types are highly driven, ambitious, perfectionist, and competitive. Achievers tend to be more so with all aspects of their life, whereas Athletes tend to focus highly on the athletic competitions against others or working to beat their personal best. For both of these types, addictions can be a problem, sometimes to substances, but just as often to work or working out.
Both of these types are prone to higher levels of histamine, which means they may be affected by seasonal allergies or hay fever, could get hives, red lines on their skin when they scratch an itch, or facial flushing with a workout. They might not tolerate leftovers, fermented foods, or wine (all of which contain high levels of histamine). Histamine breakdown is complex, so there are several genes that contribute to this outside of even the methylation pathway, so the histamine piece is not as predictive as the rest of the personality.
The Difference Between The Achiever and The Athlete
The main difference between these two types is not as simple as looking at profession or athletic habits - after all, professional athletes could be Achiever types, and CEOs could be Athlete types. The main distinction between these two personalities is that the Athlete personality type needs to work out to feel okay. If they feel mentally or physically out of balance, they can do a hard workout and feel better in every way. That is the hallmark of the athlete. It goes deeper than just doing something that you know is good for your body or the satisfaction of checking workout off your list - exercise is like air for Athletes, and if they don't get it, the whole show breaks down.
The Best and Worst Supplements for Achievers and Athletes
Achievers and Athletes are very similar in their responses to supplements. These are not set in stone, and there are always exceptions to the rule, but this can give you a good starting place for supplementing once you implement the MTHFR and Methylation Roadmap basic steps.
Typically Good Reaction | Typically Bad Reaction or Tolerate Only Very Low Dose |
SSRI medications (although may still be troubled by side effects) | Benzodiazepines |
Antihistamines | Folic Acid, Folate, Folinic Acid, 5-LMTHF |
Methionine | Choline |
SAMe, DMG or TMG (all methyl donors) | Histidine |
St John's Wort, melatonin | DMAE |
Calcium and magnesium (1:1 ratio), zinc | Copper |
Antioxidants - A, C, E, alpha-lipoic acid, resveratrol, ECGC, etc... | High folate foods, including dark green leafy veggies and beans/pulses (it is rare to have a bad reaction to high folate foods, but if anyone will, they're in these groups.) |
Inositol | |
B6 | |
Omega-3 fatty acids | |
Niacin (B3)** Especially athletes. |
Finding your best path forward should still start with the basic steps to balance methylation, including eliminating folic acid and introducing high-folate foods. If you haven't already, check out the MTHFR and Methylation Road Map to start those steps. Bad reactions to high folate foods are extremely rare, and although they're more likely to happen within the Achiever and the Athlete groups, these foods are so valuable to health that they are still well worth trying. Bad reactions are unlikely but more possible with these personality types than others.
The best path forward with supplements will still involve trial and error, but this list gives you useful starting points and can save you some time. Remember, all of this depends not only on your MTHFR gene but on all of your other genes and nutritional deficiencies or excesses, so be patient with yourself when finding the best nutrients for your body.
Also, when you're balancing your methylation, remember the foundational advice. Start low, go slow, and change one thing at a time. This means that you should start with the lowest dose you can find, increase doses only very slowly, and make one supplement or diet change at a time so that if you have symptoms, you can figure out what is causing them.
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