W H Y D O IM I S C A R R Y ?

W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

They were getting more miscarriages, they

were more prone to anxiety and depression,

they were getting sick more often and there

were a lot of issues that we could see across

the board.

Getting back to how I got into this, really it was

because I'm a firm believer if you analyze

bloods and you have a look at what is going on

biochemically, you can really start to

understand why some people get sick and

others don't. I saw that a vast majority of my

MTHFR patients had miscarriages in their

family history.

So whether it was their mom, grandmother,

aunts, cousins whatever, I started to see that

there was a bit of a pattern, and it's been one

of my missions, one of my passions to really try

to get the word out and explain to people that

you shouldn't be having miscarriages.

| 0 1

Hello everyone and welcome to this webinar

on miscarriage. Wherever you are calling

in from I would love to know where you're

from. We have a lot that are in from

the U.S., so good evening to you. And for the

Australians or New Zealanders or

wherever else you are, welcome.

Today we are going to talk about the reasons

people miscarry. The statistics really

are quite alarming and that's why I really

wanted to do this webinar to talk

with as many of you as possible to try and help

you understand why you may be

getting miscarriages along the way in your

attempt to fall pregnant.

My name is Carolyn Ledowsky for those of you

that have not met me or you haven't

seen any of my webinars before, I started

MTHFR Support Australia 10 years ago

now and my whole goal really was to

understand why people with the MTHFR gene

had all these symptoms that other people

didn't have.

WHY DO I MISCARRY?CAROLYN LEDOWSKY

I've been doing webinars for pretty well 10

years and I can tell you that you are not alone

if you have been having miscarriages, because

the vast majority of people that I see in clinic

are those couples who have had multiple

miscarriages along the way. Many of them are

pushed into IVF when someone has a

miscarriage or they can't conceive, or they've

got unexplained infertility, they're just pushed

willy nilly into IVF. Is that necessarily the

answer? No, I don't think it is because the

success rate with IVF really is not that great.

I want to make sure that you stay online

because we're going to do a Q&A at the end.

I would like to share this case history with you

because it is pretty typical of the couples that I

see in the clinic. Jenny was 36. She's not

necessarily young, she's 36. She had multiple

miscarriages and they were most often before

12 weeks. That's fairly common because when

you have disturbed DNA you don't have

enough folate then really most miscarriages

will happen in that first trimester.

She had IVF for most of the fertility treatments

she'd had, and she had been seeing

naturopaths. She was on a multitude of

formulas. I think the very first appointment I

saw her, she and her husband put the formulas

that she was on, and I've got to say there were

probably about a hundred bottles on that

table. But they clearly weren't working

because she was falling pregnant okay, but she

just wasn't keeping the babies and when I'd

seen her she had already had three.

| 0 1

This is what we are going to learn today. We

are going to look at the key reasons for

miscarriages. We're going to have a look at

what the impact of the MTHFR gene might

have on your fertility. We are going to have a

look at folate levels and the forms of folate.

For those of you that are having miscarriages,

most of you it will be due to the fact that you

have lower folate than you should, and/or your

partner. Now let's not forget that the male will

donate 50% of his DNA, and 50% of yours and

that is what forms the fetus.

Research shows us and we'll get into this in a

little bit, but even if your partner has

the MTHFR gene and you don't, you are going

to be more at risk of having a miscarriage.

That's really important for you to remember.

We're going to look at the key steps that you

need to take to minimize your risk.

One of the things that, as I said in the very

beginning, my overall goal is to reduce the

number of miscarriages worldwide. Now I

know that might sound like a crazy goal, but my

theory is if I can empower you to really

understand what the doctors and the

specialists don't know, then that is going to

almost proof you so that you can prepare for

pregnancy the right way and you can minimize

your risk. That is my key goal. Considering the

number of people that have a miscarriage, 25%

of all pregnancies end in a miscarriage. That's

huge statistics, one in four. The amount of

couples that this is affecting worldwide is

crazy. The infertility rates are in the incline

and I do have a theory about the multitude of

causes. Around 15% of couples, or 70 million

couples are affected by infertility, 70 million.

| 02W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

We put her on all my formulas that I wanted

her to be on and funny enough she fell

pregnant quite quickly. The problem was

though, she'd already had this IVF

appointment, I could not convince her to not

have it, and unfortunately she'd used old eggs.

And so she literally within about four weeks,

she miscarried again. I can't say that I was

really hugely upset, because I just didn't want

her using old eggs. I knew that there was a very

high chance that she would have a miscarriage.

So as I said there, secretly, I was actually quite

relieved.

We started again, no old eggs, advised her to

start egg collection again in four months

time because I really like to have a four month

preconception period. Why? Because your

eggs have a 120-day lifecycle. What you do

today will not completely change the nutrition

of your cells for 120 days. For men, it's 90

days, but for you, it's 120 days so that's really

crucially important.

 

There's little Jack; he's the first boy. She then

went on a year ago to have a daughter and we

are now preparing her for her third. She's had

no complications. In fact, she feels better than

she has ever felt before. Her pregnancies were

fantastic. Admittedly there was a bit of anxiety

which she could understand because she'd had

by this stage, four miscarriages previously. But,

she is so healthy and mentally feels better than

she ever has. So that's a really good story

because as you can see there was no IVF.

Although she had it booked for four months,

she didn't actually ever go because she fell

pregnant naturally before she went.

| 0 1

Her husband was also on multiple formulas and

the day that I saw them both I literally took her

off everything and put her on three things. We

refined the diet, we really worked on balancing

the key nutrients because she didn't know

that she actually had a deficiency in not only

folate but a lot of nutrients and that was

affecting her ability to stay pregnant. I actually

put her on 10 times the amount of folate that

she was on. 10 times. And this is the thing that

I think is really lacking in terms of information

out there from doctors and IVF specialists:

they do not understand that the level

of folate in some cases has to be 10 times what

you would normally put someone on,

particularly if they're homozygous for the

MTHFR or they've got low folate. These are

some of the things that are really important.

We put her on all my formulas that I wanted

her to be on and funny enough she fell

pregnant quite quickly. The problem was

though, she'd already had this IVF

appointment, I could not convince her to not

have it, and unfortunately she'd used old eggs.

And so she literally within about four weeks,

she miscarried again. I can't say that I was

really hugely upset, because I just didn't want

her using old eggs. I knew that there was a very

high chance that she would have a miscarriage.

So as I said there, secretly, I was actually quite

relieved.

| 03W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

So why? What causes it? We have genes that

affect the proper clearance of hormones

allowing estrogen to build up, number one.

Without an adequate folate, what we

call our methylation cycle, is not working

optimally and that's what really

looks after your hormones. It looks after the

liver function, the clearing of toxic estrogens

that we don't want. The higher the estrogen,

the less your progesterone will be.

Lack of folate. Now most people when they're

looking at preconception, they'll only

look at the female and that's not the right

approach because what your partner does is as

important. We absolutely have to know that if

he genetically has a low folate that's going to

affect his DNA, we have to make sure we make

up for that.

A lack of preparation time pre-pregnancy. A lot

of people think well I'm ready to have a baby

now, I'm just going to start trying. But what

they haven't realized is there are so many

things that affect our folate in everyday life.

Number one, I think that the fact that we have

folic acid fortification is actually, and I'm

doing some research about this at the moment,

but it looks like that the amount of folic acid

that most people are getting through their diet

is actually slowing down one of these enzymes

that we need for active folate. That's a

problem. We've got a lot more toxins in the

diet.

| 0 1

Now, she's 38 and she had her second and now

she's going to have the next one within the

next year and she'll be 39, 40. It just goes to

show, if you prepare the right way, your

chances of success are much greater, and your

chances of miscarriage are minimized

significantly.

She sent me this note to say, "A very special

thank you for all your guidance and support in

helping us create a beautiful healthy baby.

Beyond that, you have helped us everyday

through improved wellbeing and I had a dream

pregnancy. We call the methylfolate our 'happy

tablets.' We admire your scientific approach

that's specific to individuals and your passion for

sharing and challenging the status quo. Thank you

very much." The reason she says, "Challenging

the status quo," because very few if any people

believe. And probably many of you will have

already spoken to your doctor, "You might know

about MTHFR," and a lot of them will turn

around and say, "It doesn't matter." So I'm here

to tell you that it does.

Some of the issues that you might be

experiencing, hormonal imbalances without

enough folate, I honestly believe that your

hormones are lower than they should

be. We tend to see a lower progesterone,

higher amounts of estrogen in the system, so

almost like an estrogen dominance type

condition where you might have fibrocystic

breasts, fibrocystic ovaries, etc. Ovulation, not

that great; low healthy cervical fluid;

endometrium not really that healthy because

progesterone levels tend to be low and

implantation is a lot more difficult,

not enough follicles. And as I said, multiple

miscarriage is a very, very common issue.

| 04W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

Andy is homozygous and T. Grant is

heterozygous for both. Kristin is heterozygous.

Emma is homozygous. Amy, oh my goodness.

Amy both you and your husband are

homozygous. This is so relevant to you. All of

you that are homozygous, this is the most

important presentation you will ever listen to.

And Amy, unfortunately, has lost four.

Amy, this is so important for you. And any of

you that are homozygous, this is the most

important webinar you will ever listen to

because it will start to put the pieces together

for you. Andy, unfortunately, has lost one as

well.

You can see just how relevant this is and our

best... Oh, T. Grant has lost four. Oh, so sorry.

And you've got your D&C tomorrow. All right.

You need help in understanding what you need

to do to stop this. And believe me, you can.

That's the most important thing.

MTHFR is affecting your active folate. Why?

Here's your folate that you eat, up here.

Folic acid is what they supplement with, right?

In terms of all the food that we eat, the bread,

the pasta, the biscuits, anything in a packet

pretty well has folic acid in it. And remember I

said there was an enzyme that slowed down?

Well this one here, DHFR, Dihydrofolate

Reductase, is the enzyme that is slowed when

you get too much folic acid in the system.

When you eat good leafy green veggies, it

comes in here and it's got to get converted all

the way down here. And this one in red at the

bottom, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, is your

active folate. And guess what? Your MTHFR

gene sits right here.

| 0 1

And the poor sperm, they are very, very

susceptible to oxidative stress. The sperm

counts are going down. IVF is not necessarily

the answer, particularly when you have bad

quality sperm and eggs that are not optimized

for the right nutrition; nutrition's important.

We need to look at the toxins that could

potentially be affecting fertility. I think thyroid

issues and autoimmune disease is definitely on

the rise. And Jenny, actually did have

autoimmune, and I gave her a special

autoimmune formula to take during

preconception and during pregnancy to

support the fetus growth.

A lack of folate, you would know by now, most

women, the neural tube closes at about 21

days. Most women don't even know they're

pregnant then, so if they don't have enough

folate there can be issues with behavioral,

ADD, ADHD, low birth weight, autism,

allergies. All of these things are incredibly,

important and folate is the key. Biochemically,

any period of rapid growth increases the need

for healthy DNA production. There's nothing

more important or more demanding of healthy

DNA than pregnancy and the growth of that

fetus. If our DNA is largely governed by folate

and the MTHFR gene which creates active

folate, then we can see how important this

MTHFR gene is.

So what is it? I don't know if any of you... You

can pop into the chat box. Any of you know

about the MTHFR gene? Do you actually have

the MTHFR gene? It stands for Methylene-

tetrahydrofolate Reductase. Gina knows. Gina,

good. Essentially it's a fancy word: Methylene-

tetrahydrofolate is a fancy word for active

folate. Okay? That's really what all it means.

| 05W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

This is a good graph just to show you this. So

let's say this is your partner, the one on the

left, and this is you and you've both got one

copy of the MTHFR C677T. There is a 25%

chance, one in four, of your baby being

homozygous. Now let's say we keep you just

having one copy, and your partner has two, all

of a sudden there's a 50% chance. Now it's

these bubbers who are homozygous. If your

folate or your partner's folate are low, these

are the ones that are more likely to miscarry.

It's not good enough for just you to be taking

your prenatal supplements; your partner

must take them as well. That's really

important. I can't tell you the amount of,

particularly in Australia, I don't know if it's the

same in the U.S. I think they tend to be less

macho and more likely to be taking a prenatal,

but here in Australia, the guys go, "I don't need

it. Hey, it's got nothing to do with me."

Unfortunately we have this macho Aussie guy

that doesn't want to take his pills, but let me

tell you, he has to. That's really important.

When it comes to female fertility, when you're

MTHFR or if you have MTHFR, there's quite a

big chance that your homocysteine levels can

be elevated. And if they are, then that's

associated with lower ovarian reserve, a

diminished response to IVF, reduced chance of

IVF, and egg death. There's then complications

with egg development and there's a lot of

research about IVF and MTHFR.

| 0 1

You can see for those of you that are

homozygous, that is shut down by 70%. 70% of

your active folate is not getting through the

system, 70%. And for those of you that have

got one copy, it's 30 to 35%. So it doesn't

matter how much folic acid you're having. It

doesn't matter how much folinic you're having.

You have got to have methylfolate. And for

those of you that are homozygous like Jenny

was, you need a lot, lot more folate than you're

taking.

What is methylation? Active folate supports

methylation. This on the side here is what we

call a methyl group. And you can see that

there's an open arm here. This acts like an

on/off switch; it clamps onto things and makes

them work, your amino acids, your proteins,

your enzymes, fat metabolism, DNA,

detoxification, processing hormones, making

hormones, mental health, sleep. All of these

things need this little guy to attach. If it can't

attach or there's not enough of them because

you don't have enough folate, all those systems

can be affected. The more stressed you are, the

worse it will get. That's incredibly important

for you to remember.

When there's not enough methyls in the

system, these are some of the things that we

can see in people coming to our MTHFR

Support clinic. You can see that that is

not an exhaustive list, but it's a pretty big list

of pretty big issues and pretty big conditions

that really we need to be able to support. You

can see that there are many hormonal issues

coming up here.

Remember I said in the beginning that, "Hey,

it's really important that you understand what

your partner's MTHFR and folate levels are as

well"?

| 06W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

This study looked at mom's folate intake and

the risk of cleft palate and the conclusion was,

"Children carrying the C677T variants..." so

remember the bubs, "... may have an increased

risk of cleft lip and cleft palate." And, "It was

significantly higher when the moms didn't

use" they say, "Folic acid." And this is one of the

problems; folic acid is not folate, but they use

the term interchangeably.

This particular study looked at folic acid and

IVF. The standard protocol for IVF if you're

considered to be high-risk is to give you 5

milligrams, 5000 micrograms of folic acid.

Remember we just said folic acid isn't really

what we should be using? So here we have this

study that said, "High folic acid intake and

MTHFR variation seem not to be associated with

helping women achieve pregnancy

during or after fertility." Of course it doesn't.

They're using the wrong form of folate, so that

makes sense.

This study looked at MTHFR and again

recurrent spontaneous abortions in India and

noticed a high frequency of the MTHFR C677T

allele with dad's side. "The present study

indicated the impact of dad's gene C677T was

important when considering recurrent pregnancy

loss." So again, it looks at, well let's forget mom

for a second. Just look at dad. What if only dad

has MTHFR? Well they found that link to be

associated with recurrent pregnancy loss.

| 0 1

For our male counterparts the MTHFR gene

and high homocysteine levels are associated

with lower sperm count, higher DNA

fragmentation which means bad quality sperm,

so they're not good quality. Reduced motility

which means they don't swim and they cannot

reach the egg, and

a great chance of infertility. It affects males

and females almost equally. As we said, neural

tube defects, autism, these are particularly

susceptible because of that neural tube closure

at day 21 to 28, and most women don't even

know.

What I wanted to do is take you through some

of the research to show you and particularly

for those of you that have been to your doctors

and your specialists and they say it doesn't

matter, here's some really good studies that

you can quote and say, "Actually, there's quite a

bit of research that shows that there is an effect."

This one in 2015 looked at the association

between maternal and paternal, so mom and

dad's MTHFR, both of them, the C677T and the

A1298C and the risk of recurrent

pregnancy loss. You can see in the conclusions

it says, "The results in the meta analysis indicate

that maternal and paternal 677T and A1298C

are associated with recurrent pregnancy loss, but

in this particular study, they found that the

A1298C was quite significant in the association,"

which means they saw a lot more pregnancy

loss from the A1298C than they did the

C677T. Now if you ask most specialists and

most doctors, they'll go, "Oh, that doesn't

matter. If you have the C677T you might have

elevated homocysteine, but the A1298C doesn't

matter." Well, this research study says in actual

fact, it does.

| 07W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

She was actually told by the IVF clinic that

she originally went to, that she had less than a

2% chance that she would ever fall pregnant

even with IVF.

We found out that she had the MTHFR gene.

We worked on her nutrients, we improved

her folate, we reduced her stress in the

process, we looked after her diet and

she rang me. She moved to London and she

said to me that she was actually going

to try for IVF before she went. I said to her,

"That's crazy. You don't want to do it before you

go overseas. Wait til you're settled and then try

with IVF." Anyway, she rang me about a month,

two months after arriving back in London and

she said, "Guess what? I'm pregnant." And I said,

"Oh. I didn't realize you'd gone into IVF yet." And

she said "No, I didn't. I actually fell pregnant

naturally."

Here's a woman who's told she's got no chance

of falling pregnant. She's got no chance of IVF

being successful or less than 2%, and yet she

falls pregnant naturally, no IVF, when she's

told there's no chance. It really does make a big

difference if you know and understand what

you're working with.

Anna is another patient of mine. She came to

see me but she didn't even know she had

the MTHFR gene because she came to see me

originally because she had thyroid issues. She

was really good. We worked on her thyroid;

got that back all under control. In the

meantime, she said to me, "I'm getting married

this year and I want to try and fall pregnant

straight away. "

| 0 1

This one looked at the A1298C and Down

syndrome and it said that, "It did see an

association with a risk of Down's but the great

thing is, this all goes away when folate levels are

good." And that's the most important thing that

you need to remember, is that you finding out

that you have the MTHFR gene is good.

It's great because now you know what you

need to do to work around it. It's the best thing

that ever happened because now you know

and you'll be able to do something about it.

This one looked at MTHFR in ovarian follicular

activity and it said, "A1298C was associated

with higher FSH levels." So again, we're seeing

the fact that this does affect our fertility.

Folic acid and sperm. Remember we said that

the standard protocol with IVF high-risk is to

give them 5 milligrams of folic acid. Well that's

exactly what they did in this study. They gave

it to men who were considered to be high-risk.

They gave them 5 milligrams and it says, "These

findings show that contrary to expectations, high

dose folic acid supplementation resulted in a loss

of methylation across the sperm epigenome. Loss

of methylation was more prominent in those with

C677T." They then go on to say, "We believe

that this is causing behavioral problems in the

offspring." So what we're learning more and

more is folic acid may not be the best form of

folate for us and just because we've always

used it is not a reason to continue to do so.

Here's another one of my patients. Katherine

had had one child when she came to see me.

She was in her 30s and was really desperate

for another one. She'd actually tried for 10

years to fall pregnant with her first one, and

she only did through countless IVF procedures.

| 08W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

You may have low zinc and B6. Incredibly

important, particularly B6, for your fertility.

Choline, essential. Absolutely essential for the

brain of the baby. And folate, so crucial. We

need to balance your diet to make sure that for

many of you who have MTHFR, your

detoxification capacity is going okay.

So even working on improving detoxification.

And for those of you that have partners with

MTHFR polymorphisms, they will need to work

on the antioxidant support so that they

improve the quality of the sperm because that

is a really important thing to do. As you know,

there's so many nutrients that we need for a

healthy pregnancy and these are some of them.

The things that I really want you to

understand, and for those of you that you've

written in and you've had multiple

miscarriages, the things that you need to know

is, one, do you and your partner have the

MTHFR gene and how the gene affects you and

what sort of folate is going to be best for you.

You also need blood tests. We need to know

what nutrients need supporting, whether or

not you're low in zinc, as I said B6, B12.

Genetically you may have a problem with

B12, which means we need to give you

injections.

Supplements to take and at what dose, you

need to know what's the best diet for you. How

to prepare your home. Now I know that sounds

like a crazy thing. I had a friend of mine who

had 10 miscarriages, 10. The problem was her

home. I've had quite a few patients too, that do

have issues with their home that we've had to

fix that have definitely helped their fertility.

| 0 1

So we put her on a six month, actually,

preconception program because we had plenty

of time, and she got married. She came to me

literally probably about six weeks after her

wedding and said, "Guess what? I'm pregnant. I

fell pregnant first go." And I said, "What do you

mean 'first go'?" And she said, "Well, my

husband's in the army and a week after we got

married he had to go off on a tour and I was

pregnant." And she said, "Literally, I fell pregnant

first go." It does work and the success is really

quite amazing, just being able to put it all

together.

What are the action steps that we want to take

to minimize our miscarriage risk? You

definitely, and your partner, need to know if

you have the MTHFR gene; the most

important thing you've got to know. Now don't

think of it, as I said, as something negative.

This is so positive because you know. So now

you're going to know what steps you need to

take to fix it.

You need to know the form of folate that's

right for you, and you need to know the dose.

And that's the million dollar question, is the

dose. You need to optimize the key nutrients

that we need for pregnancy. So many of you

won't be using your folate to keep you well

because you're low in B12. Does anyone ever

tell you that? No. So if you don't have enough

B12, you won't use that folate that's all

important in fertility.

| 09W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

In the highly unlikely chance you're not 100%

happy with the course in the first 30 days, and

if you can show me that you have actually

implemented the changes and you have put all

the practices in place that we want you to do

for preparation and you don't like the course in

the first 30 days, I promise to give you your

money back, no questions asked.

This is feedback from Sarah. "I rate the course

10/10. I loved everything about it. I've learned a

lot of valuable information that I will use for the

rest of my life and I have been able to help family

members and friends with passing on

this information. I have fallen pregnant. Carolyn,

this has been a fantastic course. Please write

another one." I am in the process of doing my

fertility now.

This is a really good time to join because you

get help from me at every one of our private

Facebook groups where you can ask a

multitude of questions, you can get personal

help along the way. You're not left once you do

this course, just trying to do it on your own.

We actually have Facebook groups and we

have a very interactive and very considerate

group. If you do, put in the chat box that you

have joined the course because I can't wait to

see you.

.

| 0 1

I want you to gain an understanding of how

your genetics is affecting your fertility because

you are not the same as the person next to you

and your combinations of you and your partner

will be completely different. Without this

information, we don't want you to be here the

same time next year saying the same things.

It's actually not okay that you are having three,

four, five, six miscarriages. It distresses me; it's

not okay so we need to stop it.

We also have guests who have contributed to

the program who have given very, very

detailed videos just to give you some more

insightful information into why they believe

either MTHFR is an issue, or how your fertility

can be improved. It's quite exciting. It's an

amazing group of people.

To normally work with me, I just have a

ridiculously long waitlist and I don't like that.

This is one of the reasons that I really wanted

to do the course because I'm only one person,

and I can only really, in the clinic, see one

person at a time. There are millions, as you

saw, there are 70 million people who have a

problem with fertility, therefore I don't want

you to have to go to IVF. I mean, look at that.

More and more people are being pushed into

IVF. The average price is $6,000 to $10,000 a

session. The average cycle, most people

will fall pregnant somewhere between three

and six cycles, so it could cost you up to

$60,000 which is crazy, particularly when it's

only got less than a 30% success rate. I really

wanted to make this course available so I can

help more people, more than I can just seeing

one person at a time.

| 10W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

This is where the workbooks and all that I

actually give you, all the blood tests that I want

you to do, and then you get handouts where

you can fill it in, and I give you what the

optimal must be for fertility so you can work

out whether you are high or low.

If you had adenomyosis and fibroids then you

obviously need to work on your estrogen

metabolism. And that is one of the things that

we do within the course. We've got a special

section on estrogen metabolism and the

nutrients that you need and the tests that you

would need to take to ensure that you are

actually working on it. Because if your toxic

estrogen is high, you're going to be throwing

out your other hormones which are really

important for your fertility.

Nicole: "What are your optimum folate levels?" It

depends on every combination. So what we've

done in the course is we've said if you have this

gene and this combination, and there's a whole

sheet of all the different combinations, if you

have this combination and this combination,

you should be aiming for this amount of folate.

If you have this combination and this

combination, you should be aiming for this

amount of folate. But you shouldn't start with

folate, and that's the thing. You need to start

with the other nutrients first to ensure that

your folate is actually going to be utilized.

| 0 1

If you do have a question, and we've got 15

minutes of questions, put it into the Q&A box

please, because that's where I'm going to be

looking for the questions. And the first one has

come from Amy. "Both husband and I are

C677T which by the way is unusual." But it means

that you Amy, need a lot of support. You're 44

and just had the fourth pregnancy loss. "Our

second was our full-term stillborn son with cleft

palate and low birth weight. We have cleaned our

system from folic acid 3/4 of a year now. We eat

approximately 800 to 1000 micrograms of folate

through food a day, and I supplement with 5-

Methyl 1360 and my husband takes 680. Dr.

Sklar has been working with us for almost a year.

He doesn't want to overdose too much or too fast.

He's seeing bad reactions to his patients. What do

you think?"

I do not think you're taking enough folate,

Amy. You're both homozygous, you're not

taking nearly enough. That's my first point of

call. That's why I think the course is really

important because you are going to be advised

within the course once you've done all the bits

and pieces, how much you should be taking.

And my first impression is you're not taking

enough.

The reason people are worried, and this is

where I guess I really specialize because I'm

dealing with hundreds of patients at the one

time when it comes to fertility, it's really

important to make sure that you are looking at

the whole component of the fertility, not just

the fact that you're taking folate. So yes, I

think the folate is incredibly important, but

there's other elements that you will definitely

need to address.

| 11W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

Leanne: "Thank you so much for the wonderful

talk. Question, is there any side effect if you take

too much folate?" Well, yes there can be, but the

problem is not the folate. The problem is that

you're not utilizing it. You might hear a lot of

people say, "We have a problem. I'm an over-

methylator." Well I think that's rubbish. I don't

think there's any such thing as over

methylation. I think the problem is you're not

using it. So the question is why aren't you using

it and how do we get you to use it better?

 

Most people who have a problem with folate

and not able to use it, is because it's

not being utilized. Now there could be many

reasons for that. There could be gut function

issues, there could be histamine issues, there

could be heavy metals, there could be low B12.

So there's a lot of different reasons why

people can't take it, but once you address it,

you will then be able to take your methylfolate.

You might have to start on a very low dose, and

then once you correct the problem, you can

then move to a better system.

And which B12? This is the thing that again,

what we take people through in the course is

how do you identify? Is Hydroxycobalamin

better? Is Methylcobalamin better? Is

Adenosylcobalamin? You have three forms of

B12. Your Methylcobalamin works more

on your brain. Your Adenosylcobalamin is your

energy B12. And then the precursor to both of

those is Hydroxycobalamin. Without actually

going through the elements of the course,

Leanne, I probably can't answer that

effectively.

| 0 1

Linnay has lupus, which means you have the

blood clots as well as MTHFR. "Do you know

how these two impact each other?" Yes. With the

lupus, which is also autoimmune, you've got a

few things that are going on there. One, you've

got an autoimmune process. Now unless you

address the autoimmune when you're actually

trying to fall pregnant, then when you get the

implantation, the body goes, that's a foreign

body, I need to get rid of it.

I have an autoimmune mix that I put all the

preconception ladies on to support that

autoimmune condition. And then when they're

actually actively trying, we swap them over to

a pregnancy autoimmune which is safe to take

in that first trimester.

But because you're homozygous, you are going

to have more problems with your immune

function anyway. It's a bit of a catch-22; you've

got to optimize your folate which is definitely

going to improve your immune function, but

then you also have to look at things like

homocysteine, to check your homocysteine

levels because that will make you more likely

to clot. Depending on whether or not you have

a fertility specialist, then that will be important

for you because we need to ensure that you

are actually taking and having some sort of

anti-clotting agent.

| 12W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

If you had thyroid problems, we would change

the diet another way. It depends. what's going

on for you, Elizabeth, but definitely eliminating

folic acid and processed foods is a very, very

good first step.

Factor V Leiden, that is again a gene that

affects clotting. If you are with an IVF

specialist, they would normally recommend

that you take something like Clexane, or they

would give you some sort of anti-clotting

agent.

That would be the most common thing. We

give supplements. If the doctors decide not to,

then we give supplements because we believe

that it's important to support that.

Andy: "I've had a miscarriage and I'm currently

pregnant. Two blood tests was inconclusive hCG

and three short of doubling and progesterone

went down. Today was six weeks. I'm having

similar symptoms to the first blighted ovum and

put on a bioidentical progesterone. What do you

recommend if the ultrasound Thursday shows I'm

pregnant? First miscarriage was discovered at 10

weeks."

Well, how much folate are your taking right

this second? hCG can be a bit funny anyway so

it doesn't matter so much, it just depends

really how you feel. Progesterone going down

isn't a good sign, though. The fact that you're

on the bioidentical, hopefully that is a pessary

which would be probably the best absorbed.

Just tell me how much folate you're having,

Andy.

| 0 1

Lisa: "I'm trying to get our doctors to agree to

order the MTHFR test for my husband and I. Is

there a specific code I should be asking for?" Lisa,

just go onto our website Australia and USA. Go

to the shop, and you can order a kit which is a

beautiful swab or a blood test, either/or,

they're both there, finger prick test. And just

order it off the website. You don't need to go

to your doctor to do it. When the results come

in, you will just be emailed those results. It's

the easiest way to do it so you don't have to

even ask for it.

Unfortunately, when we first started out

MTHFR Support, most of the doctors wouldn't

mind doing it, but because so many people

started asking for the test, the Australian

Medical Association turned around and said,

"We don't really know the significance of this,

therefore we're just going to say it doesn't matter

and we're not going to test for it." It's really not

helpful, so that's why we decided to put the

MTHFR kits on our site. You can easily get that

off of there. It's probably the easiest way.

Elizabeth: "Other than eliminating folic acids and

processed foods from our diet, what other diet

protocol would you recommend? I'm heterozygous

A1298C and just had my fourth loss." Again,

we've got a whole section in the course on the

protocols for folate, but essentially definitely

what you're doing in terms of eliminating folic

acid and processed foods is really important. If

there's any sort of autoimmune, I'd also

recommend taking out your dairy. It depends

what else is going on. If there's estrogen

metabolism we would change your diet one

way. If there's autoimmune disease, we would

change your diet another way.

| 13W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

Do you know if you've actually got MTHFR? I

don't know what your name is. It's got T. Grant,

but I don't know what that is.

Nicole. Let's see what Nicole has to say. Nicole:

"I have very elevated B12 levels. My naturopath

has prescribed me B12 supplements. What would

be causing my elevated B12? I have Hashimoto's."

Okay. The question Nicole is: were your B12

levels elevated before you started taking B12

supplements? Or, are you saying that the B12

supplements have elevated your B12 levels?

That's an important question.

T. Grant: "I also have Crohn's disease, so I know

things are off. Will this course be able to help

since I have those other issues?" A hundred

percent because essentially Crohn's disease is

an autoimmune disease. It's really

important that you go and follow the

autoimmune protocol in the course because

if the autoimmune markers are elevated, the

chances of your having a successful

pregnancy is greatly reduced. We need to

address it. We need to give you the

autoimmune formula. We need to see if you've

got ANA and ENA, which are your autoimmune

markers, elevated. We definitely need to

improve that.

"Do you have courses for practitioners?" Yes,

Leanne, I do. If you email

emma@mthfrsupport.com.au, we will send you

the information on our practitioner courses.

| 0 1

Sarah: "Thank you for your talk. I was recently

diagnosed with MTHFR C677T and A1298C and

I've had four miscarriages. I also have PCOS. The

doctors want me to take blood thinning medicine

during my next pregnancy. Do you think blood

thinners are necessary and safe during

pregnancy?" Yes, I do. But I also think that given

that you're compound heterozygous and

you've had four miscarriages and you've got

PCOS, you really need to improve what's going

on with your hormones before you try and fall

pregnant again. you really need to be working

on addressing those fertility issues before you

try.

Yes, the blood thinners are going to be... well, it

will depend. We'd want to see what your

homocysteine levels are like. We'd want to see

what your other nutrients are like. We want to

try and address the PCOS, and then you would

try again, giving yourself at least a four-month

leeway so that you can get in to fix all these

nutrients first. But I certainly wouldn't go back

trying while you've still got low folate. You've

had four miscarriages. You do not want

another one.

T. Grant: "I've had two miscarriages at 12 weeks,

both were healthy and no explanation why. Could

this have to do with MTHFR genes?" Absolutely.

Usually when you have a miscarriage before

that 14th week. If you have, it's usually

because the DNA of both the egg and/or the

sperm have been affected by the low folate

due to MTHFR. So that would explain it, yes. I

would think there's a very high chance.

| 14W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

 Yes, the course will be very helpful for you

because it will actually help you understand

how all these other genes are actually affecting

you. That's really important and that TCN2,

super, super important for you Emma, and

probably one of the reasons you're having

miscarriages.

T. Grant: "I have two MTHFR genes and Crohn's

disease. Will this course take everything into

consideration?" Yes, it will. And don't forget,

you've got me in the live sessions. Oh, T. Grant

purchased the class. Fantastic. Well, welcome.

I really look forward to having you.

Okay sorry to... You don't have the

autoimmune lupus, but you have the

anticoagulant. Okay, great. Yep. Linnay, if you

were not on anticoagulants through that

pregnancy, you definitely need to be, and we

need to keep a very, very close eye on your

homocysteine levels, definitely really

important for you.

Nicole said she was on elevated B12 but she

was put on supplement before. Oh, okay yes.

So that means that you are not absorbing your

B12, and supplements are not the thing for

you. You need the injections and that's

something we can help you with and prescribe

within the course. Think of the course as

having me as your practitioner, but you're

doing it in a group environment.

| 0 1

Andy: "400." So, not enough, Andy. Again, none

of you are taking enough folate. So this is really

important, and I think this is an overriding

theme that I'm hearing today is that none of

you are taking enough folate. So it's really

important that you know how much you should

be taking because it is going to improve your

chances significantly. None of you,

unfortunately, are taking enough.

Emma: "I have MTHFR C677T," yes that's

correct. The one ending in 33 is the C677T,

"But I also have the A1298C" The aa is fine. You

have one of each and you have endometriosis.

Straight away we know you have an estrogen

dominance. So what we need to do is get your

estrogen under control so that you can have

good levels of progesterone.

Emma: "And endometriosis, I had endometriosis

before I had children."

Emma, endometriosis, we absolutely need to

make sure that we have that under control

because if it gets to stage 4, and it can be quite

endemic and it can actually affect your

fertility. So you must be taking nutrients to

reduce your estrogen metabolism.

"Would this course be useful for me or can I

just try supplementing?" No. I really think

given that you have your genetics there, this is

the perfect opportunity for you to really be

empowered to look after this because you have

the perfect opportunity now to turn this

around. I see that you have the TCN gene,

so that is incredibly important.

| 15W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

So you had a miscarriage at seven

weeks that was probably low folate, a stillbirth

at 27 weeks. Definitely you would need to see

if your homocysteine levels were elevated.

And, you need to support, like we said with

Lindsay, we need to support the health of the

placenta and the nutrients going through the

placenta. We'd probably want to have a look at

some other genetics that might be affecting

you. That's a good question, Chloe, and I

definitely think that the Clexane is a must for

you, and progesterone. The thing is, if your

DNA is not good because you're not having a

good amount of folate, then you having

progesterone is not necessarily going to

help you because it's the DNA of the fetus that

is the problem at that point. You still may have

low progesterone, and we've got to fix that,

but that may not be your key issue.

 

Thank you so much for Amy, look forward to

seeing you. To T. Grant, look forward to seeing

you. Can't wait and thank you so much. Please

pass this information on. We will be having

webinars every week. We need to spread the

word that everybody who is having a

miscarriage needs to know about MTHFR.

So thank you so much from the bottom of my

heart. I look forward to seeing you all hopefully

in the not too distant future. I hope you

enjoyed this, and look forward to seeing you

soon. Bye for now and thanks again.

.

| 0 1

Lindsay: "I have two healthy kids. I've had six

miscarriages, five of them after giving birth to my

two healthy. Two of those miscarriages were in

the second at 18 and 20 weeks. What kind of

advice?"

When you have a miscarriage in that latter

time, then that's incredibly important. You

really need to look at your clotting. You need

to very closely look at homocysteine. And I

would suggest that you probably have other

polymorphisms that are affecting the placenta,

like the AGT gene definitely affects the

antioxidants and the flow of nutrients through

the placenta. If you're having it in second,

third, or fourth trimesters, any miscarriages,

then that's a different strategy that we need to

support you with. So that's really important.

And probably the first two healthy kids have

sucked up all your folate because you're

compound heterozygous and your body has

just been unable to catch up.

All right, T. Grant, thank you. Chloe, last

question before we go. "I have an 11-year-old

boy, then a miscarriage at 18 weeks, possible

weak cervix followed by miscarriage at seven

weeks and a stillbirth at 27. You mentioned about

Clexane and progesterone pessaries. I used

progesterone for my last pregnancy. This was all

before I discovered I'm heterozygous for the

'C677T. What are your thoughts on using the

Clexane and progesterone? I have no other health

issues?"

| 16W H Y D O I M I S C A R R Y W E B I N A R T R A N S C R I P T

To access the webinar recording, please click here.

To find out more about the Preconception Course, click here.