Ok guys, I've been immersed in this for days and days and I have some thoughts to share.
Thoughts on Demethylation and the Methylation Cycle
"If the body is made up of bricks, then methylation is the laying of each individual brick. " - Patrick Quillin
Please keep in mind this is the most basic explanation for the wonderfully complex methylation cycle. Also, remember that aberrant methylation is caused by something, but that trigger may be impossible to determine, since it could be something environmental, something you ate when you were 12 or keep eating despite knowing better or even something as tragic as being isolated from your mother during the first week of your life. You are an incredibly complex and beautiful biological machine.
Your body is a constant cacophony of chemical reactions. We tend to think of them in isolated events, but the closer analogy would be buckets full of molecules awaiting movement and activity as assigned by the attending enzymes. An integral part of this activity is the passing of methyl groups, a carbon molecule bonded to three hydrogen molecules. These are akin to work orders for the enzymes, directing the expression or silencing of the gene to affect the change required to keep everything stable in this corner of the body/world.
Methylation is the exchange of the methyl groups so necessary for the chemical reactions that make you who you are. Methylation is what determines gene expression and protein function. It's what determines how you feel, think, see, look, are.
It turns out there's a quirk that seems to occur in the methylation cycle that's a precursor to cancer and continues as cancer grows. A genetic mutation causes an imbalance of proteins that causes an imbalance in the methylation cycle and the genes that regulate the cannabinoid receptors are overwhelmed by swarms of methyl groups, effectively silencing them. We call this hypermethylation. If the genes regulating the receptors are being silenced they can't communicate with the receptors, the cannabinoids can't attach and the work of eliminating that cancer cell can't take place. Instead, the cancer cell grows and replicates. The tumor advances.
The challenge then becomes getting these receptors cleaned so that the cannabinoids you worked so hard to acquire will have the best chance of helping your body return to health by eliminating the cancer cells. There are some surprisingly easy and tasty ways to do this.
* green tea: Not only good for demethylation but also an excellent antioxidant. We should all be drinking green tea, IMHO. My preference has become a mix of green tea and ginger tea with lemon, infused with probiotics. Multi-functional food. How like a multi-tasking woman.
* mangoes: Always best fresh, of course, but there're juices on the market worth looking at and in a pinch, baby food lines have started to include mangoes in their pureed fruit bags. I get excited when I find myself at the grocery as they decide to chop up some mangoes that are too ripe to leave on the stands any longer. Perfectly ripe and already chopped up.
My habit has become 4 oz of mango juice 30-40 minutes before dosing. I find juice so much easier to deal with in my own life. Unless I found chopped mango at the grocery. Sweet!
* green apples: Recent findings indicate that DNA demethylation is mediated by Tet (ten eleven translocation) enzymes, which convert 5-methylcytosine (5-mC) to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC). Sorry, sometimes technical is called for. It took me days to understand that sentence.
I'm happy to say, I now understand it and so much more.
I have no idea, nor have I been able to find an explaination for why the
green apples. Care to share Cajun?
It's been determined that vitamin C, which can be found in fruits such as apples and oranges, induces Tet-dependent DNA demethylation in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells when present in cell culture media.
Yes, it's animal research but we are, after all, animals ourselves, so a certain amount of extrapolation can be safely applied. "An apple a day" makes much more sense now, doesn't it?
In 2007 a group of researchers discovered that the polyphenols in Annurca apples (a variety from southern Italy) have astounding demethylation properties. They aren't green apples, but if you can get them, I'd certainly add them in some way. I hear they're absolutely delicious.
* grapefruit juice: Be cautious if you're on certain cardiac meds that disallow grapefruit. There're other options.
* cinnamon: Take 1/8 tsp a day. It goes down easy with almond milk. I like it mixed with honey, but I've a notorious sweet tooth.
* dark chocolate (90%): To the uninitiated this tastes nasty the first time, but give your palate a chance to adjust to the difference. After the initial shock to the chocoholic in me this has become my favorite choice of chocolates. At least 1 oz a day. Doesn't that just make you happy?
* olive oil: I have no idea how much, but it's a sure bet that a tablespoon a day wouldn't hurt. Use it in cooking. Use it a lot. Dip bread into it for a quick snack. Infuse it with cannabis and make it even better for you.
In an interview with Project CBD, Mauro Maccarone, a scientist at the University of Teramo, Italy shared these thoughts:
Maccarone hypothesized that olive oil might counter some of the adverse effects of methylation.
“We found that olive oil, in particular the phenolic components of olive oil, can reactivate CB-1 expression. By adding olive oil to an animal’s diet, we can restore a normal CB-1 receptor level that will protect cells against cancer,” Maccarone explained.
“This is very interesting and very promising because it suggests that the normal daily impact of the right amount of olive oil could be protective and could give you a better chance of a healthy life.”
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There you have it. A quick list of simple things you can add to your diet every day to help your body heal and make better use of this oil that feels like gold every time you look at it.
We work hard to grow the right strains, harvest and cure with loving care. We take great steps to insure that the oil we produce is clean and potent to our needs. It only makes sense to do all we can to help our bodies get the greatest number of cannabinoids working on our behalf. I hope this helps.
Go have some green tea.
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