Welcome to Natural MD Radio, your place to hear the whole truth on health and medicine for women and children and get the tools you need to take back your health naturally starting now. I'm Dr. Aviva Ral. MTHFR.

So what the bleep is it?

If you've heard of MTHFR and have no idea what it is and feel like you should,

or if you've discovered you have this genetic change and are sort of shaking in your boots,

this podcast is going to help clear up your concerns and give you clear guidance on how to handle it for your best health.

If ever a gene is having its heyday, it's the MTHFR. I did a Facebook live on it a few weeks ago and it drew 20,000

views in two days. I get questions about this popular topic from most of my patients and emails about it all the time.

So if you're wondering what it is and what you should do, you're not alone.

I'm not quite sure how MTHFR became so famous.

It might be the humorous acronym,

which if you look at it long enough,

your brain might just fill in the missing letters.

Or more likely, the popularity of the 23 and me genetic testing and concerns about the very

real risks it can carry. Clearly there are a lot of questions about it and it's an important

gene with potentially significant

consequences for some of those who have it.

So in this recording I'm going to explain what MTHFR is, why it's important for your body, what it means if you have the genetic

change, whether and how to get tested if you don't know if you carry it, and what to do if you

do. Hopefully I'll dispel your worries because it's a very

manageable issue with straightforward prevention steps you can take. So first, what is MTHFR? The MTHFR gene provides the code for a specific set of instructions

your body uses to make an enzyme called ready, methylene tetrahydropholate reductase.

Yes, it's a mouthful, so we just call it MTHFR.

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