Methyl Protect is a product designed to support optimal methylation function and homocysteine levels in your body. You may be wondering what methylation and homocysteine are, and how exactly they affect your health. Let's dive in.
What is Homocysteine?
Homocysteine is an amino acid that is naturally produced in the body and used to make proteins, but homocysteine build-up in your blood can cause serious health issues. (1) High homocysteine levels can cause increased inflammation and oxidation, which can contribute to many issues like depression, heart disease, and other degenerative diseases.
While your body can naturally deal with high levels of homocysteine, many people have a risk for unhealthy build-up. This is because these people don't have the proper methylation function within their bodies.
Normally, vitamin B12, vitamin B6, and folic acid break down homocysteine and changes it into other substances your body needs, so there should be very little homocysteine left in the bloodstream after this breakdown occurs..(2)
What is Methylation and What Are Methylation Pathways?
Methylation is a process that happens in every cell of your body - it's how cells communicate and create proteins that you need. It's a vital process that helps fight oxidative stress and DNA damage in your cells to help protect against disease. It is essential for turning harmful homocysteine into healthy amino acids that your body can use.
A methylation pathway is when a series of chemical reactions in your body occur causing enzymes to add methyl groups to your DNA, which affects the way certain genes are expressed and regulated. If you have a healthy methylation pathway, gene expression will be optimized and healthier cells will be created. However, if there is a deficiency in the methylation pathways, some genes may not be expressed the right way, and cell function will be impaired. Supporting the proper methylation pathways is critical for maintaining every aspect of your health.
The methylation cycle includes a range of processes within the body. It can impact gene expression patterns, inflammation, and can help protect the body against many serious illnesses. (3)
Research reveals that when methylation does not occur as expected, it can lead to physical problems, including cancer and impaired kidney function, and neurological diseases, including dementia and depression.
Methyl Protect is a product that, when taken daily, can help support serotonin - an important neurotransmitter. Serotonin is known to help improve moods and overall mental health and research shows that many people have low serotonin levels in their bodies, not only making them feel down but also raising their risk for cardiovascular problems, diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's.
Methyl Protect is one of the few supplements on the market created to support methyl production to be used in methylation pathways. Methyl production supports homocysteine breakdown, and supports memory, mood, heart health and even energy..
Currently, Methyl Protect is being studied for its potential for depression. It has shown promise in preliminary trials with patients suffering from mental health issues - including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Patients with ASD can often have low levels of serotonin-like the rest of us. However, their serotonin levels can be lowered even more thanks to genetic conditions such as MTHFR (the acronym for the main enzyme responsible for methylation).
What are the Benefits of Methyl Protect?
Methyl Protect can support your overall health by addressing homocysteine levels. With appropriate methylation, this can support healthy heart markers, brain health markers, and overall wellness.
Methyl Protect can support concentration and memory, essential for clear thinking every day! Additionally, it supports better moods and even energy levels.
Benefits of Methyl Protect When Used to Treat Mental Health
Methyl Protect is not a medicine - it is an all-natural supplement that supports mental health.
Research shows it may also be beneficial for supporting adequate dopamine levels, calmness, and other mental health markers.
Mental health issues, like depression, have been on the rise for many years, making it difficult for people to enjoy life. It can also cause physical pain, such as headaches, stomach aches, joint pain, chest pains, or chronic fatigue.
Many different treatments are available for depression, but they aren't always suitable or effective. Depression often has a trigger that alters how a person thinks about their life or a particular situation. Still, the underlying cause is often a chemical imbalance in the body - specifically, an excess of homocysteine due to impaired methylation pathways.
Is Methyl Protect Good For You?
Methyl Protect is built around five nutrients that are key factors in homocysteine metabolism, including calcium folinate, trimethylglycine, and B-vitamins (B2, B6, B12). It also includes Quatrefolic® which is a modified version of folic acid (B9) that acts as a limiting factor in the methylation cycle.
Methyl Protect helps the body produce more serotonin and can also help promote a healthy mood by supporting several neurotransmitters, including epinephrine, dopamine, and norepinephrine.
By promoting overall health and addressing homocysteine metabolism, Methyl Protect can offer powerful support for depression, but it is not the only option..
Many of the ingredients in Methyl Protect can be found in high-quality multivitamins, which leads to the question: Which is better?
Should You Choose Methyl Protect or Multivitamins?
While Methyl Protect has key nutrients that support serotonin development, homocysteine metabolism support, methylation support, and overall mood improvement, it does not include all the micronutrients your body needs to maintain optimal health overall.
Healthycell Bioactive Multi is a great option to support overall health. It is a daily liquid gel (MICROGEL™) vitamin that delivers the nutrients you need for homocysteine metabolism and methylation support in a maximum absorption, ingestible gel that allows nutrients to get into the bloodstream and then into cells in ways pills cannot. In fact, you would need to swallow five or more pills to get the same nutritional value from just one gel pack of Healthycell Bioactive Multi. All you have to do is swallow the gel directly or mix the single-dose gel back in water or your daily smoothie.
Unlike Methyl Protect, it is a rich source of a majority of the core ingredients that support your cardiovascular health and overall well-being. These ingredients include K2, niacin, methylcobalamin, methylfolate and polyphenols, which are nutrients known to support special benefits to the heart and blood vessels.
Bioactive multi does not contain calcium folinate, Quatrefolic®, or folic acid. Instead, it contains methylfolate. It is common to use "folic acid" and "folate" interchangeably for vitamin B9, but there are differences. The most significant difference is that where Quatrefolic® and folic acid are synthetic, folate is a naturally occurring substance found in a range of foods. Calcium folinate is a derivative of folate.
Methyl Protect is a good option to support mental and overall health; however, Bioactive Multi offers a similar effect with the addition of a broader spectrum of micronutrients that support optimal health, including: immune health, heart health, and brain health.
Can You Just Take Folic Acid?
Folic acid and other B-vitamins are just part of the recipe for good health, and taking vitamin B9 alone won't alleviate the symptoms of depression.
Folic acid is one of the nutrients required for healthy methylation pathways, but promoting a positive mood involves more than this. Folic acid can help reduce homocysteine levels and therefore reduce the symptoms of depression, but it's not an effective treatment for depression on its own. (4)
Both Methyl Protect and Healthycell Bioactive Multi contain a combination of nutrients, not just folic acid. Your body requires many other vitamins and minerals to maintain health, so Methyl Protect should be viewed as only one part of your overall treatment plan. It is not an alternative to multivitamins.
When it comes to your mental health, a more holistic approach that encompasses a full range of FDA-recommended vitamins and minerals (5) is likely to be more effective than just using a pill that only contains one or two key nutrients.
Bioactive Multi also supports a healthy immune system and a healthy body weight, which impacts mental health.
When antidepressants don't work, what do you do? You take a supplement. If your body is deficient in the nutrients to function properly, it follows that supplements will make a difference.
While Methyl Protect is marketed with a specific goal in mind, a multivitamin with minerals and phytonutrients likely offers many of the same benefits.
Who Can Benefit from Methyl Protect or Bioactive Multi?
Anyone whose mental health has been affected by insufficient nutrients will benefit from either of them. If you are concerned that your body doesn't have all the key nutrients required to function properly, talk to your doctor and ask if taking a multivitamin may help.
Since Methyl Protect is designed to provide nutrients that support the body's methylation cycle, and Bioactive Multi contains the same or similar nutrients, they should be particularly effective to support overall mental health due to low methylation.
If you've tried taking antidepressants without success, nutritional deficiencies in the body may be a cause of your depression. Therefore, supplements like Methyl Protect and Healthycell Bioactive Multi may offer relief.
Mental health is not just limited to clinical depression; people can suffer from anxiety disorders, stress, and other issues that may benefit from supplements.
Conclusion
Methyl Protect is a great supplement, but there are additional ones out there that can provide similar effects and more. Healthycell Bioactive Multi can also help you maintain your mental health while offering additional benefits for other aspects of your health and well-being.
