Vitamin C Forum

You and I, and everything that lives upon the face of the earth, are made primarily of organic molecules, which are strings of carbon atoms that are bound mostly to hydrogen, but are sometimes bound to other atoms, such as nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. A single carbon atom that attaches to such a molecule at one point and is otherwise bound only to hydrogen is known as a "methyl group." Methylation is the transfer of these methyl groups and is also known as one-carbon metabolism.

Most of your methylation is used to synthesize two molecules: creatine and phosphatidylcholine.

These are the key nutritional players in the methylation system:

o Methionine is an amino acid found in all proteins, but which is especially rich in animal products. After being activated using ATP, the fundamental energy currency of the cell, methionine becomes the universal methyl donor.

o Once activated methionine donates its methyl group, it becomes homocysteine. Homocysteine needs to be recycled back to methionine so methylation can continue, and homocysteine itself is thought to be harmful by contributing to cardiovascular disease.

o Vitamin B12 and folate (vitamin B9) recycle homocysteine back to methionine. They take the methyl group from the metabolism of amino acids that we get from dietary protein.

o Alternatively, betaine (trimethylglycine, TMG), which is mainly derived from choline, recycles homocysteine back to methionine.

o Several other B vitamins, mainly thiamin (vitaminB1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), and pyridoxine (vitamin B6), support B12 and folate in recycling methionine, even though they themselves are not methyl donors.

o Glycine is our buffer for excess methyl groups.

o A number of minerals are needed to support the enzymes involved in this system: iron, phosphorus, sulfur, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and possibly cobalt. Vitamin A is also needed to produce the enzyme involved in using glycine as a methyl buffer.

First, what does methylation really mean? It's the body's ability to receive, absorb, and assimilate key, critical nutrients that we get through healthy foods as well as from water we drink, water that touches our skin, sun exposure, and fresh, clean air.

When we take in a phytochemical, vitamin, mineral, or other nutrient, and our body alters is chemical structure to fit perfectly to what we need most. It's a process that breaks down, alters, and makes nutrients more bioactive so they can benefit us in a more profound way.

Mainly, methylation is a miraculous role that your liver plays - day in and day out, during both your waking and sleeping hours.

How does a methylatioh problem occur, and what happens when it does? As we touched on one of your liver's over 2,000 functions is the ability to change and covert nutrients to more usable available, bioidentical forms so you can get the most out of what you're eating to survive.

While medical research and science knw about the basic existence of methylation,, no one knows that in the methyation process, your liver takes "superfoods" to a whole new level, with your ileum playing a great role much of the time, creating supervitamins and other supernutrients from regular nutrients. This incredible chemical process that's accomplished by your body, not a science lab, makes nutrition so much more viable and easier for the rest of your body to use that it would be otherwise.

One vitamin that's critical to your body's ability to methylate many other nutrients is vitamin B12. In truth, the body relies on B12 for tens of thousands of daily functions.

The liver relies on this B vitamin and stores large quantities of it, delving into it continually as part of regular organ function. It also relies on B12 for a function the liver can perform when it's out of stock of essentials: the ability to produce trace amounts of certain nutrients and chemical compounds on its own... Your ... liver .. can only do this when it has the key ingredient, B12, in enough supply to send it .... When the liver is running low on all of the nutrients it needs, even B12, the precious glue that holds it all together..

This B12 is the liver's number-one most important mortar to hold together all the bricks that build the castle of your health.

That medical science has discovered [B12] is a triumph. That's where the progress stopped. ... There is so much more for the medical world to uncover about B12.

Besides its degrdataion, ASC can also be converted by several enzymes of the second phase of biotransformation. It can be conjugated with sulphate, phosphate, glucuroronic aicd or methyl groups at the second carbon.

The exact metabolic role of these derivative is not known, but they could serve as an easily accessible ASC source enlarging the available endogenous pool.