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I am not a cardiologist, a psychiatric physician, a microbiologist, a biochemist, nor do I have a Doctor's of anything. Nor can I verify that SAM-e and other methylation enhancement can prevent depression, heart and liver diseases, arthritis and other ailments. What I am, is a researcher who simplifies complicated subjects to arrive at conclusions based upon available information.

The authors of the books are authorities on a variety of health related subjects. But, it is as if they cannot see the forest for the trees. For the average person, methylation is still in the realm of a mythical and magical reality. It is the reality of the human body, with all its organs, glands, hormones, cells, chromosomes and on and on. Our own bodies are so incredibly complicated that they are magical, unknowable machines. And, just as we give the keys of our automobile over to the mechanic who will make all things right, so we trust the medical establishment.

But, that is just the point to the controversy surrounding the Methylation Process. The Medical Establishment itself is in a state of transition. Since the 1970's, Dr. Kilmer McCully, M.D., has been telling his colleagues about the connection between heart disease and the methylation process. It is only now that Dr. McCully and those who have joined him have begun to tell the American Public. Now we are seeing books entitled: The Heart Revolution, The Methylation Miracle, and Methyl Magic.

For the average person, understanding the Methylation Process will allow you to take the keys to your own body, into your own hands. This is a complicated subject, unless you start at the beginning and take it one step at a time. In the beginning, I had to learn the vocabulary....

"Methyl" is the key word. A "methyl group" is a grouping of four atoms that are passed around between various molecules within our bodies. It all comes down to 4 simple atoms.

The methyl group is really an atomic on/off switch. When a molecule gains a methyl group, a chemical reaction is started. This transference of the atomic switch is called "methylation" (methyl being the key word). It is probable that methylation is required to start the very beginning of life .

The head of a sperm is the exact same size as the pronucleus inside the egg. The sperm head carries the male chromosomes while the pronucleus carries the female chromosomes. When they merge, the two sets of chromosomes come together and are carried on the double helix shape of what we know as DNA. This merging of pronucleus and sperm head results in the first cell of a human being - the human zygote.

Based upon the DNA formed at conception, the zygote divides into an exact duplicate of itself while still contained within the egg. Each of the new cells duplicate for a total of four human cells. Another duplication results in 8 cells. A fourth division brings the beginning of changes. The DNA is altered from cell-to-cell and the cells begin separate paths to development.

If you took a strand of DNA and stretched it out, it would stretch over 2 yards long. With the genes attached to the chromosomes, some 3 million combinations of genes can be made, from one strand of DNA. This is an incredible amount of possible information. Based upon which genes are activated, the DNA message and control center dictates exactly how a given cell is formed, where it is located, what it does.

But, what tells a given strand of DNA to activated a given set of genes?

My blind friend Alene had a plastic insert for her checkbook. The thin piece of plastic had certain cut-outs. When placed over the check, the cutouts allowed Alene to write the name of the person she was writing the check for, the date, the amount, and her signature. All the rest of the check was obscured behind the plastic. And, while this device was used to keep the blind between the lines, it also obscured all the other numbers and information contained on a typical check.

All of the genes on a DNA strand are in the "on" position. To control which genes are actual seen as being "on", the body manufactures a chemical device similar to the plastic check guide. This chemical guide allows for "gene expression".

The chemical guide is created through DNA methylation. Methyl groups are given off by molecules and used to mask genes, keeping them in the "off" position.

Once this chemical mask is applied, every time the cell duplicates, the duplicated DNA will be masked in the identical manner. Not only is the DNA center duplicated, the methylation codes are duplicated.

For everything to work right, the codes have to be duplicated millions of times a second, as cells die and are replaced with new cells.

This is the methylation process at its most humble beginnings and at the very base of every cell making up the human body. But this same transfer of the methyl groups goes on all over the body. To appreciate the impact of the methylation process and why books have been written entitled "Methyl Magic" and the "Methylation Miracle", simply consider what would happen if DNA methylation broke down. Some of the words used to describe such events are "cancer", "birth defect", "miscarriage", "degenerative disease".

In the following chapters, we will continue investigating how methylation works within the body and what can go wrong when methylation breaks down.

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Methyl Manual February 15, 2000