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What is the best supplement for me? What potency is right? What does the research show? Is it worth the money? These and all of your other supplement questions are answered here. Jared St. Clair brings well researched information so that you can make more informed decisions regarding your health, specifically focused on how to effectively use natural supplements to optimize your health and Vitality. Of course supplement and food choices aren't the only factors in optimal health. Jared also shares a regular series of Emotional Vitality episodes that will help you release the negativity that may be holding you back and embrace your full potential. Vitality Radio is not JUST about health, it is about HEALTH FREEDOM. Jared provides needed insight into the current threats to your health as well as the threats coming from government agencies, pharmaceutical companies and modern medicine as a whole. With over 35 years of experience in the natural products world, and a hearty dose of wit and sarcasm, Vitality Radio isn't just educational but entertaining and enlightening.
Carrie Natural Factors
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[00:00:00]
Jared: Welcome to Vitality Radio. I'm your host each and every week. My name is Jared St. Clair, and I was, uh, I, I'm excited about a lot of stuff right now and I probably overuse the word excited on this show because I do two of these a week. I've been doing it for 15 years or something close to that now. And yet, I guess it's good that I'm still excited every time I get to do one.
I've got a guest on here today that, uh, I've gotten to know a little bit, especially over the last couple of months and have really had a good time talking to, she's a wealth of information. I'm really excited to bring her to you. But before I get into that, I wanna let you know a little bit about what we're gonna be talking about, um, because I think it's a topic that many people are.
Familiar with because they've actually got specific issues with it that they have become aware of, and in most cases, relatively recently, and other people that are listening right now. You may never have heard of [00:01:00] half the stuff we're gonna talk about, but it's really, really vital information for everybody listening.
So I'm really excited to talk about it. We're gonna talk about methylation. We're gonna talk about a gene called the M T H F R, uh, and the potential mutations of said gene. So if you're familiar with M T H F R a little bit, we'll talk about that. We're gonna talk about, uh, what a methylated b vitamin. Is versus a non methylated B vitamin.
We're gonna even talk about the recommended daily allowance and, uh, how our overlords, I mean, friends at the F d A and uh, C D C and all these people like to, uh, tell us. How to be healthy by giving us standards that don't help us be healthy. So we're gonna talk about all of that and more. My guest today is Carrie Patterson.
She is a practicing herbalist, a licensed acupuncturist, which by the way, I did not know that about Carrie, and I love acupuncture. I've had so [00:02:00] much success with it in my life, so I might have to, I might have to. Pick her brain on that a little bit too. She's also a trained home birth midwife, which is becoming very near and dear to my heart because, um, I'm having my first couple of grandbabies in the next, uh,
Carrie: my gosh.
Jared: and, uh, isn't that exciting? I haven't even introduced you yet, and you, and you're already excited. This
Carrie: Is that word exciting you? You threw it out there.
Jared: My son and his sweetheart have decided to do a home birth with a midwife, so this is very, very exciting. Uh, but uh, Carrie also, Is working on her doctorate in Integrative healthcare. Uh, she's a graduate of the National University of Natural Medicine, serves as the National edu educator for one of my very favorite brands.
And I don't say that because she's on the show. I say that because I absolutely love natural factors and, uh, sh Carrie is originally from rural Alaska, so that in and of itself is really, really cool. Anyway, without further ado, Carrie, welcome to Vitality
Carrie: Thank you so much for [00:03:00] having me. I am excited to have this first kind of foray into your listeners hearing me and our discussion and you know, and what will come in the future.
Jared: Well, I'll tell you, I was, uh, really excited to, uh, bring you on after I heard you actually do a training on collagen, uh, a while back, that you did four stores that, uh, sell your products. And, uh, of course I met you at, uh, expo West a couple of months ago where we were able to chat about a whole bunch of things as well.
And, uh, Clearly we are of a like mind in many areas and both seem to have a similar passion for educating on these things. So I'm really excited to talk about this and I'm really especially excited about the topic because I have told my listeners for some time now that this is gonna be a topic we're gonna do.
Carrie: We're here.
Jared: And I just had to find the right person to do it with. So we're gonna talk about M T H F R, [00:04:00] and the first question I have for you actually then is going to be, um, if we can just talk ba briefly about methylation and, and what that even
Carrie: Yeah, so methylation or I think in the world of B vitamins, customers are gonna see on the shelf. If you're shopping for your supplements, you're gonna see something that says coen made. Um, and methylation is a process that our body goes through to be able to add a methyl group. Literally, it's, it's a chemical process that's happening.
To help create new molecules that depending upon the situation, in this case, with B vitamins, it makes them more readily absorbed by the body. So with B-Vitamins, specifically, when we talk about coen, What happens is that our bodies actually are will, we will ingest B vitamin in some form or another, and it has to be activated through this methylation.
So it goes through a process on our body where it converts it [00:05:00] into its activated coenzyme form, and then once it's in that activated form, that's when our body utilizes the B vitamins and we cannot stress enough. The importance of B vitamins, right? There are so many health benefits that we know, um, do not happen without B vitamins in these coen consummated, these activated forms.
We're gonna see our cells working more efficiently. Um, we're gonna see energy metabolism, food metabolism. You know, there's a lot of reasons why B vitamins are essential. And necessary for us to supplement with. But when we talk about a methylated coen consummated version, we're talking about the active form that the body can just immediately utilize.
And when I think about why, you know, there's a lot of reasons why [00:06:00] somebody would want to choose a coen, summated B vitamin in, its ready. You know, standardized form there. Um, and you mentioned M T H F R, which I think is really fascinating, especially since there's so much more research and data coming out on it.
Um, cuz we're talking about it, we're finally having these, these questions and, and discussions around it. But at the end of the day, I look for things that I know are gonna provide enhanced bioavailability in the body across the board because. We're under so much environmental stress, you know, emotional stress, like our bodies are just ravaged every day.
And so if we can just utilize resources to get something that is just easier, easier for our bodies to absorb and utilize, I think is is really the the practical point of a coincided vitamin.
Jared: Absolutely. And I think there's, there's some interesting factors to keep in mind. You know, you mentioned the stress that we're under, and of [00:07:00] course the B vitamins themselves are known as stress vitamins, right? The vitamins that nourish the nervous system and help the nervous system, uh, handle the amount of stress that we're all under.
And of course, Some of us consider ourselves to be more high stress, uh, you know, from a personality standpoint or a lifestyle standpoint than others. I always tell people that, I'm not someone who generally feels a lot of anxiety. I have anxious moments and sometimes I even have anxious days, but generally speaking, things kinda roll off my back and I feel pretty good most of the time.
And yet I have to recognize that even though I may not be, uh, responding to the stressors that I'm under in with anxiety. I'm still under lots of stress. We're all under lots of stress, environmental stress, emotional stress, mental stress, physical stress, all of those things. And so nourishing the body with the things that help to fight stress always makes sense.
But one of the things that I think is really interesting is that we think a lot about. [00:08:00] You know, what we can get from our diets and versus what we can get from supplements, especially from people like you and I that sell supplements for a living, right? That's what we talk about. And of course, both of us, I know we had a little conversation prior to recording, believe that if we can get it from our food, we oughta get it from our food.
That's a, the source that makes the most sense. But when we look at B vitamins, uh, particularly folic acid or folate, uh, we have a little bit of a problem because in the, uh, you know, what's the word?
Carrie: history, the history of of, of the process of food manufacturing,
Jared: Yeah. To make things more efficient, to make things more shelf stable. To make things more
Carrie: the Wonder Bread era.
Jared: manufacture. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I grew up weird. I grew up with health food parents. We didn't do the Wonder Bread thing and I always thought I was neglected or something because I was eating whole, whole grain bread.[00:09:00]
But even the whole grains that we have, you know, to a large degree have been hybridized and beat up. And so nothing's what it once was. But what I think is fascinating is that. As you know, men will say, and of course this could be male or female, whatever, but as we as human beings have decided to that we can take science into our own hands and we can recreate the wheel.
We take all the nutrition out of food, and then we throw fake nutrition back into food and say, well, it's just as good. We're just gonna enrich that flour. We're gonna enrich that rice and everything's gonna be fine. And we enrich the. Heck outta stuff, especially with things like calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate and vitamin D two, which is synthetic of course, and folic acid.
And we see folic acid all over the place. And if we're not careful, We're getting lots of folic acid and folic acid itself as a synthetic. Some of us, especially if we're dealing with this M T H F R [00:10:00] mutation, don't do well on folic acid and it can create a lot more problems than it can, uh, cause so, or create solutions
Carrie: Yeah, and I think it's interesting to note that. So what we know is that we've got folate and folic acid, right? And they're both forms of vitamin B nine. The chemical structure is different in how it's utilized by the body, right? So we know that folate is the naturally occurring form of that is found in foods.
Um, but we're, I'm gonna. Go in a couple directions here. First I wanna step back and say the coen consummated process in the body, the body has to take that folate and it actually converts it to five methyl tetro hydro folate, right? Um, and so that's in its activated form. Folic acid is. Unable to be kind of transferred like that in it in the body.
So I've ironically been seeing, lately I've had two situations where people have come with blood work and they [00:11:00] have. Really high levels of vitamin B nine in their body. Um, which, you know, anytime we're out of balance, we're going to end up with a problem. So we, you know, an excess amount of B vitamins is also not healthy.
That being said, typically what we're gonna see with B vitamins is at their water soluble. So the body utilizes what it needs in the day and then, you know, this is where we can sometimes see that neon yellow urine thing happen from B Vitamins when we are. Um, eliminating the excess. I think that what we're starting to see is that this folic acid situation is building up in the body and it's causing problems that we haven't necessarily.
Um, taken the time to be forward thinking about, uh, and it's something where, yes, getting it in the food form, that activated food form versus this synthetic [00:12:00] form, I think is absolutely necessary, especially, uh, When we talk about the people who are missing the genetic capabilities of transferring some of these B vitamins, and this is really when we talk about folate and folic acid, the biggest thing that I know you and I wanna talk about,
Jared: Yeah, and there's a couple of things there, Carrie, that I'm curious because I don't know, uh, you know, what, how much research you've done on this. The research that I've done on this up to this point indicates to me that it's somewhere in the neighborhood of maybe 30 or maybe even 40% of Americans that are dealing with one or more of these mutations.
To the M T H FFR gene, which literally makes it, um, either, either impossible or near impossible to actually convert folic acid over to folate. And specifically the, the, the version of folate that the body can actually utilize and even, uh, Seneca Blu and B12 over to Methin. Um, is, are those the numbers[00:13:00]
Carrie: I am, and you know, it's interesting because I don't, I, I see anywhere between variances of 10 to 20% and then on up, right? So when we see these larger numbers, the 30 to 40%, I'm typically seeing those numbers come out of labs that are doing this genetic research. And so is there a little bit maybe of a.
Misrepresentation there because obviously people who think that they have this issue are, are getting tested, perhaps
Jared: So a higher percentage of those people would be
Carrie: be skewing the numbers a little bit. But even if we have roughly 15, 20% of the population, that is a significant amount of the population. And what's really fascinating is how much we have to look at the.
Variances in our geographical regions and our ethnic groups [00:14:00] that play a role in this, right? So we have two different, that the ones that we talk about, mainly we have C 6 7 70 T. This is one of the variations, um, in the M T H hfr. If somebody was to do this will show up like on a 23 and Me, if somebody does that, or if they're doing, you know, really specific genetic testing with their, with a practitioner, this is where you'll see, like that variation tends to show up.
And then another one that's called A 1 2 9 8 C. So what's fascinating is a C 6 7 70, variation, this is the one that we see in populations of European descent. That's really the thing, whereas this A 1 2 9 8 C variation.
We see this one in higher frequencies in Asians, so Chinese, Japanese, Korean populations. You don't necessarily see it in Europeans. Then now in our beautiful world of being a melting pot, [00:15:00] right? Somebody could get one of these genetic variations from their father who is a, you know, European, and then another one from their mother who is Korean.
And we are all of a sudden, I think that's where we're starting to see a lot of these higher numbers as the beauty of our world. Blending comes together.
Jared: Hmm. That's very interesting. I hadn't really, uh, gotten to that stage of, of research on this, but it makes perfect sense. So then here, here's, I think the. The big question. Well, there's a lot of big questions, but one of the questions I have then is if, if somebody listening right now is thinking, well, maybe, you know, I've read a little bit about the M T H F R thing.
Now I'm listening to you guys on Vitality radio and I'm curious about, you know, whether I have this thing or not. Uh, what are the, what are the ways that someone can actually confirm or that they do or they don't have, uh, one of these
Carrie: Yeah. I mean, I think really honestly, like what we're [00:16:00] looking at is, is doing. These, these testing methodologies, and this is where I l like the field of nutrigenomics is just, I mean, mind boggling how much more we are getting into it and we're finding things out. So like I can pretty much assume that me as a redhead I have this because it's, it tends to trend a little bit more in redheads.
That being said, you know, I did do genetic testing and I was like, oh. Okay. Yes, I know that I have this snp, so I know what this means is that I am not converting folic acid. I have to be taking, you know, that five M T H F version, the active form of folate, and we think about folate. So much more for women of the childbearing age, right?
Cuz this is about neural T tube defects and things like that. But [00:17:00] actually it's actively involved in a lot of other processes in our body. Um, and so we can't forget what's happening with. With men as well with it. Um, so, you know, getting all of the ability to help with tissue regeneration after wounds, um, helps produce d n A and red blood cells, you know, and it's partnered with vitamin b12, which is another one that I.
Really strongly feel like everybody just needs to be taking this in the coen summated form. And since we were talking about food, right? Um, especially people who are vegans or vegetarians, it is a necessity to be supplementing with B12 because the source of B12 in our diets, Is meat products. And it's interesting because b12, out of all [00:18:00] these others I were saying, you know earlier, they're water soluble, so we're gonna use what we need during the day.
B12 does hang around a little bit so we can actually have some storage of B12 in the body. And I have seen this clinically time after time where somebody comes in and then all of a sudden they're like, I don't know what's going on. There's this black cloud over my head. Like, all of a sudden my mental health, like, you know, has rapidly shifted and changed, helped me, and we start talking about it and I say, you know, lo, we need to talk about what's, what changes you've made in your, in your diet lately.
And they're like, oh, I decided to become a vegetarian two months ago. And I'm like, aha. You know, give some funny some b12. The entire crisis around mental health in our elder, our aging and elderly populations. I mean, we know as we age, our ability to convert some of these B vitamins is actually. More challenging.
B12 is such a perfect example of this. There's a couple of things that need [00:19:00] to happen in order for us to be able to absorb B12 in any of its forms. A, we have to have intrinsic factor that is produced in our stomach. And B, there's about two to three inches in our small intestine that actually absorbs b12.
So you know, I have a patient that had a bowel resection, literally doesn't have those two to three inches left anymore. And Western medicine, none of his physicians said. We need to make sure that you are supplementing with v12. Like it just wasn't even a thought process. Right. Um, and as we age, intrinsic factor decreases significantly.
So it's fascinating to me getting methylcobalamin, right, this activated form of V12 into the hands of, of somebody who is aging and, and struggling with their mental health, and all of a sudden they have energy, they're happy. Like it's, it's basic. You know, it's basic nutrition, um, and oh my gosh, we should definitely [00:20:00] talk about the whole r d A thing.
Right now. I feel like this is a good segue into that RDA situation.
Jared: For sure. Before we get into that though, I do want to, uh, clarify a couple of things for people. One of the things that I really try and do on Vitality Radio is help people become better consumers of natural products by understanding, you know, what the label means, uh, what the supplement facts, uh, mean, and why it matters and all this kind of stuff.
So let's just quickly before we get into rda, because this is. Also, we'll roll right into that. Uh, when someone's looking at the back of a B12 bottle, there's a few things for that they can potentially be looking at. Uh, first off, under the supplement facts you're gonna have, it's gonna say b12 and then usually in parentheses it'll say the form of b12.
And the most common form through the years has been kabak. I don't know that it's as common anymore now because there's been so much education on the methylated form. We're seeing more and more of that, but there are still cyan, kabam and products on the market, and there are methylcobalamin products on the market.
Do you wanna just touch on that really quick and what's the difference in why somebody wants the [00:21:00] methyl versus
Carrie: Yeah, so methylcobalamin is going to be that activated form, right? So we know that in the body, um, as that conversion is happening, we are pulling, we, we started out with this methylation, right? We're pulling that methyl factor into it. So this is where we have research now showing us, Hey, this is actually the form that the body is, is.
Utilizing more efficiently, um, as opposed to the, um, Siano. Cobalamin. Um, and I think we also can talk about sourcing too, right? So what we know is that methyl cobalamin is the naturally occurring form that we get in food. Food as medicine siano cobain, similar to what you were just talking about with folic acid.
This is the synthetic form that's been created in a lab. [00:22:00] Um, and you know, it's, it's fascinating because I have a, I have a friend who has a PhD in chemistry from uc, Berkeley. And so we get into big discussions around this cuz you know, his is like, oh, The chemical structure is the same, it does not matter.
And I'm like, absolutely not. The body knows that there's a difference, like what I was saying, I'm, I'm seeing these high levels of B nine, this, you know, folic acid situation. Whereas if it was in its food folate form, I don't think we'd see that. I don't think we'd see that at all. Um, so, you know, it's another situation to discuss, especially with b12 since we do know it hangs out a little bit.
But if it's hanging out and it's in this form that the body is says, I kind of think it's like the evil twin versus the good twin, right? Yeah,
Jared: Yeah, so you can kind of err on the side of a little bit more as opposed to a little bit less with
Carrie: Because you know, you think about like if we, if we [00:23:00] overdose on a nutrient in our food, our body knows what to do with it. If we overdose with something that's synthetic that our body doesn't quite recognize, It's not going to know how to, how to deal with it. Um, I think vitamin A is such a perfect example of this, right?
Vitamin A we know at certain levels is actually toxic, and that is a hundred percent the synthetic vitamin A versus a food-based vitamin A, which you will never, ever have any sort of of issue with, you know, taking too much and having it become, um, toxic.
Jared: Right. So then the other thing that you mentioned though, that I think we, uh, we need to make sure is clear for people is that, uh, we have this, this little bit of the intestinal tract that can handle B12 couple inches and then you've got intrinsic factor in the gut. But most B12 now, um, thankfully, is, uh, known as, uh, either a sublingual or a lozenge [00:24:00] form.
Something you're gonna throw in the mouth
Carrie: you go get a shot.
Jared: in the mouth and. Yeah. Or you can get a, you can get a shot. Now the question, there's a couple questions with that. I do have people, and, and I always give the same answer, but I have people ask all the time, why can't I just take this in a pill?
Why do I need it in a, you know, in a sublingual? So I want you to touch on that, but also I'm curious what your thoughts are on the shots, because I'm not exactly sure. When you do a B12 shot, are they using a methylated form generally, or is it a cyan ballman,
Carrie: I don't know. I think it probably depends on who's doing it. And, um, it's a really great question. I, I have no idea.
Jared: I think it's a question that needs to be asked to whoever's giving you the shot, right? To make sure you're getting the right form. I have to assume you can get either one, but I'm not sure what forms are actually, you know, typically used. But you would want the methylated form because here's the thing too that I think people sometimes have a little bit of a trouble wrapping their heads around.
There's a difference between being able to digest something and being able to
Carrie: absorb and utilize it.
Jared: the cellular [00:25:00] level, right? And so we, we bypass to some degree the, the digestive process. When we do a, an oral lozenge, we bypass it completely when we do an injection, but if it's not the methylated form, it doesn't really matter that much because we're still not gonna get much out of it at the actual
Carrie: Yeah, no, exactly. A hundred percent. So, you know, I think about sublingual are, especially with, with the ser ones like fol, folate, and, and methylcobalamin, b12. These are absolutely ones that I will have people supplement with Sublingually if we know that there is a concern or an issue, right? We know that they have, I mean, long-term deficiency in b12.
It leads to brain chemistry loss that cannot be repaired, like literally. This is something that I, I talk to people about [00:26:00] long-term, um, alcohol abuse and how people, they lose mental capabilities of memory and things like that, and it's because alcohol consumption actually, Uses up significant amount of our B vitamins and if we're not supplementing with it, you know, here's another thing about just our world and our society today, but I think about, like I talked about that patient who had that bowel resection, right?
So like I know he is missing that space. He's going to have to either do a shot or a sublingual and um, I think a sublingual is just so much more convenient. You know, you can go into your local health food store, you can grab it daily.
Jared: or
Carrie: Yep, exactly. Um, and you know, and it's not going to, to hurt you in, in any way with that, with that activated form.
Um, But yeah, I mean now I'm, now I'm really curious to go back and start talking to people about the shot. Cuz I really think that if you are getting significant, you know, if you're getting 20000% of your R D A and [00:27:00] it's in a synthetic version that the body is not utilizing efficiently, then that's, that is a discussion to have.
It goes back to this chemistry thing and no, it's not the same. The body is, body knows if it's coming from. Egg versus coming from a petrochemical source in a lab.
Jared: Right. Well, and, and of course that would also, uh, depend a lot on the individual and whether or not they're dealing with those mutations because they can handle, we know that people that don't deal with mutation can convert a certain percentage of the CCO ballin effectively. It's not that cyco ballin is completely.
Ineffective, but it, it can be very ineffective for people that, uh, don't handle it well and it's never going to be as effective as the methyl formm for anybody. Uh, and so we always have to keep that in mind. So then you mentioned the R D A and the R D A with B vitamins is really funny, right? Let's an example I always like to use for people because I think it's, it's kind of [00:28:00] simple.
It's one vitamin that we look at. Um, we, we found that, For years, the R D A on vitamin C was 60 milligrams. Right? And now it's 90. The, the FDA and their infinite wisdom decided that we could use 50% more vitamin C. Now we can handle 90 milligrams. But how many 90 milligram vitamin C supplements are on the market?
Right. They're all 500, a thousand,
Carrie: the reality of that is these numbers that's 60 and even the 90 I, you know, I know we've changed it a little bit. Um, but we have so many other nutrients that these numbers were picked out of thin air in the fifties, sixties and seventies when we did not have any research in data. And, you know, we still have some nutrients that they aren't even sure what an R D A would be.
So just remembering what R D A means. This is the amount that your body means every day in order to simply prevent nutrient deficiency diseases. So [00:29:00] that 90 milligrams of vitamin C, congratulations, Jared. You're not gonna have scurvy, you know, so I always say like a hundred percent of your vitamin D.
You're not gonna have rickets, but it is not about thriving. It's not about being successful. You know, we have 37,000 billion, billion enzymatic chemical reactions that place take place in our body every single second. That's 37 with 21 zeros behind it. So we were talking about these B-vitamins, going through these enzymatic chemical reactions.
Well, if we don't have the nutrients that our bodies need to. Go through these conversions, then that is a significant part of our body that these reactions are not taking place and we are not thriving. In fact, we're gonna end up seeing long-term damage. Maybe end up with scurvy. I don't know. But that's where like I, this is like a tip for people.
If you [00:30:00] ever pick up a supplement and you see it's a hundred percent of everything run. Right? Like don't,
Jared: that's probably
Carrie: do not waste your money on it. That is absolutely not going to meet the requirements of what is a practical level. So B12 is such a perfect example of this. I, um, I have it right here. Uh, the r d A on B12 is.
Three micrograms. I always go with optimal daily intake. That's what we talk about in the new world of nutrition. What is the optimal daily intake? We go from three micrograms to the optimal daily intake being 100 to 500 micrograms. That is a huge difference. And if we're only getting three in, we are not, we're literally just bare bones.
Maybe not even bare bones if this was a number that was created in the fifties. And our environment is so different now as far as the [00:31:00] amount of stress that we're under. Um, Even good stress. Right? We forget that good stress does this too. One of my favorite things to do is go on roller coasters. You know?
It's like I get a, such a thrill out of this, but I always use that as an example of that's a, that's a good stress. I'm enjoying myself, but my bodies, my cells are like,
Jared: But you're
Carrie: what the, this is not normal.
Jared: Yes. Yeah, I love a great rollercoaster. I'm right there with you. So it, this is an interesting thing though, because a lot of people when they're talking to their doctor, um, are going to hear words similar to this. Oh, you don't need to take a, a vitamin because you're getting plenty of that in your food.
And if you're looking at the R D A, they're probably telling a, a true story. In most cases. It's not that hard to get plenty of that. In your food, if plenty of that is equal to the R D a, I mean, a bowl of total will give you plenty of that, right? Uh, but [00:32:00] when we're talking about optimal, there's a big difference.
You know, I always go back to the Princess Bride. There's a difference between completely dead and mostly dead. Right? Well, there's a com also a difference between mostly dead and fully alive.
Carrie: I
Jared: And the optimal daily allowance is more of the fully alive thing, cuz if you're feeling brain fog and fatigue and you know lethargic all the time and having a hard time putting thoughts together and maybe you're not sleeping well and you don't cope with stress.
Yeah. Your wounds aren't healing.
Carrie: some of these basic things,
Jared: many different indicators of things that you can look at and say, well, I'm not. Fully healthy. I'm not optimally living life. So then there's probably something missing there. And in many cases it's something missing. In other cases, maybe there's a toxicity there as well.
And, and, and I don't wanna escape past this, uh, either if you are suspect. Expecting that maybe you're dealing with, uh, the M T H F R mutation and you're not handling that well, um, then you need to look [00:33:00] at how much folic acid is being put into your food as well, which means you're looking at pretty much anything made out of grain.
Uh, because enriched flour, enriched rice, uh, these types of things are gonna have folic acid in them. If you're eating two or three servings or four servings of that per day, you're getting a bunch of folic acid, which your body can't convert, and which will. Become toxic and create issues for you. And that's one way that I've told people, uh, Carrie, and you can correct me if, if you think I'm wrong here, but I've said, if you're not, you know, if you're not at the point of, you know, looking at genetic testing or extensive blood testing or things like that, but you're curious about this, one thing you can do is just eliminate as much folic acid outta your diet as you can add folate.
Methylate and see how you feel. And if you say, oh my gosh, I feel so much better, there's a pretty good chance you fall into that group of people that just simply isn't methylating
Carrie: I think that's actually a very practical, right when I always wanna walk away with practical ways that we can check this out. And I think that that one is [00:34:00] absolutely, absolutely accurate. It's fascinating to me how many, um, uh, the percentage of people that actually have folate deficiencies. Um, and it is, Uh, you know, we, we have, oh my gosh.
Let's see. I'm, I'm trying to think about, um, What that percentage was. I think it's like 4% of the pregnancies in the United States that is have have some sort of folate deficiency situation that happens and it's like a third around the world. So this is something that is not, I don't want, I wanna mention for, for ladies of childbearing years out there.
You can't just go, oh, I'm pregnant, and then go and grab folate. You actually have to be supplementing with it. You have to have these optimal levels in your body way before you get pregnant. Um, because this is not something like we were just [00:35:00] talking about, that you're gonna be able to just fix on a dime, right?
If we're significantly lacking in nutrients of any kind, I always love it when I give. B vitamins, or I should say I, I have this like thing with my pregnant moms, right? Where they come in and they're like, oh, my hair, my skin, my nails, oh, everything. I have so much energy, like pregnancy agrees with me. I should be pregnant all the time.
I'm like, okay, well, except that. Everything that you just described to me has nothing to do with that little parasite inside of you that has to do with the fact that this is the first time in your life that you've cared about what you're putting into your body. You are supplementing appropriately.
You're getting that multivitamin. You're focused on what foods you're putting in. You know, you could be feeling like this all the time. You should be feeling like this all the time. So I love it when we give somebody. A B vitamin complex that is in this coen consummated form and they come back and they're like, oh my [00:36:00] gosh, I've been taking B vitamins.
You know, it's kind of just, you know, standard. You go into a health food store, they're gonna be like, make sure you get your B vitamins. And things shift and change for them when they take it in these activated forms that their body is able to immediately utilize. Right. Um,
Jared: Yeah, absolutely. And, and, and that brings me to a, a, a great question about prenatal vitamins for women who are, uh, either planning to conceive or already have conceived, um, when you said, you know, avoid vitamins that say a hundred percent all the way down the line, your symptoms of the world and things like that.
But what about if your prenatal vitamin has
Carrie: Yeah. So you wanna see something that says five dash mt. Hf? I think there's a couple of other, um, ways that we could call this. Um, so, but look for that activated.
Jared: yeah, it's gonna generally be methylated in some way and it's
Carrie: See, look for that [00:37:00] word methyl. I think this is a really great kind of trick is look, even if you don't see what you're looking for, look for something that says methyl on it, because you know that that's already been methylated, it's already gone through that conversion process in the body.
Um, there are some B vitamins like, uh, B seven. It does not need to be Coen Summated because it's already in its active form when confirm, you know? So like there,
Jared: And that's, that's gonna
Carrie: be the biotin. Yep. So, you know, so there are, this is where you, what you do is you go into your local whole food store where they have vetted these products for you and you know that what you're gonna be getting from them is gonna be these quality.
I also wanna see transparency, right? I don't wanna just pick it up and have it turn on the back and say B six, it needs to say what it's
Jared: So let's do this really quick. I think this will be a good and [00:38:00] useful exercise for people listening. So you, you folks at Natural Factors have a product called Active B. Um, the Active B complex. It's actually our best selling bee complex at Vitality. And if we walk down the list, it's very, it's very interesting to look at how these things are labeled.
First, let's just talk about daily value. You've got 2500% of thiamin, you've got almost 800% of riboflavin, which is b2. You've got 600% of niacin, you've got almost 1500% of b6. You've got 170% of folate, 20000% of vitamin b12, 800% of biotin, 2000% of pantothenic acid. So all these beef vitamins that are in there are seem to, uh, I guess the.
Uninitiated to be super high. Right? And of course the range is all over the place cuz you literally have one that's just a little over a hundred percent at 170 with the folate and one [00:39:00] that's way over a hundred percent with the B12 at 20,000. Um, why carry does natural factors choose to put higher amounts across the board, but some way higher than others?
I have my suspicions, but I'd like to hear it from your,
Carrie: Well, I mean, first we can go back to what we were talking about earlier regarding the R D A and b12, right? If the R d A is three micrograms, but optimal daily intake is 100 to 500 micrograms, that's where you're gonna always add natural factors are focus is optimal. Levels, right? So we wanna make sure that we are feeding those 37,000 billion, billion enzymatic chemical reactions every day.
I also love how much of a science focused company we are. There's so much more that happens regarding research and um, having to pay attention to actual levels of nutrients that are. Clinically proven up in Canada. So, you know, [00:40:00] we do manufacture here in the United States, but knowing that we originally were, uh, and are a Canadian company where just the rules around nutrients up there are very different and I oftentimes go, okay, maybe this is, this is what we should be looking at.
So I know that there's a lot of thought process around. Things change. Right. I know you've been, you've been with, um, natural factors for so long now that you see bottles show up and you're like, oh, the supplement facts has changed and it's because there's a new study out or we know a little bit more information about something.
We are currently one of the coolest things I just learned, and I don't know how. Any more information other than we are growing hepatic and neuro cells in our labs to do toxicity testing with our supplements. So yeah, so that's another really cool thing when we think about B vitamins, like I was saying, you know these people that are showing up where they're probably reaching [00:41:00] toxic levels of the B nine and things like that.
So knowing that there's kind of these behind the scenes, Situations. Um, but I always, always, always wanna go for looking at optimal levels of nutrients.
Jared: There's one other thing I wanna throw out there, and I'm curious your opinion on this too. And we are getting, we have about 10 minutes, so we're gonna have to go a little fast here. Um, but, uh, there is a certain amount of, we have to throw a, a, a. A bunch of stuff at the wall and a certain amount of it's gonna stick, right?
Uh, these are a water soluble nutrients, so they can be kind of in and out pretty quickly. Uh, and b uh, we do have, uh, limited, nothing that we eat is fully
Carrie: Yeah.
Jared: right? So if we take a supplement that has, you know, 5,000 times the R d A, we're not absorbing all 5,000. Percent. Uh, we're absorbing a percentage of that.
And unfortunately, I've had lots of customers over the years say, I have very expensive urine shopping here. Right? [00:42:00] Um, there is some truth in that, right? There's some of that stuff. Eventually all of it's gonna leave, right? Uh, but some of it leaves right away. Our, our multivitamin, our number one selling multivitamin is the Ultimate Vitality Multi, which has the methylated B vitamins in it and has.
Substantially higher than the r d A in there. And people, uh, give me a hard time about, you know, how they don't have to turn on their life in the bathroom at night because it glows and, you know, and so we have these things, but we are literally throwing more than we probably need at the body, knowing that a percentage of that is going to stick and is, is gonna be what actually gives us the nutrition
Carrie: malabsorption issues across the board. I don't know anybody that actually has, you know, a fully functioning gut anymore. So a lot of gastrointestinal disorder disorders, metabolic disorders. Um, and we have to also think about, you know, I think one of the things that we don't discuss is how chronic illnesses, uh, [00:43:00] There are certain medication groups that actually will decrease our B vitamin, um, rates in our body.
So we have to, we have to balance that out. We have to recalculate what is it that we're gonna need to. Take these other things into consideration. So it, I mean, you know, one of the biggest ones, ironically, uh, B6 levels tend to be lowered with oral contraceptives. So, you know, this is like something where it seems a little backwards that we're, we're doing these things, but there are some just life, life processes where we know we need to.
Have, have more. And really, honestly, yeah, if we do not have proper enzyme production in our gut, like it all goes back to the gut. Jared, forever and ever and ever.
Jared: Always. Always. Yep. So then let's talk, uh, for, for people that are trying to [00:44:00] figure this out and wondering, you know, well, what b b vitamins should I take or should I take B vitamins at all? Whatever. Uh, one thing that is important to understand is that most multivitamins, and, and, and I'll say I'll, I always.
Throw this word in front of multivitamins, most good multivitamins, cuz there's a whole lot of not so good ones out there. Um, you know, you folks have, one of my favorite brands is a whole earth and sea brand of, of food-based multivitamins. They're gonna have a big B complex in them. Right. The Ultimate Vitality Multi that I developed has a big B complex in there.
So for a lot of people, you're gonna get enough B complex right there. When would you say, Carrie, that someone should consider potentially adding additional B vitamins above and beyond a multi, or if they're not taking a multi, when would they want to
Carrie: we know that we are consistently under significant levels of stress, if we know so
Jared: Oh, so everybody?
Carrie: if we know we have a gastrointestinal issue, everybody right? If we know we're living in a toxic [00:45:00] soup, And our, and our livers are barely able to keep up with trying to, you know, get rid of fi, phyto, zino estrogens, and, you know, all these things.
Everybody. Right. Um, everybody, I do not think that it's a problem at all to be supplementing with these co consummated bees, plus having what you have in your multivitamin, and I will oftentimes t suggest, you know, take 'em at different times of the day. Right. Um, some people find that they can't take B vitamins later in the evening because it does really.
So for people who are severely deficient, when they first start taking B vitamins, they're gonna notice. The energy shift and change. I think people who, you know, have been taking them for a while, they don't see that right? Because it, there wasn't that massive deficiency. Um, but that definitely is something where I'd be like, you know, well take your multivitamin with your breakfast and take, you know, the B complex [00:46:00] with your lunch, kind of help you get through that afternoon.
I think that that's a really kind of nice, nice, practical way to think about it.
Jared: Well, and I tell people too, Carrie, uh, that B vitamins, if you're, if you are very deficient, are very experiential, you
Carrie: is that, um, what is it, that 12 hour energy shot or whatever. Um, all that is is highly concentrated synthetic B vitamins that are getting people this like massive big jolt of energy and it's probably because they're insanely deficient.
Jared: Yeah. That's what makes it different from a cup of coffee or something like that is it's cuz it does have caffeine in it, right? But most people are kind of, Caffeine is iffy for a lot of people cuz most of us consume so much of it. But then you, yeah, you throw a whole bunch of B12 in there and all of a sudden people can feel it.
And, and there is a reason why some people really like those shots and maybe it's not just the caffeine. I actually really like that point. So, uh, what about individual B vitamins? Uh, there are, there are some [00:47:00] really important ones. They all do different things. I mean, they're all important, right? They're all required nutrients that we.
That we need. We've talked a fair amount about B12 and, and folate, and I will mention that if you're looking at energy specifically, B12 is generally the most experiential for most people You have in your line, natural factors. You have 500 micrograms of B12 in the active B complex, which people can take, you know, one or two a day or whatever they feel they need.
Um, but you also have a thousand microgram, a 5,000 microgram, and even a 10,000 microgram. Now we're talking about. Way big amounts compared to r d A, who would be want to consider something in that high of a level, uh, of the
Carrie: anybody who is a vegan or a vegetarian. Um, yeah, so that is, uh, is one. I, I mean, we talked about aging populations, right? So I think that that's another one where we're going to systematically step up. Um, I have, uh, some, you know, where [00:48:00] maybe they're not doing it every day since, since. The methyl cobain, um, B12 is actually, can be stored in the liver, unlike other B vitamins we talked about for just not that long, but it does hang out a little bit.
So maybe somebody who had that bowel resection or they know they have significant absorption issues, they can do one 10,000. You know, sublingually once a week is kind of a extra, extra step on top of everything else that they're doing, um, which is really nice. But b12, you know, really great for protection against, uh, heart disease and, um, really it works.
You need it with folic acid to help with. Healthy red blood cells. Right? So that's where we talk about B12 deficiency and, and people being anemic. Um, so,
Jared: So if you, if someone who's [00:49:00] dealing with anemia, uh, which of course oftentimes we find in vegetarians and vegans as well, but someone who's not vegetarian or vegan, still dealing with AME anemia, one of the things I always tell 'em is, you, you absolutely have to look at magnesium. B12, uh, folate, all of those things before you, I think before you consider even taking an iron supplement, make sure those things are on board and see if your body can do what it
Carrie: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Cuz the body, you know, oftentimes, like you, we will have good iron stores in our matrix, but we don't, we need these nutrients in order to access
Jared: We don't utilize them.
Carrie: Mm-hmm.
Jared: Yeah. All right. And then, uh, yeah, we're, unfortunately, I wanted to get through some of the other beef items. We may just have to do another episode here. But, uh, let's talk, uh, real briefly about this, because I think I. There's a lot of confusion on this. I know there's confusion on this cause I've had multiple people ask me this question.
So we have, uh, and, and we'll just use your active B complex as an example, but you're gonna see this on a lot of different folate products, methyl [00:50:00] folate products. Your product says folate from. Five methyl tetra hydro folic acid, M T H F, uh, glucosamine salt, Quattro. Folic. Okay, so there's a whole bunch of ex explanation of what that is.
And then it says 680 micrograms, d ffe, which is the, the way that it's measured. And then in parentheses it says 400 micrograms of folic acid. But this is the methylated form. It is not folic acid. So why does it
Carrie: My understanding is that that goes back to our lovely friends at the F D A and what they tell us we have to do, so. Right. Because that's where if somebody was to see a dietician, if somebody was to see a a, a western trained physician, they have been trained on acid.
Jared: Folic acid. Yeah. Yeah. And so, so what we're looking at is a truly methylated form of folate. It does say folic acid because that's the, my [00:51:00] understanding is it's the equivalent, uh, 400 micrograms of folic acid. Uh, and so just, I wanted to make sure that was clear because I've had lots of people ask me that
Carrie: that that's the
Jared: I think it's pretty important
Carrie: at natural factors too, right? But yes, we wanna be looking for that.
Jared: and the transparency's great, but it can also be confusing. Right? Yeah. So, all right, well, I would love to talk to you more. I already know that we have so many more things we could talk about, so we're definitely gonna get you back on the show in the future, but we have bumped up against the last minute of time that we have here, Carrie, is there anything else that you wanna share just briefly about the beef
Carrie: I think, you know, it's experiential. I'm excited for people to actually go in. They might have been taking B Vitamins for forever. I. They're probably buying them at some mass market store and they're, they, they, they are wasting their money. Um, so come on in and get a real true Coen consummated B-vitamin and you will notice the difference.
And I [00:52:00] absolutely always, when you're looking for a multivitamin, look for the Coens made ones in there as well. That is a hundred percent necessity.
Jared: Yep. Look for your methyl in the B12 and the methyl in the folate. Look for P five P or OXYL five phosphate in the b6. That's important. Benfotiamine, which is starting to now pop up in some of the malts, uh, is, is a really important, uh, form of B one. All of those matter. I I really, really appreciate your time and, and for people that are, Interested in looking into all these B vitamins.
I will mention that the natural factors line has an incredible group of B vitamins in little purple boxes. Um, all the different B12 s, the methyl folate, the active B, the ben timing, it's all there. Uh, and, and these are sources of B vitamins that I trust and believe in and actually utilize myself. So this is, uh, this is a line that you can trust.
They make. The, the best stuff, uh, and I just absolutely love them. Carrie, thank you so much for your[00:53:00]
Carrie: I
Jared: me on Vitality Radio.
Carrie: you having me join you today. Yeah, definitely. We'll laugh
Jared: again, right? I'm committing you now. Okay. All right. Awesome. All right, and for you listening, thank you so much for lending us your ear today. I hope this has been helpful. Of course, you know that you can call us if you have questions about anything you heard at 8 0 1 . 2 9 2 66 62. That's 8 0 1 2 9 2 66 62.
In the, uh, show description of the podcast, we'll have links for the things that we've talked about, additional information for you. And of course you can jump online and take a look at all of this stuff@vitalitynutrition.com. Or we'd love for you to come in, in person, you know, kind of old school like into our brick and mortar store in Bountiful, Utah if you're nearby.
We'd love to see you there. Thank you so much for listening to me. I'm Jared St. Clair and this has been Vitality Radio.