The Impact of MTHFR on Health and Wellness with Dr. Mark Pinsky

Transcript

Track 1: 0:21

The Healthy Simplified Podcast by ID Life. I'm Mark Bennett. I have the pleasure of having Dr. Mark Penske here with me today. Dr. Penske is, a very close friend, a member of our scientific medical advisory board. but most importantly brings a professional medical background to the discussion in this series that we have on MTHFR, which I think is pretty important considering the fact that what we're dealing with here is a genetic issue. it's a genetic, polymorphism is what we refer to it. but not necessarily something that they talk a lot about in med school or actually train on. it's basically doctors are kind of learning at the same time we're learning. And it's, it's kind of an interesting conversation that Mark and I are going to have, but, Vinci wants you, introduce yourself to the folks on the podcast.

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 1:14

Sure, Mark. It is a really an honor and a pleasure to be with you every time you and I get together. It's always very interesting and, and, I hope people find it entertaining. my name is Mark Pinsky, as you mentioned, I am a board certified family physician who did a fellowship in sports medicine, way back in, the high, the heyday of the Cleveland Indians in 1995. So, I came to, Melbourne, Florida, where I currently reside, and I practiced here for the last 28 years. Now. My practice has changed a lot over that period of time. I now run what everybody else would call a concierge practice, but I like to call it a personal health care model. We've done that for the last 10 years. That allows me to spend an incredible amount of time with patients. And so we get into very interesting conversations about health and wellness. Uh, and so this topic that you're talking about today is not a topic that I was very familiar with, even as of two years ago, we also run a fat loss clinic, which I'm very, very proud of. And so, yeah, so that's pretty much my background. you want to hear about my family, I can tell you about.

Track 1: 2:24

just mentioned something that I want to make sure, you know, me, I mean, when you and I have a get together, it's just like, Hey, you say something and like I trigger because words mean something to me. And you said a word, in, in your explanation of what it is you're doing that I think is important for people to understand. A lot of people out there that are searching for weight loss, You didn't use the term weight loss, you used the term fat loss, and I know it was intentional, so why don't we dig on that a little bit, and then we'll get into the family aspect, because I want people to understand the difference, because it's uber critical, especially when we're talking about medical science and where things are, that they understand that difference.

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 3:04

Well, yes, I mean, fat is the thing that kills people. It is not weight that kills people. You know, I could basically cut your arm off and get you to lose weight or have you starve yourself and go to a foreign country, you know, to do that. But the goal is, is to cut fat. It is fat that creates the predominance of disease here in America, whether it be cardiovascular disease or whether it be diabetes. And I personally believe a number of cancers have been linked, in fact, to visceral fat. So we, we pretty much want to change everybody's verbiage because when they stay focused on the scale in terms of weight. Uh, it is, they're missing exactly what they should be. I would tell people that they'll probably, in my program, maybe gain a little weight if they're doing the muscle mass thing the way they're supposed to. And then once the muscle mass thing slows down a little bit, right? Or maybe not, depending upon who you are, you'll start to kick in that fat if you use it as energy. And then you will start to. Lose quote unquote poundage. So Yes,

Track 1: 4:10

And one of the things that I talk about is a scale is a unit of measure. It's not a definition of who you are. if you want weight loss, you've come to the wrong place. If you want. Fat loss and muscle gain. Hey, you're actually in the right place. And if you don't understand the difference, you're most definitely in the right place, but that's a different conversation for a different day. We're not here for that today, why don't we tell the folks a little bit about your family, because, you know, it's always good for me to, only get to know my guests, but also understand their motivation and why it is they're doing what they do. And family is a big part of that for most people, especially you.

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 4:46

absolutely. You know, my family, means everything to me. I'm blessed to have a wonderful wife, Karen. I'm blessed to have three wonderful boys. So the oldest one being 25, who's a, commercial pilot for Delta now. Uh, so he's off, he's off daddy's payroll. That's it. That's fantastic. And then, and then I have two other boys. One is a 20 years old, who's a biomedical engineering major, at Florida tech here in Melbourne. And then the youngest one who you've had the privilege to get to know and we'll have the privilege to get to meet here at revolution is Michael who literally is my law guy. Who is going to go to law school, but not do law.

Track 1: 5:29

tell people all the time. Law.

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 5:31

If you, if have it your way, right.

Track 1: 5:35

you a good way to think.

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 5:39

And he's currently a sophomore here at a local high school. So, that that's, you know, pretty much my life. They keep me incredibly busy. and, you know, I'm truly, truly blessed. Karen is an amazing inspiration for me. She's, an incredible mom, an incredible wife and has been a huge supporter of everything that I've done in my career and, particularly with fat loss, which is her passion. Karen was a nationally ranked gymnast back in her heyday so this is something really she prides herself on keeping herself healthy, keeping other people, when she comes here in the office, pumping everybody up to do what they need to do for their fat loss journey. I could never do any of what I do sure.

Track 1: 6:25

both outputted our coverage in the people that we're married to. that goes without doubt. you know, you mentioned something

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 6:31

For sure.

Track 1: 6:32

I want to make sure everyone kind of understands what it is. you said that you've moved away from traditional medicine into what most people would call a concierge type practice or personalized practice. And in essence, what that is, is you've moved away from the insurance world and the, what, what pharmaceutical can I prescribe to you and you moved more towards a, Hey, did you know diet and lifestyle is why you're here in my office? because the reality is almost all disease is nutritionally based in some form. so let's talk about that transition. what was that motivation that got you from, Hey, traditional medicine, what they taught you in med school. You know, write your, you know, have your script, write all those things out. the six minute rule is, as I say, with physicians these days, I mean, you have six minutes to see and talk and move before the lights get turned off. Cause you can't afford them anymore. let's talk about what the transition was and what was that eyeopening moment for you?

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 7:25

So in, 2010, 2011, I started to realize I had nine staff people, and my overhead was just through the roof. I was working 16, 17 hour days. We had 4,000 patients. I still I spent a lot of time with patients, but I saw them over an exorbitant period of time through the day, and there was really no time to go. Oh, I started thinking to myself, oh my goodness, what did I miss today? I feel, I feel like I missed something that I know that somebody is going to get hurt because I didn't do something today., then to be very frank, it became very difficult to pay bills. we, if you wanted to continue to practice that model, we, we were having difficulty paying our overhead. And so I had to look for a different way to do it. I didn't want to go to a hospital based system because I knew that that was going to be the same churn and burn. It was going to even be worse. And, so I thought a lot, long and hard about doing to be a traveling doctor, but I still had young children at that time. And so that wasn't really an option for me. MDVIP come and knock on my door and say, Hey, we think that you'd be a good fit for this. And it's been an honor to be a part of that organization because less than 1 percent of all people that actually interview to do their, their. Yeah. Their practice or their style of practice actually make it, they usually don't pass the interview process or don't pass the rest of the process. It takes a very. Distinct way of thinking in order to practice the way I practice. you have to love people. You have to like to spend a lot of time with people. You have to be able to hear, no, I'm not going to do that a lot. And I take it personally. and you have to be able to talk to people from all walks of life who are at a different space in a different time. And to go in and out of rooms, you know, even if it's 30 minutes or an hour and a half apart. Sometimes that's a big challenge because people are in different places in their life and you're their quarterback. You are the person that literally runs the whole show and puts all of their goals together for the year, their dreams, what they would love to accomplish. And so, for me, it was a natural fit because I always believed as an osteopath, as a D. O., somebody who trained in preventative care, foundation up approach instead of getting the symptoms and then trying to chase the symptoms for the rest of their life. I wanted to be able to do prevention and I wanted to be able to, to help guide people in that. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound to cure. that, but that's brilliant to me. that's, that's how the philosophy.

Track 1: 10:00

MTHFR, again, not something that necessarily you probably heard about in, in med school. in fact, genetics was probably maybe a class that you heard something about, but probably didn't take, or if you did, it was very rudimentary at best. You know, it's kind of like, hey, parents, each one of them gives you, you know, one marker on each side. Here we go. because, you know,

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 10:20

right.

Track 1: 10:20

of my knowledge 11 years ago. and, you know, I've had to learn, I've had to educate myself, I've had to learn from a lot of smart people, and most importantly do a lot of listening. But one of the things that's interesting to me, especially for somebody like yourself, who's dealing with patients that I would say for the most part have pretty much tried everything else. I know in our conversations, you've told me, the people that you get coming to your office are the ones that have tried every pill, potion, lotion and everything, by the way, if you haven't seen our friend Ozympic, you heard me talk about that not too long ago where I was like, Hey guys, if you're doing this, be very careful you know, there's some kidney issues that come along with this apparently, but longterm use and things of that nature, typically these drugs, it takes, yeah. 5, 10, 15 years before you start seeing the lawsuits pop up, the commercials have already started on this stuff. I mean, because the damage is happening so quickly now that people are starting to learn, oh my goodness, yes, it, it does make me lose weight. Oh, you mean I need a kidney transplant or dialysis, or it's just, it's amazing to me, the, the issues and problems that we're already starting to see with people with that drug. But one of the things that we talked about in, in the pre, the pre podcast interview was that the prevalence that you're now starting to see of your patients, with MTHFR. So talk about how you got introduced to what MTHFR was, and how all of a sudden you had that light bulb moment of, hey, I wonder if my patients have these same issues.

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 11:50

So this is fascinating because, it's me eating a little bit of humble sauce. So a couple of years ago, when we were at live it up. our national conferences, conventions, we were out there and Paul Michelle was interviewing me. We did a whole panel and I was a part of the expert panel. Right. And I told Paul, I said, Hey, listen, Paul, do me a favor, please do not ask me any questions about the DNA kit. Because I haven't used a DNA kit. Now, mind you, I had done my own DNA in 2019, but I never looked at it. So that's the honest truth. And So from that moment on, I started really deep diving. So that's 2001. And I've never stopped deep diving. And I'm always amazed at how many different sources there are now. There's support groups for MTF, HFR. There's a ton of information. There's even. Famous podcasters doing MTHFR. It's been an eye opening experience, and the more I read, the more I learn. Now, from an own personal standpoint, it became very important for me because I found out that I have a, a variant on, C677T, which basically takes me down and doesn't allow me to detoxify by 30 to 40 percent, so it's heterozygous. I could even be higher because when I tested, they didn't do 1298C. So yes, I have been neglectful of checking my anti HFR kit, but let me tell you what I learned. This is what I learned. This is from my own personal experience. What I learned was when I started to do the detox. I started to realize how much I think this played a role in my life. Now, we're blessed in my family. We don't have a lot of cardiovascular disease, but I started to realize how much better I felt when I did this, so it started me on a deep dive into starting to talk to people in my office about DNA, about, you know, MTHFR, and how it might play a role, particularly those people who I was treating for cardiovascular disease, Not just for them, but for their families. I thought it was a very, very prudent thing for me to do. Well, it just so happens that, I'm doing this, I thought to myself, I'm changing the fat loss clinic and a huge part of that fat loss clinic is going to be. doing their DNA. And I will tell you, I've now tested well over 300 people, and I've seen statistics that say 50%. I think it's way higher than 50%. I've only had four people so far who don't. Have a variant of some kind.

Track 1: 14:42

out of 300.

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 14:43

So, yeah, so I'm shocked, you know, by the numbers. And so this prevalence has now led me to just not talk about people who are in the fat loss program, right? But to talk to people every single time I do a wellness. Hey, have we looked at your DNA? And, and it started really doing a deep dive to their history, which may make it even more important. So, without getting too crazy, I do B12s on everybody. I do Ds on everybody, right? And, and people who have known cardiovascular disease, um, you know, one could make the argument I should be doing homocysteine levels on those people, especially now. People didn't know what to do with it. So homocysteine level would come out high. They would say, congratulations, Joe, your homocysteine level's high. Chances are you're going to develop cardiovascular disease. Have a good day. That was it. Nobody knew what to do. But now, we definitely know what to do. altered B. So, but that's how I did it.

Track 1: 15:43

me right there. I mean, you gave me so many things, different rabbit holes. I've got to now fill up. I mean, it's crazy. I mean, cause you, you mentioned B12, vitamin D, homocysteine. All right, let's, let's roll this a little bit. Let's, let's back it up. somebody with MTHFR doesn't have the ability to truly metabolize folic acid, the synthetic form. as a result, it hangs around in the bloodstream. It's basically becomes a toxin. But one of the things it does do in a blood test is it masks a B12 deficiency. It literally mutes it out so that it looks like, hey, we don't have a B12 problem. So doctors like yourself move on to, okay, well, if it's not the B12, then it has to be. And then we start looking for the disease and condition diagnoses, and go down that path. And now we've started to give people medications and put them on treatment pathways are completely unrelated to the nutritional deficiencies that's actually the cause. You mentioned also, vitamin D. Is that, is that fair? You see a lot of the B's and D's deficient?

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 16:48

I think it's because I look for it, to be honest with you, Mark. I think most doctors don't look for it. some doctors are, it's getting more prevalent to do D because it's become more in the press, but very few doctors do B 12. one of the things that led me to do B 12 on a regular basis, almost got me thrown out of my residency was. I kept saying the workup of dementia involves a checking of B 12. So I always used to say, well, if we think that low B 12 has some kind of factor of risk for dementia, why aren't we checking B 12 on everybody? Why would we wait till you get demented to then check for B 12? It makes no sense. And so the answer I got in my residency was That's just the way we do it, doctor. You need to do it that way. That's what I got. And so, I stopped talking about that until I got out of my residency. Now I haven't stopped talking about that. Because I think it's truly important. And I think B12 affects so many aspects of your life. Neurological functioning, not just brain wise, but gait. It's super important for balance. And if you wait too long, it becomes too difficult, to get that neurological functioning back. it's one of those ticking time bombs that, I think just catches up to people. So doing that ahead of time. To me, was it was a big deal and vitamin D is sort of my passion for me, um, because vitamin D, I think leads it's an inflammatory thing. I really believe that vitamin D now they're proving how much of an inflammation marker really is and how much of a role it plays. Now, here's the thing, it goes in and out of focus, right? So the cardiologist will pick up on it because somebody will write a paper that says, hey. Taking vitamin D is good for you. And so for a couple of years, they'll give vitamin D like it's Skittles, then that goes out of favor. And then somebody else might pick it up. But those of us in primary care need to keep that in focus. um, I can say it, COVID, the bottom line was, vitamin D became very important because we started to learn what role it played in upper respiratory infections. So it definitely is, is one of those things that's gaining big time notoriety, and so I test for, I test for it on a regular basis.

Track 1: 19:08

the other thing that you mentioned was homocysteine, and a lot of people don't know what homocysteine is. So if you would, I wanted to give you kind of an opportunity to kind of explain to people, you know, what a high homocysteine level means, what, what that can actually lead to. I mean, I know I have a personal family history of, it seems like every relative I have, especially on my mother's side of the family, has some form of heart disease, has had heart attacks, has high blood pressure, all of them, all severe diabetics. I mean, it's just, it's an endless line of things. And I'm compound heterozygous MTHFR. So I got it on the 677 and the 1298. Yes, I got both mine tested. I'm a firm believer that all of my family history is tied directly to high homocysteine. So why don't you talk about why you actually are checking that now, because you actually now know what to do with it.

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 20:03

So homocysteine, as I've mentioned before, is an inflammation marker, but I think more than just being an inflammation marker, homocysteine is a specific inflammatory marker. It's what we call. leads to atherogenesis, right? It leads to plaque formation. And of course, plaque formation has multiple roles. It has a role in dementia. It has a role in stroke. It has a role in clotting on your legs deep, what we call DVTs. It has a role in heart attack. So this elevation of homocysteine is not a small thing. It occupies a huge population. And so without getting too much into the weeds about homocysteine, I think that's enough to get people interested in, hey, maybe this is something I should pay attention

Track 1: 20:48

my last

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 20:49

why I do it.

Track 1: 20:50

did with, Katie Giese, and she was talking about her personal story with MTHFR. She actually found out that she was homozygous 1298, had no idea, never knew it. she was 35 weeks into her third pregnancy and was dealing with deep vein thrombosis, pretty severe. and after she had the child had to be her own champion to educate the physicians and doctors that were helping treat her on her M. T. H. F. R. status and how it was leading to things and how it was all homocysteine based and how that's what they needed to. to basically monitor. And I mean, it was an interesting conversation about becoming her own health champion, if you will. So let's talk about that a bit because as a doctor, you can only tell people so much they have to actually be willing and wanting. to get the result. A lot of people will raise their hand and say, yes, I absolutely want to lose weight. That's what they want. So give me the pill, give me the potion, give me the lotion. Let me keep doing what I'm doing and get a different outcome. Einstein defined that as insanity, let's talk about you basically creating a bunch of patients that are their own health champions through education and information and how that's going about.

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 22:07

I mean, I think the whole goal for me is now we're creating it from generation to generation, right? Now I'm starting to make a bigger impact in multiple generations. Now I take care of three or four different generations at the same time. And sooner or later, talking about insanity, we have to do something different that's going to change. You know, we haven't changed the rate of spontaneous abortion in 70 years. It hasn't changed. It's still a third of all pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion. Well, let's do something different. Let's do something crazy, right? Let's like test and see how many of those people. And I think some of your better obese are doing that now. And so that's sort of the way I do it in my practice. I say, Hey, I know that you have a daughter. I know that you have a son. I think that this is important for them. Uh, to get tested. And so I try to encourage them to, to do, to do all of those tests. And, know, maybe, maybe now's a good time to talk about, I did have a specific patient that taught me. Um, if you, if you'll allow me just a couple of minutes to read that, I think it's pretty good.

Track 1: 23:17

I love

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 23:18

All right.

Track 1: 23:18

is the fact that you're humble enough to, to basically be very candid about the fact that, hey, you're learning at the same pace. A lot of us are. They don't teach nutrition in med school. And they sure as heck don't teach genetics in med school. So, people that are listening to this, I mean, part of the reason why we do these podcasts is to give people the education and information so you can be your own health champion. but you did tell me, kind of a pre podcast thing, that you actually did have a patient that gave you a pretty good education, so by all means, let's kind of hear her story.

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 23:48

she did. I'll give you her, I'll give you her story. and, and Sandy is a wonderful person who's 68 years old now. So the story goes back to 1994. She was a healthy 38 year old married mom. She had two teenagers. She never smoked, wasn't a drinker. She was very healthy, weighed 106 pounds, 5 foot 1, ran 10 miles a day. She worked as a bartender, loved that job. But one day she felt kind of this explosion in her head. Bottom line. She was diagnosed with a stroke at the age of 38. and so she wound up looking at some of the genetics because she made no sense to her. Now she was a very smart cookie'cause she's getting, she has her PhD so. She said she had terrific blood pressure, she was eating correctly, she didn't really know that she had any risk factors per se, although she said that her father did die at the age of 54, although his lifestyle was horrible, you know, he drank he smoked and he didn't watch what he ate, and he was, it was just a mess. She said, back and fast forwarding to 2004. After all that happened,, her oldest daughter was pregnant and had 7 miscarriages. 7. nobody said anything until she found an OB that actually was specialized in high risk pregnancies. and focused on MTHFR. He immediately tested her finding out that she was homozygous on 1298C and also had a mutation on C677. Not really exactly the kind of thing you want to have that right? correct. That is a miracle. And, I actually pointed that out to her, which she knows, and the reason she knows that, because at that time she was in her fourth year of graduate school in cellular and molecular biology. With a minor in genetics. Okay. And she said she knew what that meant. Even back then, like she knew that I was blessed to have a child that really shouldn't have ever been born.,and so she started to think and look back on some of her research and she has come up with the numbers. But she thinks that about 80 percent of the population is heterozygous, based on her research for an MTHFR mutation, which I find unbelievable, right? And so here's, this gets even crazier. She actually was electrocuted, right? She was electrocuted. She was lucky to survive that. Right. And she explained to her doctor that instead of giving her opioids and painkillers, that if she took L methylfolate, she felt it would really help her. And she could only get it by prescription at that time. Okay. So she now still takes L methylfolate every day. And feels amazing. And when you listen to these types of scenarios, it has to wake you up to say, okay, how much are we missing? How much could we really do? How many people's lives could we really impact if we just did a simple heat swap test? Right? So that's really what sparked these. It's these stories like this. It's doing my reading that has really sparked me to want to test people more and more for MTHFR. been a phenomenal ride couple of years.

Track 1: 27:14

to crowds of people and I'm, and I mentioned MTHFR and I talk about, Hey, it's the number one cause of miscarriage in this country. And it seems like every

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 27:22

Same thing.

Track 1: 27:23

talking about it, I will be surrounded by women who have gone through multiple miscarriages none of them have ever had a conversation with their doctor about MTHFR. It just wasn't part of the vernacular, it just wasn't taught. and as a result, I kind of liken it to the, what I'm going to call the geographic standard of care. You know, I mean, if you live in a major metropolitan area, or you live in a rural district, your standard of care for medical is vastly different because it's based upon the knowledge of the physician in the area. when we talk about become your own health champion, get the information. But, you know, when we're talking about MTHFR. One of the other areas that is becoming extremely prevalent, is the effect that the mutation has on hormone, hormone reaction or, or inaction, if you will, especially when we're talking about its impact, not just on estrogen and testosterone and things of that nature. No, I'm really talking about serotonin and epinephrine and, you know, norepinephrine and dopamine and all of the things that go along with it. specifically as it applies to what I'm just going to call mental health. I mean, mental health has become for the forefront of what a lot of people are dealing with, especially anxiety, depression, things of that nature MTHFR exacerbates those issues. So let's talk through that a little bit, because I know that's 1 of those taboo things that a lot of people don't want to talk about unless they're talking to their doctor in a closed door and HIPAA is involved. But the reality is we need to bring this to the forefront. So people understand, hey, they're not alone.

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 29:03

So another fascinating, I have a patient that came to me. New patient comes to me. And of course now I'm in the weeds of MTHFR. and she brings me her thing and she goes, well, Dr. Pinsky, I'm sure you've never heard of MTHFR. And I'm sure that you've never heard of L methylfolate, and I'm sure that you would think that I'm crazy for taking this because I have depression. And I looked at her and I go, no, I think that's fantastic. And she looked at me, she goes, really? And I said, yeah. And her psychiatrist, to his credit, in the middle of Kansas. Put her on L methylfolate. Now, I'm certainly not suggesting that for every depressed and anxious person on the planet, we put them on L methylfolate and say have a nice day. But I am suggesting that after, if we could just do something simple like that, maybe we lower their dose or maybe instead of them being on two different medications or three medications, maybe they're only on one medication. Right? We don't know. We have to do it anyway because it affects so many other systems. So only good can come out of it. And of course you're right. It is since 2020, it has been just really unbelievable. The amount of anxiety and depression, obviously for multiple reasons, right? just society in general has got a little kooky, and people are battling health issues. And so some of those things have created a new conversation regarding, Hey, have you ever heard? Let's look into it. I would encourage all the doctors it.

Track 1: 30:47

understands, we're not talking about, these things cure, treat, or diagnose these things. That's under no circumstance what we're alluding to here. What we are saying though, is that if you happen to have this MTHFR marker, These things are exacerbated by what I'm going to call a non aligned diet and lifestyle. and non alignment could just simply mean I'm not getting this nutrient in my diet, whatever that diet may be, when you're talking about, you've mentioned methyl folate several different times. And, you know, we, we know that since the 1950s, everything that is a grain. Okay. So that means it is a bread. It is a pasta. It, you know, all of those wonderful things, cereals are all been fortified. with folic acid. Why? Because the studies found that the U. S. had an extremely high infant death rate, and, and miscarriage rate mainly related to the lack of folic acid in, in the American, standard American diet. the federal government, in trying to do something positive, actually said, Hey, we're going to fortify all these things and mandated that it be fortified with folic acid. problem with that is for people with MTHFR, which there's a large population of those folks out there you don't metabolize it. In fact, it's actually toxic. doesn't necessarily fix the issue when you're talking about folic acid synthetic form, it's the inactive form. what we really want to get to is methyl folate, which is the active form of folic acid. It's getting it over to the area where we can actually use it. And It is a supplement based formula, but there's also other ways. There's diet modifications as well. I mean, we're talking dark green, leafy vegetables, lentils, beans, seeds, nuts, of these things that, the average person doesn't consume on a regular basis. As I say, if you get back to grandma's table, you're most likely going to be riding. Right in line with where you needed to be for purposes of your diet. Because you mentioned detoxification earlier, you know, I mean. Remember that the whole purpose of folate in the body is to help the methylation process. And one of the main functions of the methylation process is detoxification, get rid of things that we don't necessarily need. But let's talk about the lack of detoxification and things that come up. gut related issues and leaky gut and non alcoholic fatty liver disease and all these other wonderful things that we're starting to see prevalence of all over the place. let's talk a little bit about that and what happens,

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 33:16

So from my perspective, one of the big, I had terrible, quote unquote, irritable bowel syndrome, which has now been changed to leaky gut syndrome to me. It's just, it's the same thing, right? And so mine started, interestingly enough, when I went to medical school. I really thought I was dying. It was horrible, right? And of course, my nutritional intake was horrible. I didn't exercise at all, which is totally ironic, right? Because I'm going to be a doctor to teach people how to be healthy, but I was like destroying my own health. and I had that syndrome for many, many, many years until I started looking at some of the things about how food was processed. Right. And I started really looking at a lot of those things that for me might not be the best thing to do. So I methodically started cutting things out of my, out of my nutritional intake. And for me, it was turned out to be. whole grains, believe it or not. So anything with wheat or high levels of gluten in it really, really affected me. Interestingly enough, in 2016 when I was in Israel, I ate more pita because you can't go there and not eat pita. Like every meal has pita. So you get, you say no pita, you get two pita. That's just the way that works. And yet I had no gut issues. Nothing zero., so it led me to a deeper dive from my own perspective about what that meant. And so I encourage people to take their own dive because while the science is pretty good, the ability to Equate the science to you sometimes is not. And so I tell people to methodically take things and change things and put them out of the diet. So for example, I do start from my, for myself and my patients. I start with, Hey, okay, let's, let's cut out some of the whole grains. Let's cut out the bread, the rice, the pasta. Let's see what happens when you do that. Let's see what happens to your gut when you do that. For some people, it makes the world of difference, changes their life, and it's better. For some people,. I have to say, do you have a farm near you that does raw dairy or real dairy that's not processed? And there are some people that we have that here and, and they change that and they do phenomenally better. Right? So unfortunately to test for those things is very expensive to do testing for those things, to test for all of the particular different nutrients that we might have to do. Is, is very expensive and accuracy has been questioned. So instead of doing that, I just go through this methodical approach. And I've said to people and everybody on the fat loss program, if you really want to get healthy, you have to follow what I consider the most important steps to reestablish your metabolic rate, your metabolism. I want you to have a 20 year old's metabolism. that's what I'm shooting for. So a part of that is the big balance step, and a part of that balance step is detoxification. And so then I have to explain to them about why MTHFR is so important and how MTHFR and detoxification go together. Right. Understand that everything is related. As a DO, we never treat the gut different from the heart, different from the lungs. Right. We know that all of our systems are interrelated. And if one system is not right, the other systems can't possibly be totally right because they're always trying to compensate for that system. And of course, you and I share this. This vision about people understanding how important their gut health is. It's, it is the brain of your immune system. It controls, how well you function in life, how well everything functions. So for me, that's why detoxification was such an important deal. Dealing with all the major systems in your body. Dealing with your kidney. Dealing with your liver. Dealing with your gut. Especially if you have a significant MTHFR variant that doesn't allow you to do it. And, and it changed my life. I mean, it changed my life to be able to, to do those things on a regular basis. I don't have any gut issues. Now if I want to go and I go to a restaurant and I want to have some pasta, I can do it. I don't go crazy because I know that I'm going to pay a price if I do that, but I can do that. My body will tolerate it a little bit. I've trained my body to, to be healthy and low inflammation. So those are just some of the I've done in my practice.

Track 1: 38:03

about something that you brought up and it's something I've talked about in a prior podcast, but I think it's good to get your perspective on things. I'm trying to explain to people that there's a difference between a food allergy and a food sensitivity and what you basically are referring to and the effect that it was having on your https: otter. ai You're not allergic to grains and pasta, rice. You're not going to have anaphylaxis. You're not, you know, your throat's not going to swell shut. you're going to be miserable, you're going to be fatigued. Your body's not going to act right. You know, you may end up with what I refer to lovingly as the Hershey squirts. I mean, you're going to have all of these things that happen as a result of it. And really what it is is you don't have celiac disease. You're not allergic to gluten. What it is is you have a sensitivity to synthetic folic acid, and it was your body trying to tell you, Hey, dummy. I don't want this stuff. This is not good for us. Stop it. Stop giving this to me. And, the reason why it didn't affect you when you were in Israel and you were eating the pita, guess what they don't do over there? They don't fortify it with folic acid. So, everything's fine. That's why people don't understand. Hey, I go to France and I have all the cheese and all the breads. And why do I feel amazing? I come back here, do the same thing and I feel horrible. could be because of the way that it's made again. Be your own health champion. Understand what goes into things. Laura Brandt in our office is now like the sourdough queen. All of a sudden she's growing her own jar of this stuff. it's like, we all now have these sourdough things. It's funny how these things cycle their way back. I'm 52. I knew this. It was like, Oh, you're doing sourdough now. That's, that's so 1970s of

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 39:38

Uh

Track 1: 39:39

it's, it's fun because the reason why that became important is she, she got on this little track of, Hey, I'm going to start this sourdough thing. And I said, curious, these boards and things that you're now talking to people about these sourdough starters, how many of them talk about MTHFR? And she stopped for a second and she goes, let me go look. It was everywhere. Every single person that is doing this, you know, sourdough starter stuff is all basically saying, look, the reason why I'm doing this is because I know it doesn't have folic acid and I can still get the things that I like, the things that I enjoy, now I can do it and it doesn't make me feel bad. it's very, very common and very consistent with what you're basically trying to educate your patients on. But one of the things I want to do is, is I want to kind of give you an open mic moment because, you know, you, you now are seeing

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 40:33

oh.

Track 1: 40:33

a regular basis. I mean, you said high percentage of people that, you know, come into your office have MTHFR. I would probably argue that the reason why is because when you try, if you have MTHFR and you're trying everything that's out there, that is what I'm going to call the fad and it doesn't work, it's probably because it's not focused on the thing that is most important, which is how you were foundationally made. And as a result, most likely you probably have one of these variants because it doesn't matter how good you stick to one of these fads. If you have MTHFR, it's not going to work. and when you align your diet and lifestyle with your genetic makeup or what we call the foundation, then you get the results. But one of the things I want to do is give you kind of an open mic moment. If you could educate the public on one thing, Specifically with regard to MTHFR and what you've learned personally as well as professionally. What would that be? What would you want people to understand about it?

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 41:30

I would like people to understand that MTHFR is something that we should have known a long time ago. It's just a simple cheek swab. It's just going to take you about three to four weeks of something that could totally change your life. It could totally change your kids lives, their kids lives. It's a generational thing. And I think that I'm hoping that what we've done today is really gotten people to wake up and say, Hey, this is not my fault. I didn't know. But now that I know. That's this makes sense. This makes sense why I've tried everything and nothing's worked So now I have to do something different Not the latest fat which is based on somebody trying to sell you something and somebody trying to make profitability off you but rather because we want You to go out there and learn and learn things that you can then go and again, I'm big in helping people live life better and getting them to share their knowledge because I think that that's really what life is so much about, you know, passing it for paying you forward, getting people to understand their life could be so much better if they just did something simple. Right. And yes, doing your own deep dive. Right. And you're going to say to yourself, well, this is way out of my league. I can't do it. There are very simple explanations. MTHFR. You don't have to be me. You don't have to be Mark. You just have to know, hey, I know that this could be something important for me, and I need to find out how and what I could do To make things different and it's not going to be as complicated as you think the problem is you just didn't know before. So you just keep circling the wagon trying to find that magic potion that magic bullet. But it's it's really not that complicated. Because it just really, if you only remember, I need to have good folate, I need good folate, I don't need any junky stuff. So that is changing some of your nutritional stuff. And I'm a firm believer, unfortunately, and I've said this many, many times. If this were 1880, Mark and I would be having a totally different conversation. We'd have you go to your backyard, pick your fruits and vegetables, let's call it a day. Boom, done. But that's not what we have today, and unfortunately, we can try to eat as organic as we want. Very difficult to do. Very expensive to do. But we still need to fill in gaps. and filling in the gaps. You're not relying on a pill to cure you. You're relying on that pill to do what you can't get naturally, because unfortunately, unfortunately, society won't let you do that. Then you might have a shot at it. But, that's what I want people to know. I want people to know that this is super important for them, for their family. And it's correctable. very correctable.

Track 1: 44:47

you know, you, you mentioned it and you kind of talked about a little bit about it, but I want to make sure people understand when we're talking about that B12 deficiency that goes along with it, again, look for a good form of methylcobalamin, not cyanocobalamin, you know, the cyano stuff. Of which, just so you guys know, if your doctor says, Hey, I'm going to give you a B12 shot, ask the question, Is it methylcobalamin? If the answer is no, then guess what? You're about to get cyanide with a B12 and you're going to get the cyanide but not the B12 because you can't metabolize it. So, I mean, and I'm just being candid with folks. I mean, you have to be very, very careful. That's what the cyano is, by the way, if you didn't know, but I mean, be very, very

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 45:25

Yes. So, that's a number of humbly, another humbling experience for me, as I've shared with you, So I have B12 deficiency and I should not have it. Technically, right? But I do, because I have a huge MTHFR variant, so I have it. And so what was I doing? Because I am this great doctor, I was giving myself B12 injections of cyanocobalamin. And what happened? nothing.

Track 1: 45:52

where it was.

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 45:54

I felt awful. It stayed right where it was and I felt awful, right? So then started going into the deep dive and then started getting methylcobalamin and now my levels have climbed. I've done very, very well. I feel, I feel very, very good, but this is, this is all a part of the evolution of learning. be able to share that with people.

Track 1: 46:16

do appreciate everything you do, but one of the questions I have for you is you do volunteer your time for ID life. you know, you basically are a member of our scientific medical advisory board. you text me on a regular basis with all kinds of fun questions. Which, hey, I absolutely love because I love people that are curious and you are intellectually curious about a lot of things. And a lot of times what we're talking about is tough situations with patients that you have and you're like, Hey, I need to. I need help on this. You know, what, what could we be doing here? What could we do differently, to make ourselves better, which is important. But you're basically putting your credentials, your background, your reputation, in aligning them with ID life. what is it about ID life that attracted you? And why is it, do you want to associate yourself with the company?

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 47:06

Great is really a great question. As I've said many, many times, I am super proud to be a part of, of the Idealife family, been a part of that family now for four and a half years. I was not very active in the beginning. I'm sort of a, a skeptic is better. I wanted to do it myself. I wanted to do all my homework, then I enrolled it to my family. As I told you, I love my family, so I wasn't trying to kill them off. and then I started rolling to patients who started asking me questions about things that they had noticed physically about me and, you know, energy and emotionally about me. Things were just different. And so they asked me questions. And so we started to unroll it. But here's what would convince me that ID Life was the right family for me. I used to do quality control for a generic pharmaceutical company. Don't hurt me for that. but, but one of the things I learned was how important it was to maintain quality control. I've mentioned this to you, Mark, many times. I've said it in public forum. One of the things I think that ID life does not do. is they don't toot their own horn enough. The amount of science that goes into every bit of this product line is like nothing I have ever seen. And now, because I get a chance to really see on the inside, I know it. of testing, the amount of quality control, the amount of science, the good manufacturing practices that is of the highest standard that you can possibly get, nobody's going to do that. And to be able to customize and personalize what I give my patients in terms of their nutritional supplementation, bar none the best I've ever seen. and and I've, trust me, I still continue to look, not because I want to leave IV line, but because I want to make sure if I can pass that information along to you, I know you want to know that. You would want to know that so that you could do something a little different. But I know that I feel comfortable. My patients are comfortable. Patients are generally happy. Genuinely happy with ID. Life and ID. Life quality control and product. 95 percent of my patients never leave ID. Life, never. And those that say, Oh, I don't know if I got any benefit from that. Then they stop within a few months, come back. because then they recognize how much better they were on product, how much better the quality of life was not. It's not just about taking a pill or a shake or this or that, but it's incorporating that in everything that I taught them how to do. So for me, ID life has changed. You know, my practice life, it's changed my personal life, my family's lives. It's just been a real blessing, a blessing all the way around. And, when you have a chance to meet the Katie Giese's of the world, the Ziva Tars of the world, all these wonderful people, Paul, Michelle, all these amazing people who share a common theme and a common vision. That's what makes it truly special. It really does.

Track 1: 50:11

your time today.

dr--mark-pinsky_1_03-07-2024_165952: 50:12

My pleasure.

Track 1: 50:13

is, is a very near and dear topic to my personal heart. As you know, I know it is to you as well I just love getting the information out. Most importantly, I love the fact that you're willing to, humble yourself in certain areas where you're basically like, Hey, I'm learning too. my patients are teaching me as much as I'm teaching them. and we are all getting better because of it. Because at the end of the day, guys, we have to take control of our health. We have to be our own health champions. If you got nothing else from this series that we've done on MTHFR, that is the message. You know, basically learn what you need to know about yourself because we're all a little bit uniquely designed, hence ID life or the individual design life. But on behalf of ID life, this is Mark Bennett. I really do appreciate you being here on the podcast today. And until next time, I look forward to talking to you again, real soon.