On MTHFR, COMT, and Building a Resilient Terrain
I have a habit of reading food labels like I’m trying to crack some hidden code. To be fair, modern nutrition and ingredient labels do contain quite a lot of enigmatic information.
Years ago, when my husband and I were coworkers, he watched me in a grocery aisle in Scotland turn over block after block of butter and read the fine print. Country of origin. Fat content. Grass fed or not. I was not casually shopping. I was trying to assess what in the name of all that is holy the difference was.
He told me much later that, at that point in our acquaintance, he thought I was an angry woman. Apparently my face reads as “deeply disappointed in humanity” when in reality I am usually just thinking. RBF has served me well in general. I just didn’t realize I had it.
I have been careful for a long time and not for drama’s sake. As a kid I wasn’t yet in constant pain, but I was frequently late to school because my digestion hijacked the morning plans. I twisted my ankle constantly. I threw my back out more often than seemed normal. I remember wondering at night whether I felt pain at a higher level than other people or whether I was just stubborn enough to ignore it.
The truly loud pain came much later. After three babies, a marital separation caused by immigration paperwork, and a couple of very stretching years. Single momming it is hard. After all that… my body stopped sending polite messages and started throwing tantrums. So yes, I still read butter labels.
If I am solid most of the time, my body tolerates flexibility. Eighty or ninety percent consistency buys margin. Perfection is not the goal. Stability is.
Some Bodies Run on Fumes. Some Don’t.
What I’ve learned over the years is that some people can live on fumes. Energy drinks. Sleep deprivation. Fluoro snacks. Coffee like it’s water. They seem fine.
Others of us are not built that way. We are playing by a different set of rules.
This is where genetics gets dragged into the conversation. MTHFR. COMT. Detox variants with names that sound like airport departure boards. The internet loves to turn these into identity statements. You either have a “mutation” and are doomed, or you don’t and you’re superior.
That framing is lazy. It’s also profitable. And it keeps people anxious.
These variants are common. Roughly half to two-thirds of Europeans carry at least one copy of MTHFR C677T, depending on region. If it were catastrophic, half the population would be nonfunctional.
Common does not mean defective.
COMT, MTHFR, and What Actually Matters
Slow COMT
COMT (Catechol-O-Methyltransferase) helps clear dopamine and stress hormones.
A slower COMT pattern often means you break down dopamine more slowly. That can look like overstimulation in chaos. It can also look like extraordinary focus and depth when supported.
Throwing high-dose methyl donors at this pattern often backfires. Rhythm works better. Magnesium. Moderate caffeine. Structured decompression. Protecting sleep like it matters. Because it does.
Fast COMT
A faster COMT pattern clears dopamine more quickly. If protein, iron, B vitamins, and sleep are insufficient, production cannot keep up with clearance. That can look like flat mood or “treatment resistant” depression.
Often it is under-fueling, not brokenness.
MTHFR
MTHFR (Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase) helps convert folate into its usable form for methylation — a process involved in detoxification, neurotransmitter production, and cellular repair.
You can carry a genetic tendency your whole life and never notice it. But prolonged stress, toxin exposure, trauma, or chronic under-nourishing can push that tendency from quiet to loud. That’s epigenetics.
Your genetics do not determine your fate. Your terrain influences expression.
The Canary Effect
I tend to think of myself as a canary in a coal mine. Not in a tragic way. In a practical way.
I notice when food quality dips. When sleep slips. When stress stacks. I feel pesticides, fragrances, additives in my body. That used to feel like fragility. Now I see it as responsiveness.
The canary is not weaker. It is simply more responsive to environmental change.
Food Quality, Without the Moral Spiral
Yes, food quality matters. No, perfection is not required.
If your margin is wide, conventional food may work just fine. If your margin is narrow, sourcing matters more.
But here’s the part people miss: foundations matter more than labels.
- Eat adequate protein.
- Salt your food appropriately.
- Stabilize blood sugar.
- Sleep consistently.
- Chew slowly.
- Get morning light.
A body in fight-or-flight does not absorb nutrients efficiently, no matter how pristine the sourcing. Gratitude before a meal is not superstition. It shifts physiology toward parasympathetic tone, which directly affects digestion and assimilation.
Sometimes the most powerful intervention is slowing down long enough for your body to receive what you are already giving it.
The Practical Framework
If you’ve read this far, you don’t need more theory. You need traction.
Before you reach for a supplement bottle, look at the ground you’re standing on.
- If protein intake is inconsistent, the nervous system behaves inconsistently.
- If minerals are low, stress tolerance drops.
- If blood sugar swings all day, methylation demand rises.
- If sleep is fractured, detox pathways do not keep pace.
A surprising number of “gene problems” quiet down right here.
Want the Structured Assessments?
If you want to go deeper without spiraling into fear-based supplement stacks, I’ve built three structured tools to help you notice patterns calmly and intelligently:
- COMT Nervous System Assessment
- MTHFR Bandwidth Assessment
- Methylation & Detox SNP Quick Reference
They are housed inside the Holistic Wellness Library and the Founders Vault for subscribers.
These tools are not there to label you. They are there to give you clarity and direction.
If you’d like access to the assessments and the deeper framework, you can subscribe here:
→ Join the Holistic Wellness Library
Resilience is built. You are not fragile. You are a beautifully designed, responsive human being.
And when responsiveness is supported instead of shamed, it becomes strength.