The Thyroid, MTHFR, Gallstone, and Fatty Liver Connection With Lisa Winbourn

Introduction and guest background 0:00

Hello, hello, and welcome to the Thyroid Pharmacists Healing Conversations podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Isabella Wentz, And today we're going to be talking about, seems like a very specific topic, but this is such a important topic for many people with thyroid issues to consider. So the connection between the thyroid, the MTHFR gene variation, The gallbladder and fatty liver. I have a very special guest today, nutritionist Lisa Winborn, who spends her time really helping women with fatty liver, with no gallbladder, and with the MTHFR gene variation take charge of their own health.

She helps them have more energy, sleep better, she also helps lose weight with methylation-focused nutrition. Welcome, Lisa. It's so great to have you. Thank you so much. Such an honor to be here. Oh my gosh, my pleasure. So I know a lot of us that are into functional medicine, we don't just one day wake up and decide we want to go to college for functional medicines, right? A lot us have our own unique healing journeys and perhaps some life experiences that nudge us this way. Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and how you came to be an expert in the gallbladder, liver, and MTHFR?

Absolutely. Well, I think there's some element of guidance. Like, we kind of get guided, those of us that are sort of, like, really tuned into, There's some element of being guided to solutions that maybe we're trying to help others, but they actually end up helping ourselves. And that's kind of what it was like for me, it goes all the way back to probably middle school when, you know, like puberty, and I started gaining weight. I just didn't like, I didn' know what's going on. So I really started diving into nutrition, which is I felt like I just knew intuitively that nutrition had to be the way to solve this rather than supplements.

I did exercise, but for me, it was really nutrition. So I've done a lot of dieting, I ended up really ruining my metabolism. And I think I actually kicked off hypothyroidism because then I struggled for decades with low body temperature, hair loss, coarse hair. cracked heels like dry skin and I didn't really understand the connection at that time but I went into chemistry for my major because I wanted to get a master's in nutrition because i was just like really drawn to this like healing from the root But then after I graduated and got my undergraduate degree, I got married and I had kids and sort of like took me off that path.

And then I just kind of took the easier route, and started working for a pharmaceutical company. I stayed with that company for 18 years. until I was like, this is not satisfying. You know, you kind of wake up one day from your fog and you're just like this does not it like I need to be doing something else with my life. And so then I enrolled in a functional nutrition program. One thing led to another. I realized a lot of people were struggling with their gallbladder and in my functional Nutrition Training, when I learned about bile, it was sort of like getting smacked over the head like This is a big deal and I don't hear anybody talking about bile.

And I remember thinking like bile is like a sexy fluid because of what it does for your body, even though it's like this green stuff.

Discovering functional nutrition and gallbladder health 3:34

But I just remember how really cool it was. Then one thing led to another. I was growing my social media account and then I realized like, a lot of people kept telling me they have gallstones. You know, they're struggling with their gallbladder and i started digging into that. That led me to fatty liver, which one in five, one and three people have fatty, liver. And then I started researching that, that led me to MTHFR. I realized half the population has an Mthfr variation. So I felt like I was playing this game of hot, cold, like it just kept getting hotter and hotter.

Then I actually, just a little bit about how I, I stumbled on your research. And one, like I was starting to put things together and realizing how important MTHFR was. And I read one of your research blogs, and you said that when you learned about Mthfr and started taking B vitamins, it was actually a turning point for you. So then that kind of like, confirmed I'm like okay, this is a big deal. That's my backstory and how people need to know about this because it's just not talked about enough. Yeah, and it's like all connected.

And I don't think a lot of people are aware of that. So I used to work in pharmaceutical sales as well. My background is a pharmacist and sort of like you, I was on this trajectory In my pharmaceutical career, where I was going to work as a medical science liaison, somebody that would be like very basically very knowledgeable about one particular drug and all of its competitors and that health condition. And I. Was working towards a career in that. But throughout that process, I was like, wait a minute.

I'm talking about like asthma medications and utilizing these things, but there are actually nutritional things we can do for asthma and fish oils and probiotics and so on and I had Hashimoto's at that point and became very disillusioned because I was going to pharmaceutical conferences and found the gluten free and dairy free diet helped me feel so much better yet everybody at the conferences we were talking about how to make people healthier and the food we served was like candy in a bowl you know so um so I just became very disillusioned with that similar to you where I was like man I really love chemistry and I Really love helping people and i really want to help people with their health but this is not the way right yes exactly and just to kind of add a little bit to that I didn't realize that i had an mthfr variation so this was becoming very interesting to me and then I started putting the pieces together like well, this is a symptom of MTHFR and I have that.

Well, do I Mthfr? And then so I got tested and sure enough, I do. And that's why my family has gallstones. That's when they have fatty liver, obesity, diabetes, mental health. It suddenly just was like this big epiphany, like, oh my gosh, it's affecting me. And so yeah, but I am totally with you on like, we shouldn't just be doing pharmaceuticals and we don't want to be just treating the symptom because that is not, that's not helping anyone. It's just like kicking the can down the road is what I was thinking.

Yeah, for sure. I think it could help acute situations and there's always a time and place for medications. But sometimes there are these root cause solutions. And I know when I was on my healing journey with Hashimoto, somebody mentioned MTHFR to me. And I was sort of like, okay, there's no way I have this. I'm not like a mutant, right? They said I might have the gene mutation. And so I looked into it. Sure enough, I did have MTHFR. At that point, oh my gosh, I'm gonna die. This is like the most terrible news I've ever gotten.

And once I sort of went through the process of understanding what it is and what isn't, i realized like this was not such a terrible thing to have. Could you share a little bit more for everybody listening? What exactly is the MTHFR? Some people say gene mutation, What does it mean when you have that? I'm with you. I don't call it a mutation. It's one of the things that make us different from each other. Our genetics are different. We all have the same genetics. And these little genes play a role.

So MTHFR, now I am going to say the full name. Don't let your eyes glaze over. Methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase. Okay, so now you know that, don't worry about it. It's basically, it's an enzyme and enzymes are like little workers. They're like, and I know you notice, but for the audience, they do work inside of our bodies, their little work. And for most part, the MTHFR works in the liver. and it activates a special B vitamin called folate, which is vitamin B9.

What MTHFR is and why it matters 8:51

And that little vitamin, the activated vitamin is involved in so many things. So the reason that, and I kind of think of our body sort of like gears in a watch and all these gears are going around and they're all like feeding into each other. And the MTHFR can be a slow worker. So think about, like, if your worker is fast, then it's keeping up with everything. But if you're worker, is sick and it slow, and its going to impact everybody else down the line. And it sort of like a bottleneck. So that's why the MTHFR is kind of like it's the crux of a lot of issues because it affects mental health, it effects your ability to absorb fat soluble nutrients, to detox heavy metals and balance hormones, for cell repair, so it is involved in gut health like keeping your gut lining strong, making good red blood cells.

This little worker, his output is involved in so many different things. If he's working slow, which is what a variation means. Some variations mean it's a faster worker and some variations means it is slower. But with the MTHR variation, you can have between a 20 percent and a 70 percent lower worker. So imagine somebody that has a 70% and now this would not be a big deal. So until their modern age with all the stress and the toxins, it wouldn't be big a deal except we have some hidden enemies in our lifestyle and in food.

And I don't know if you want to talk about that now or we want wait until later. I think I definitely want to get into food and some of the things that can really cause a backlog of MTHFR. But for everybody listening, I want just mention something. Just because you have Mthfr doesn't mean that you're going to be sick, right? Exactly. Yeah, a lot of people have it and they don't even realize it. So it's really like, it can get so I describe your genes sort of like the bottom of a riverbed. where if your river is full, you won't see the bottom of the riverbed.

So if you're taking care of yourself, your managing your stress, if have good social connections, have a good diet, then you will not see those genes. It's when you have stress. You're not taking of care yourself. If you are not sleeping enough, and your diet is fully processed foods, that's where those gene start to show and make a difference in how you feel. Yeah, that makes so much sense. I know I'm from Poland and people grew up eating beets there. Beets are just such a common part of the diet there, it's just almost like an every other day or daily thing.

You eat beet soup, you eat sooed beests, just a side of beets, there's like dressings made with beats, kvass made be with beats in other parts of Eastern Europe. And I'm like, my parents both have these gene variations, and everybody in my family does to my knowledge, but none of them have had any health issues. Now I moved to the states my whole family did when I was nine years old and very quickly I shifted from this like very earth and earth to table or farm to tablet Polish diet to The Processed American diet.

I remember my dad would take me to Wendy's and McDonald's. And he would be like, do you like this food? And I would Be like um, yeah, I like it, dad, because I will get a toy with it. Right. Um, and so very quickly, my parents, they would get me TV dinners or whatever I Would eat, you know, it's hard to, It's Hard to be a parent when you have Kids that can be quite picky eaters. And so they were like, okay, she likes this food. We're going to get it for her. There wasn't as much nutritional information available.

I actually started having health challenges when I was like 18, 19 years old. Whereas my parents, they're still pretty healthy. My mom did have asthma. in her 40s and 50s when we had lived in the U.S. But nobody had any issues during childhood or young adulthood, even with the same genes, right? That is so interesting about the beats because I remember, and I struggled with seasonal affective disorder, which is another link and symptom because it affects your neurotransmitters. And I Remember being like, intuitively thinking I needed be.

I don't know why this was before like a decade, probably 10 years ago. And I remember thinking, I need beets in the winter. and when I would eat beats, i would feel better and then it wasn't until like I discovered all the mthfr then like, oh my gosh, it totally makes sense. So I really want to encourage people. The reason I say that is because listen to your intuition. Sometimes our bodies know what we need. and we need to just tune in and because if you're drawn to some you know maybe leafy greens or beets or citrus fruits maybe there's a reason for that and it's going to supply a nutrient that you need.

Can we get into citrus fruit? What do they provide? So they're high in folate and vitamin C which are really important. So there is this so the MTHFR is involved in something called the methylation cycle. and just think of it like a flywheel, it goes round and round. It converts homocysteine into SAMe, one of the body's main antioxidants. But you need a lot of other nutrients to help this worker. This worker needs a lots of nutrients, and vitamin C and folate, obviously, are two big nutrients and magnesium.

So citrus fruits provide a a of minerals and vitamins and antioxidants all kinds of good things. I love that. We talked a little bit about what the MTHFR gene, and we mentioned some of the health conditions that could be associated with. Can we talk a bit bit the connection between autoimmune disease, Hashimoto's and Mthfr? Yes. Because the mthf is so important for detoxification, if you have a slow worker, and you are overloaded with stress, overload with toxins, and your eating foods with synthetic B vitamins, which we can talk about that.

It slows detoxification down, And you can actually get a buildup of heavy metals. So there's many facets, many parts of this. And this is the first part is you get to build up a heavy metal and what your body does to protect you from those is store them in fatty tissues, one of which is a thyroid. So it can interfere with thyroid function. Another thing is the MTHFR is involved in bile production and absorbing fat soluble nutrients. And if you're not absorbing anti-inflammatory fat-soluble, nutrients like vitamins A, D and E, you can have more inflammation in the body and vitamin A especially is important for thyroid health.

and it's involved in making tight cell junctions in your gut lining. It's playing a role in the thyroid, in fat-soluble nutrients, and the gut health. That can create this perfect storm for autoimmune and Hashimoto's. Yeah, absolutely. I have found that a lot of times we really do need to focus on methylation support with Hashimoto's and autoimmunity and helping people just feel human

MTHFR, Hashimoto's, and public health fortification 16:48

again when they have a thyroid condition. For me personally, I was very surprised to learn how all of these things I had learned about in pharmacy school that public health officials do to help us. Actually, like, we're backfiring. So fluoride in the water supply, it was used to health people have better teeth, right, and prevent dental cavities. But what we realized is that fluorine and even in doses that you get from your water supplies can suppress thyroid function. So it's like, you have a thyroid issue, and you need to filter your water.

The other thing that I've come to find is really, really public health officials were like people that are low in iodine have thyroid problems. Let's put iodide in the salt supply to help people have better iodite levels. And that iodime in this salt actually led to more autoimmune thyroid disease. So I'm like okay, now I have to switch out my salt. And now the other thing that I learned about as one of the greatest things that public health is fortifying are breads and cereals, right? Can we get into that a little bit and why?

I mean, I'm just like, in theory, it's good, but why does it not work for some of us, Right? Yes, In theory it is good. So people used to get the majority of their folate from grains, like meats, products. But then people started preferring white wheat because it was more refined, and they liked the taste of it. So they lost all these nutrients when they refined the grain. They lost it from the endosperm and the bran, or the germ, I'm sorry, in the brand. We had the Endos sperm, which was used to make white bread, but it didn't have a lot of nutrients.

Then there was this international... All these symptoms of nutrient deficiencies started popping up, like muscle issues, mental health problems, heart disease, muscle twitching, nervous system disorders, and infertility. Researchers discovered that it was because we're missing some major nutrients like riboflavin, thiamine, iron, folate. They started Mandating that you have to add like food manufacturers have these certain nutrients back into the food supply They decided that folic acid It's a version of folate was what they were going to use instead of fully because it's more shelf stable and it doesn't degrade in cooking and So they did that and It helped 50% of the population with neuro tube defects.

Okay, so the studies show that it did improve outcomes However, it actually backfired on the other 50% because now folic acid is a form of folate that your body doesn't recognize, your worker doesn''t recognize. And so he sort of like grabs it and then his hands are like locked on it, and he doesn' know what to do with it. So here worker is like out of service now because he's holding on to this folac acid and you just like totally confused. it slows down your work or even more or like blocks him completely.

Now your body has work around your, body can work this problem. And there's like multiple ways. So I'm just because you consume folic acid doesn't mean it's detrimental to you, but it does add another layer to the problem I love the way that you explain this. And I think one thing we may have mentioned, but about 50% of people have the MTHFR gene variation. There's different combinations that we can have. Can you explained a little bit like the heterozygous, homozygus, and the different variations?

There are two main variations that are studied the most. One is, well, it's known as the 677, the other one is the 1298. The 677 is more severe. So if you have two genes, if one of your genes has a 6-7- 7 variation, you'll have a 40% slower worker. If you had two copies, it's about a 70% lower worker, and then with 1298, one copy is a 20% slow worker and two copy's is about 40%. So you'd have somewhere in the spectrum of between 20 percent and 70 percent reduced methylation. The 1298 is more indicative of blood clots and heart disease, and then the 677 is a problem with detoxification.

Yeah, and it's interesting because they were like, oh, this is working. And it worked for half of the people that didn't have that gene variation. Probably they didn' know what was going on at the time, but now we have the data to help us understand. I think still, if you look it up, the CDC and some other organizations will say that there's no link between folic acid and an MTHFR variation or you know all these problems because they have data that shows that folic acid actually helps. So it's just it hasn't trickled down up to the big organizations yet.

I think when you get into the weeds and the pathways, like we do, then you can actually understand why that statement can both be true and not true at the same time. So we're going to get. Some of the nutrients and foods that support methylation, but I, think the 1st thing to mention is. we talked about a little bit of a workaround. I know one of the things I did was I started to take betaine with pepsin and within three days I was like a new woman. My fatigue got so much better and I there's a big connection with low stomach acid and hypothyroidism.

I was entirely of the opinion at the time that I must have had low-stomach acid, and the betaine with pepsin was helping me feel significantly better because that was finally digesting my food. It's a digestive enzyme. Part of that is true, but betane also has another role in the body. Hint, hint, it's beet derived. and it also supports the, it's kind of like the back door for helping. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Yeah, so it is related to methionine. So there's this intermediate in the methylation cycle called methionein.

That's related pepsin, and so your body can use methine, they can kind go around, use methanine and they could also use glycine there's, yeah, so that's really cool about our bodies is it's so adaptable and flexible. And we can support, you know, just because you have this variation, it is not the end of the world. There's a lot of fear based out there about gene mutations, which I really don't like that. I want people to to think about their health journey as like a calling to learn more about themselves rather than like, oh, I'm doomed, you know, like there's nothing I can do.

There's so much you can and there are so many ways that your body's going to help you. Like if you eat beets or you take the pepsin, your supporting that methylation cycle so that if that worker is down and out, there is backups for him. Yeah, and I love that our body is so wise. And I think sometimes when a lot of these pathways are impacted is when we really start having troubles. But in many cases, our bodies can compensate, even if you just do one or a few different things. I know that A lot of information is out there about if you have MTHFR, then don't take this kind of supplement.

Folate forms, methylfolate, and supplementation choices 24:58

Take this supplement." Can you talk a little bit more about maybe methylfolate, folic acid, and all of the different things? Which path is the best path to take? Well, number one, if you think you have an MTHFR variation, you probably do. You don't have to go get tested for it. It will help you just to think about supporting your methylation, your Mthfr. If you want to get testing and spend $200, but just save your money and put it into higher quality food and maybe a little bit of supplementation.

So the first thing is do not consume, well, I should say limit. limit your consumption of folic acid, which is found in a lot of refined processed wheat, rice, and corn products. So this is pizza, your conventional pizza pasta, bread, cereal, the cookies, crackers, and inexpensive store vitamins are going to have folic acid. So that's what I talked about where the worker like holds the folac acid and then he's like frozen. He doesn't know what to do. That's the form you want to avoid. Folic acid, we want full late is found in nature.

So that's found leafy greens, animal proteins, cruciferous vegetables, and citrus fruits. I mean, it's in a lot of things, but it is mostly whole foods. If you think about getting away, think of one type of processed food that you eat a lots and think switching that to a whole food type carbohydrate. Maybe instead of eating a sandwich and you have white bread, You could switch out, you could have the meat and the cheese, and then you have a piece of fruit with it instead of that bread. So that's just one example.

But you can also switch to organic or whole grain forms of wheat products. And that would have more folate. Then we get into a couple of lab-derived forms, which are made from fermenting bacteria. They are synthetic, but they're the active form. This would be methylfolate, you need to be careful with methyl folate because some people are very sensitive to this activated form and it can cause them to have anxiety and overwhelm and feeling angry and aggressive. That's because this methylfoli is also involved in making dopamine.

If you have a high amount of dopamine, can be really like angry and aggressive and just like overwhelmed and anxiety. So you have to be careful with B vitamins. I see a lot of people on social media find out about MTHFR and then they're promoting like a high dose of methylfolate and I'm like, oh no, this is not good. And then so what you could do is either you're sensitive, I would say if you have problems with anxiety and overwhelm, then stay away from methylfolate. If you are more of a person that experiences depression, sadness, melancholy, than you can do and for me like that's me, like sadness melancoly low energy and so methyl, i need methyl folate otherwise I don't feel the same.

I do not have the energy that I feel really low and even a couple days of not taking it I noticed a big difference. So It depends on your personality. Are you prone to anxiety or you're prone depression is how you would know. So that's this active methylfolate. Then we have something called folinic acid, which It's kind of like a cross between the natural folate and I know this is like really technical and the it's a spectrum, you know, so it is a crossover between folates and methylfolate. So it kind gives you the boost you need, but not overwhelming your system.

But honestly, the best thing is to get it through your food. beats, animal proteins, and then go from there. I really love that explanation. Thank you so much for going into it because I have also seen people who, you know, they have the MTHFR gene variation and, then it's like, oh, we need a high dose of methylfolate. And then they take it, I just went to the hospital with a panic attack. I thought I was having a heart attack because it can definitely upregulate that. And I love the pearl about if you tend to be more depressive and low energy, this is something that you can benefit from.

If you intend to more anxious, perhaps look into getting it from foods or perhaps flenic acid might be a better choice for you. Yeah. What about non-alcoholic fatty liver disease? It's become so much more common. And I know a lot of very, very smart people that are, you know, they're not eating crappy diets, right? They're still struggling with this. What's going on there and how is it all connected to MTHFR and everything that we've been talking about today? MTHF-R plays a role in fatty liver in that if you do, if your detox is slow, then you can get a buildup of toxins which can damage the liver.

And then that can lead to a fatty river because the river, one of its jobs is to package up fats and send them out. So if it's not able to pack up those lipoproteins, those fats, they fall apart in the livers. But there's another genetic variation called PEMT, which works side by side with MTHFR to make bile and to makes phosphatidylcholine, which is involved in shuttling out these fats. So we eat fats, our liver is like organizing, it's like, okay, I'm sending this here, and sending that there, but it has to package up these fat with this phosphotidycholine or PC, And if there's not enough PC, then the fats fall apart and they stay in the liver.

So there are kind of like two pathways, major pathways for fatty liver, one is like damaged and then one you don't have enough of this raw material, phosphatidylcholine. I love that. I have seen choline as a supplement recommendation for people with fatty liver. You can also get it from foods. What is your preferred source of cholene? Well, so you can get from sunflower lecithin, which is lecatin can be converted into a phosphatidylcholine, but eggs are a good source. Proteins, again, cruciferous vegetables and leafy greens.

It's like we get the same, so it's animal proteins, cruciferous vegetables, leafy greens, citrus fruits, all are going to have choline and help with this problem. So an eggs theory. I love that. So it's like truly food is medicine is utilizing some of these things to heal yourself. If somebody has genetic variations and MTHFR and they have fatty liver and gallbladder issues, can we give them kind of like a breakdown of some the best diet and lifestyle changes to make? Yes. Okay. Well, I used to think nutrition was everything, but now I'm realizing that our breath is actually more important.

How we breathe is more than our nutrition. So the first thing is to notice how are you breathing. Are your shoulders up here? Are you holding your breath? Like, I lived this way for such a long time. I had to retrain my lungs, most of us, because we're just used to living in such stressful environment that we are breathing in a way that is raising our

Fatty liver, choline, and methylation support 32:58

cortisol and keeping us stuck and we aren't healing. So you could have the best diet, taking the most expensive supplements, but if you're in fight or flight mode, your nervous system is stuck, then it's not really going to help much. So just take an inventory of how you breathe. And you definitely want to start working on just becoming aware of your breath. Like, think of something that can remind you to check your breathe every day. Every time you open your phone, check you breath, every time go to the bathroom, and check the breath and then start slowing your breaths down so that you get to a point where you're breathing in coherence.

So coherance breathing is six-second inhale, six second exhale when you're at rest. And that is like creates a symphony in your body that allows your to start healing. So that's step one. Then the next step is actually to think about how are you exposed to toxins. I don't want people to be fearful of toxins, but just think if you have mold in you house because that a big trigger. Are you constantly exposed Are you flattering yourself with all kinds of makeup in the morning and your skin cream and all of that?

Is that adding a load to your liver? And your dysrelationships. Do you have toxic relationships? Do have you toxic thoughts? Really starting to pick that apart and thinking, And then the third thing is diet. So you want to get the processed foods out and start eating more protein and fruits and vegetables and then think about supplements. Supplements are kind of like They're really helpful, but you need to understand the foundations first because they might not actually be helping that much or to the degree.

But although I would say one thing that really helps is salt, electrolytes, and magnesiums. That can be like a first step if you do want to start taking a supplement is doing a salt flush for a couple of weeks because we are kind of salt deficient. Salt and magnesium and potassium are really important electrolytes. So that would be kind the first one. And then think about a food-based multivitamin like a beef organ complex because they're food based and beef organs are one of the highest sources of riboflavin.

which is a workaround that your body can use. And then if you do okay with that, then you could switch to a multivitamin with a B complex. Can you tell us what is salt flush? Salt flush is where You just basically take eight ounces of water, add some unrefined salt, not table salt. Unrefined, salt and then you can flavor it up with like squeeze of lemon or lime. And then, you would drink that twice a day for a couple of weeks. Honestly, people feel so much more energized because we're just lacking salt we are afraid of it.

And actually, a lot of people are bloated because they don't have enough salt. We kind of have this paradigm, this opposite thought process about salt and yes, sometimes Some people's bodies don't tolerate salt, but that's something that you can just, it's inexpensive and you just do it and see how it affects you. You don' have to buy the expensive electrolyte powders. Just get some nice unrefined sea salt. It's a fourth of a teaspoon and eight ounces of water. I love that. And I loved that, you add some flavoring to it.

I use that sometimes too, which is very similar, but I love the idea of making it a little bit tastier with some lemon juice, so I loved that. Lime juice. I really like it with lime. It's kind of like a hint of a margarita or something. Oh yeah. That sounds amazing. Do you have any kind of guides for our community if they wanted to go a little bit deeper? Well, I have my free MTHFR guide, which you can get that by tapping the link in my profile on any of my channels. So Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.

So that would be the first step is get that free guide. And I go more into, you know, everything we just talked about and sort of like written down on paper. Then there's also, if you want to go deeper, I do have a MTHFR guide and meal plan, which you'll have to just send me a message if Perfect. And everybody watching, you can make sure you follow Lisa on her social media profiles to grab that. We're also going to put that in the show notes so that you could easily link that from the podcast. Before we jump into rapid fire questions, I wanted to ask real quick about where people can learn more about your work.

Yeah. So I'm at Lisa Health Joy. It's all one word, Lisa health joy.

Lifestyle foundations: breathing, toxins, diet, and electrolytes 38:08

on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. And I do have a website, but it's very basic. I don't have lots of blogs there, I'm gonna be putting most of my time and energy into my YouTube channel. It's more digestible if you're watching and learning and listen to it. So those are the four places you can find me. Amazing. Can't wait to check out your YouTube channel. I know I've been very excited about more of the long form conversations. I agree. I agreed. Part of what I wanted to do now is to a little bit of a rapid fire to ask you some questions.

One would be, is taking methylfolate the only solution to having an MTHFR variation? No. You could do glycine, trimethylglycines, or creatine before you try methyl folate. Thank you so much for that. Does everyone with an MTHFR variation have health problems? No, you usually have to be under a lot of stress and have a love toxins in your life. Great, thank you. So much. Do you have any wellness hacks that you just refuse to participate in? Yes, the cold plunging. I just don't think that's good for people with Mthfr because their symptoms are already dealing with a little stress.

And then you hold plunge and yeah, maybe it feels good. And it was brutal. And I actually did it in a cold, like a stream. I did in an icy cold river and it brutal and you do feel amazing afterwards, but I'll probably never do it again. I'm with you on that. I feel like women with thyroid conditions, we don't need another stressor like that, but I mean, yeah, I am with 100% on it. But I will not be doing any cold plunges. If anybody loves them, you do you. Also, am not a fan of bone broth hot chocolate.

That's just wrong. The most outlandish thing you've ever tried for your health? Um, handstands. I don't know where I stumbled across something about how hand stands could be really good for your nervous system. And I was doing that for a little while, but it's like, I dunno, it was too much. It did feel kind of cool and was like learning a new skill. But yeah, not very practical. That's kind of cool, though. I think I've heard worse. So supplement, you'll never give up. If the supplement police came to your house and they said you could keep just one of your supplements.

Okay. Can I keep my multivitamin? Is that too many? Yeah, I definitely do my multi-vitamin with... Well, i like selenium. It helps me in the B complex. What about do you have any like guilty pleasures that maybe are not like the most on brand for a wellness professional slash nutritionist? Yes, German chocolate cake. I don't know why, but if you go to a restaurant and you order that, they bring you out like this giant piece that can serve like five people. And I just devoured that. So full-on gluten, because I'm normally gluten-free, I'll eat that even if it's like traditional gluten flour, folic acid, everything, and then I will just pay for it for a couple days, like in my health and I just have to recover from it.

Yeah, I feel like we all have our things where it's like, you know, it is not like the healthiest, but sometimes it just you got to do it. I was on a flight the other day and I get, was stressed out because I like rushing from a connection to another connection and wasn't sure if I would make it so I'm like running across and hadn't eaten um I had a flight delay so I'm like okay and I got this bag of like Lays potato chips totally terrible for

Resources and rapid-fire wellness questions 42:08

you but I was like I need the salt right now and i just happened to see one of my um one my colleagues you know on that same flight and she's like Isabella I never thought I'd see you eating chips she was just like don't you specialize in like nutrition and Hey, well, I think if you take care of yourself, then you have margin for those things every once in a while because for the most part, you you're really like I'm pretty dead on like every day. I you know, i don't deviate from my good habits.

but then when I do, I'm like, well, i'll just get back on. You just test your detox capabilities, right? Do you have any like red flags that your body gives you when you know something is off where you're like I just really need to dial things in? Yes, cracked heels for me and they actually just flared up again and I was like something's going on with my liver and gallbladder. And for me, it had to do with some perimenopoies like low progesterone and fluctuating estrogen because that plays a big role.

And so I got on my bile salts. I started doing probiotics and putting beef tallow on heels. Then within a couple of days, they healed it up. I love that! I'm going to have to recommend that for whenever people ask me for what to do about cracked heels. That's amazing. I didn't know about this potential connection. Thank you for that. Yeah, you bet. It's been a lot of fun. Uh, thank you so much for taking the time to share your knowledge with us and everything that you've gone through from your personal experience.

And I think this will be an incredibly healing conversation for everybody listening that perhaps was dealing with MTHFR, liver gallbladder issues, thyroid issues as well as any kind of fatty liver. And hope we just take the fear level down on Mthfr too. Absolutely. For everybody listening, thank you so much for being here with us and hopefully this has been a healing conversation for you.