The role of glutamate in overexciting nerves is just one piece of the puzzle in terms of the multiple factors that impact health. Sometimes, a number of seemingly unrelated events occur simultaneously, re­sulting in disaster. A prime example of this was the death of Princess Diana…if she had been wearing her seatbelt, if the car hadn’t been speeding, if the driver hadn’t presumably been drinking, if the paparazzi weren’t chasing the car, if they hadn’t driven into a narrow tunnel . . . if there had been a way to eliminate any one of those factors, that tragedy might have been averted. The multitude of factors that must occur to create complex health conditions can be viewed in a similar fashion. Without a particular combination of genetic mutations, heavy metal toxicities, chronic viral infection, underlying bacterial infections, and excitotoxin damage leading to a negative cascade of neurological events, we have better overall health.

In my experience, achieving optimal health requires recognition of all of the factors that can create a perfect storm. We’ve been taught that health management is just a matter of taking one pill, but it’s far more complex than that. I want you to begin to see health conditions differently so that you can individualize the approach and access what you need to do for optimal health. In this protocol, I take into account a range of factors contributing to all health conditions, including genetic, environmental, and toxic burden. The protocol aims to suggest the key nutrients needed to address these conditions and manage the factors undermining health.

• Excitotoxins: These are chemicals present in many common foods that overstimulate brain chemistry via the neurotransmitters and nerve receptors. This over-stimulation can trigger nerve cell death, which results in poor signaling, and nerve damage. Excitoxins include ingredients such as monosodium glutamate, aspartame, glutamate, hydrolyzed protein, and aspartic acid.
• Heavy metal toxicity: Arising from environmental exposures and com­pounded by metals in vaccines, heavy metals disrupt the immune system and the digestive organs, reduce energy, impair cognitive and neurologi­cal function and weaken the individual.
• Chronic viral and bacterial infections: Arising from environmental exposures, these chronic infections disrupt the immune, digestive, and respiratory systems, thus undermining the body’s ability to maintain and repair itself.
• Methylation deficiencies: Imbalances in the Methylation Cycle which is a key cellular pathway that promotes detoxification, controls inflammation, and balances the neurotransmitters, can result in mood and emotional shifts as well as liver, pancreas, stomach, intestinal, adrenal, thyroid, and hormonal imbalances.

Predisposing genetics, exposure to environmental toxins, the infectious disease burden and stress all contribute to our propensity for non ideal health. Knowledge of where the mutations are in the Methylation Cycle and supporting to bypass those SNPs is one piece of a larger health program. Working to balance glutamate and GABA is yet another factor. Working to address environmental toxins as well as better microbial balance in the gut are additional positive steps that can be taken on the Roadmap to Health.

Overall, my husband and I have been very fortunate with the health of our three daughters. This is in spite of some very non ideal genetics and some unfortunate situations. The fact that all three daughters are all doing quite well helps to exemplify that a number of factors need to go awry simultaneously to create that perfect storm of health problems. Multifactorial conditions require underlying genetic susceptibility along with exposure to environmental toxins, stress and infectious agents in the absence of supplementation to support positive epigenetic influences. The genetics from my husband’s side of the family are not stellar. His paternal grandmother had Alzheimer’s his maternal grandfather died of ALS, his father had a heart attack at an early age and his mother had several brain tumors. In terms of his parents, a testament to a healthy lifestyle is that both survived those major medical events and are healthy and vibrant to this day. Needless to say some of the genes that my girls inherited are not pristine. In addition, one of them is a sulfite sensitive asthmatic and until we were aware of that condition 911 was called more than once for respiratory issues. One of the other daughters had a severe case of mononucleosis and streptococcus such that her tonsils were so enlarged her throat was almost entirely closed off. And the third daughter had such a severe concussion that she was unable to read or drive for months. Yet, in spite of less than ideal genetics, and these additional health incidents all are healthy, bright and successful. Why are they not riddled with chronic health issues, with CFS, with ADD or glutamate related problems? I believe the answer is living in a clean less toxic environment combined with the use of nutritional supplements to bypass mutations from a very young age.

Before any of our girls were old enough to swallow pills we would crush the supplements on a spoon and add honey and have them lick the nutrients off the spoon. I expect they thought that everyone was raised to take multiple supplements daily. My youngest recently started her own vitamin company directed towards the needs of dancers, once she realized that not everyone had grown up taking supplements to support their body. Nutritional supplementation can have a major positive impact on your health, especially if you haven’t been given the best car on the lot for your vehicle to drive for life.

We want to be paying attention, not only to the SNPs and ways to bypass those SNPs, but also to our exposure to environmental toxins and how we support our systems to deal with infectious agents so that we can overcome all of these factors for better health.