Can you bend your arm backwards at the elbow? What about touch your wrist with your thumb or place your hands flat on the floor with your legs fully extended?
If you’re double-jointed, then you’re easily able to perform these funky feats of agility.
For some, however, double-jointedness can be responsible for a serious medical condition called hypermobility that gives rise to multiple physical and mental symptoms.
Until now, doctors were stumped as to how to treat this surprisingly common condition, but finally there’s an answer. And it couldn’t be easier…
You don’t need a doctor or any medicine. All it involves is taking a special over-the-counter form of the B vitamin, folic acid.
Hypermobility is believed to affect one in every four people. And unlike double-jointedness, hypermobility is not only identified through increased suppleness but also by fragile connective tissue caused by genetic mutations.
Since connective tissue provides support in skin, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, internal organs and bones, its fragility causes a range of symptoms that, on the surface, seem unrelated: physical conditions such as joint pain, chronic fatigue, thin tooth enamel, dizziness, digestive disturbances, and migraines; and psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and depression.
What is hypermobility?
Hypermobility mostly arises from Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (EDS). This comprises a group of thirteen connective-tissue disorders, twelve of which are linked to genetic mutations. However, 90 percent of cases arise from hypermobile EDS, the only subtype without a known genetic cause.
As a result, each of the wide-ranging symptoms has been treated individually rather than as the result of a single cause. But now, researchers at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans have found a root cause of hypermobility.
The research team has linked hypermobility to a deficiency of folate – the natural form of vitamin B9/folic acid – caused by a mutation of the MTHFR gene.
Surprise: Hypermobility affects most of the population
We all have two MTHFR genes, one inherited from each parent. A mutation can occur in either one or both in the most common variant of the gene. About 20 percent to 40 percent of white and Hispanic individuals in the U.S. have one mutation. In North America, Europe, and Australia, around eight percent to 20 percent of the population have mutations in both genes.
This downregulates the activity of the MTHFR enzyme by around a third in those with one mutation and by two-thirds in those with both mutations. What does this mean?
Diminished enzyme function reduces the ability to metabolize folate. This prevents key proteins from binding collagen to the extracellular matrix that provides structural support for the body. This leads to more elastic connective tissue, hypermobility, and a potential cascade of associated conditions.
Surprisingly, hypermobility affects as much as 57 percent of the population. The reason it isn’t more widely recognized is because most people with the condition won't experience any problems, and some, such as ballet dancers, gymnasts, and musicians, benefit from it. For others, however, the condition can be debilitating.
Hypermobility is like a Ferrari
The connection between folate deficiency and the MTHFR gene was discovered by working with patients at Tulane’s Hypermobility and Ehlers-Danlos Clinic, the only such clinic in the U.S. that focuses on connective tissue disorders.
Its director, Dr. Jacques Courseault, said: “Hypermobility is not rare, [it’s] widespread and unfortunately under-recognized. Hypermobility is like a Ferrari that requires a lot of maintenance and the best synthetic oil. After knowing a patient's name and date of birth, I think it's prudent for clinicians to know which of these body types they have.
“I’m excited about being able to treat the masses where people aren’t going their whole lives being frustrated and not getting the treatment they need."
The treatment he’s referring to is very simple...
What should you do?
Since folate is poorly metabolized in these patients, they are given methylated folate or 5-MTHF, which is the form it’s turned into after it’s been acted upon by the MTHFR enzyme.
Dr. Courseault said patients treated with methylated folate have shown improvement: less pain, less brain fog, fewer allergies, and improved gastrointestinal function.
“We’ve discovered something in medicine that can help, not a small group of people, but potentially many across the world. This is real, it’s been vetted out well and clinically we’re noticing a difference.”
I couldn’t agree more.
My takeaway
If you’re wondering if you could be one of the millions of people with a mutation of the MTHFR gene, a simple blood test can tell you. And if you’re suffering pain or other ailments, I encourage you to get one without delay. You could be one of the millions of people who are suffering physical problems all because they can’t absorb folate properly.
If you do have a MTHFR gene mutation, methylated folate supplements are affordable and easy to find online and in health food stores.
Best Regards,
The Green Valley Team
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