My story is long and can get pretty involved so I am going to skip many details and get straight to significant life events. I feel once you understand who I am as an individual based on my experiences, you and I will resonate on a deeper level. After all, DrBenLynch.com is not about me – it is about how I can help you.
Life experiences change a person. Or do life experiences create a person?
Bottom line: I am not your typical guy nor am I your typical doctor.
- 1974: Born in Portland, Oregon
- 1984: Turned 10
- 1986: Moved to Central Oregon. Lived on a 100 acre horse ranch in Prineville, Oregon. Prineville has two famous claims:
1) highest teenage pregnancy state in the State of Oregon (not sure if we still hold that stat) and
2) home of Les Schwab Tires (really).
All kidding aside, ranch life taught me a ton: hard work, self-motivation, appreciation of nature and the cycle of life.
- 1992: Graduated Valedictorian from Sunriver Preparatory School in Sunriver, Oregon
- 1994: Finally reached my final height of 6′ 5″
- 1992 – 1995: Rowed for the University of Washington Huskies Crew Team. Overcame a serious 2 year knee injury after discovering the root cause on my own.
- 1995 – 1996: Had enough of ‘structured life’ in lecture halls and training rooms.
The travel bug hit – and hit hard.
Took a 1 year leave from the University of Washington to backpack throughout the South Pacific and Southeast Asia.
I left 213 pounds, fit, short-haired and with hard-earned money in my pocket.
It was while absolutely ill in India that I first discovered Ayurvedic medicine. This eventually led me to Bastyr University and where I am today.
Highlights of the one year backpacking trip are numerous but the most significant are:
- working in the Prem Dan in Calcutta and meeting Mother Theresa;
- yacht race from Darwin, Australia to Ambon, Indonesia. Got caught in a White Squall during night watch and experienced a 70′ yacht touch its mast head to the ocean’s waves in the blink of an eye;
- spending my last $10 to buy a tie so I could attend a ‘tie-only’ event. This event was the celebration of the rodeo and all the big ‘cattle station managers’ were there. If I wanted to land a job, it was here. Completely by chance, out of 100′s of places to sit, I happened to sit myself down next to the wife of the Brunette Downs manager. Brunette Downs is one of the largest cattle stations in Australia. I got the job.
- working as a Jackaroo (cowboy) for one month on a 1.5 million acre cattle station, Austral Downs, in Outback Australia. I was nicknamed ‘America’. The romantic hard lifestyle could not be beat: riding horses all day and working with cattle in the heart of Australia’s Outback desert with 7 other excellent people;
- lived with an Fijian family on a remote island, Somo Somo, and learned that no matter how poor and remote a place may be, happiness is possible;
- hiking in Tasmania for one month. Ran out of food during a 14 day hike in the wilderness;
- kayaking the Fjords of New Zealand. Got caught up in a sudden severe storm during a crossing;
- experiencing the enormity of the Himalayas while traveling north of Manali;
- returning to America with $0.80 cents from 3 different currencies in my pocket weighing 160 pounds, long-haired, ill and continuing to treat my scabies while on the airplane.
- 1997: Graduated from University of Washington with a BS in Cell and Molecular Biology. Switched focuses four times: International Business, Pre-Veterinary Medicine, Pre-Med, Landscape Architecture (I enjoy diversity).
- 1997: Summited Mt Rainier and Mt Baker, parachuted from an airplane
- 1997 – 2005: Founded and operated a high-end residential landscape construction firm based in Seattle, Washington. Became ‘bored’ as I ‘figured it out.’ Needed a challenge and to return to my passion of medicine. I left a high six figure income to attend medical school.
- 1997: Traveled throughout Western Europe for 2.5 months during the winter solo: Significant experiences: Krakov, Auschwitz-Birkenau
- 1998: Traveled throughout Eastern Europe for 2.5 months during the winter. Highlights: Russia, Ukraine, Romania. Met my future wife in a tiny part of the world, Narva, Estonia.
- 2000: Russia visit for 2 months in the middle of winter. Experienced ‘Dacha’ life and the freezing country winters.
- 2001: Married Nadezda Mikhaylova
- 2002: Began Bastyr University. Birth of our first son, Tasman, right smack in the middle of first quarter med school finals week. Complicated delivery. Finally understood the meaning of life: Being a father.
- 2005: Mathew, our second son, born.
- 2005: Began HealthE Goods from an empty bedroom of our home. Idea behind HealthE Goods was to offer a ‘virtual dispensary’ for my future patients. I later figured, “Why benefit only a few?” So I expanded the offerings, began answering health questions, blogged and shipped health products globally.
- 2006: Russia visit #3. Finding out that I am in the right place on the planet while living in a totally remote part of the world in an extremely rustic 100 year old cabin on 2 acres on a river growing and harvesting our own food. Three families living together under one roof. Life as it should be. I would have done well living 150 years ago as I enjoy the rustic, down to earth lifestyle.
- 2007: Graduate from Bastyr University with my doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine.
- 2007: Russia visit #4 for nearly 3 months during the summer. Fished, worked the land, played with my sons and enjoyed living a very simple life.
- 2008: Birth of our third son, Theodor.
- 2009: Russia visit #5. A powerful visit. My wife’s grandmother passes at 92 years old. Learned the Russian remote country way of preparing for the memorial service, burial and all traditions surrounding the loss of a loved one. A very human and respectful way to say goodbye to our loved ones. Everything was handled by the family – everything – beautifully.
- 2010: HealthE Goods is one of the Inc 500 Fastest Growing Companies in America
- 2010: Began Seeking Health line of Dr Ben’s products
- 2011: Understood the massive importance of people needing expert health information. The failure of America’s health care system is failing millions of people on a daily basis. Led me to the creation of Dr Ben Lynch and all the sister partner sites and programs which are constantly in development.
Curriculum Vitae
Coming…
Hello, Dr. Ben….like your website……I am a family practice doctor in Southern California….trained in functional medicine through Scripps Institute for Integrative Medicine and certified via Institute for Integrative Holistic Medicine….anyway…I run MTHFR analysis on more than half of my patients….and I treat all single and double polymorphisms with methylators…..you cannot believe the lives that change miraculously with simple supplementation! I will be speaking in Seattle Washington with Dr. Jeffrey Bland Oct 15 on this very subject as well as detoxification.
Bridget
Bridget –
Fantastic!
Could you please post another comment here:
http://mthfr.net/calling-mthfr-doctors-where-are-you/2011/09/19/
I’d like to get your clinic up on MTHFR.net. People are looking for you…
Please tell your colleagues to come and post their clinic name and information as well if they work with MTHFR.
I’ll come to your talk. What is the website link for the conference? We can get together before or after and discuss further.
I’m very excited about the amazing outcomes with people who have MTHFR and are properly treated. The issue is – they cannot find doctors who know anything and they are not properly treated even if they find a doctor who says they know about MTHFR.
Love your thoughts on this post I wrote today:
http://mthfr.net/mthfr-mutations-are-more-than-high-homocysteine/2011/09/20/
Thanks for commenting!
Remember – get your colleagues who work with MTHFR to post a comment on the Calling MTHFR Doctors post. I’ll be setting up a referral page – free for docs – as a service to our readers.
Best
Ben
Just starting reading your website and saw this page- What are methylators? I have been told I have MTHFR and recently have been having chest pains, very painful leg cramps in middle of the night( inside both legs and on outer left leg. Tonight I have pain on inner right thigh and am concerned about possible blood clot. Please advise- Thanks!
Hi Judy –
I recommend you call the fire department and have them come out and assess your leg. Many times paramedics can determine if a clot is present just from palpating (feeling).
If you are homozygous C677T or compound heterozygous (one copy of A1298C and one copy of C677T), the risk of clotting is significant.
Please call your doctor.
Best,
Dr Ben
Dear Dr. Ben,
I was looking for information on MTHFR and found your website. I received a call from my neurologist today who was doing a blood workup on me due to a resolved blood clot in my colon ,superficial blood clots in my legs and arm and easily bruising, he informed me that my lab was abnormal and had MTHFR. I haven’t been able to find much info. about it but at this point I am desperately looking for answers. I should give you a little background. This all started in April 2011. It began with pain in my upper back and arms. They first thought I had a pulled muscle. By June I was hurting all over, sleeping 20 out of 24 hrs and extremely weak. I then went to a rheumatologist, I wasdiagnosed with fibromyalgia. Started on neurontin which totally messed me up. Was then put on cymbalta,lodine and norflex for the pain. It did ease the pain but only at rest. I also began losing weight, and couldn’t eat due to stomach pain and vomiting. By August it was so bad I had to take off work on disability. They decided to do EGD and colonoscopy, finding a small ischemic area in my colon caused from a resolved blood clot. They also diagnosed me with spastic colon/ibs. I have diarrhea for a couple of weeks then go days to 2 weeks without anything then diarrhea starts all over. I have frequent migraines and have large bruises on my legs. Other symptoms include breast discharge,nausea chronic fatigue, hx of depression and anxiety. I have been to a colorectal specialist, a gastroenterologist, hemotologist, neurologist and to the ER twice due to severe abd. pain. The main answers I get is that my history is complicated. Its like noone wants to find a cure for me. They just continue to treat symptoms with different meds. Currently I am taking Cybalta 90mg, Lodine 500mg bid, Norflex 100mg bid, ASA 81mg, Librax bid, lomotil daily, Trazadone 100mg q hs, phenergan 12.5 q 4 hrs prn, Treximet daily as needed for migraines, and as of today added Vit b12,b6 and folic acid. I have 4 kids and cont to be off work can barely function day to day. I would really like to be able to live my life again. PLEASE if there is any way you could help I would be so grateful.
Kim –
Sorry to hear you are not receiving appropriate care – instead – drive through medicine is what you’re getting.
Which MTHFR you have? I assume 1 copy of each or?
There is hope – I’ve seen some very complicated and crazy symptoms over the years. The key is to find the underlying causes, address those and work out from there.
Due to your complexity, a consult is highly recommended. Please call 800-689-8221 to schedule. I am not so available this month but will be more available next month.
My 9 year old Autistic son has just tested positive for the A1298C Mutation. I saw the hematology clinic at childrens hospital, but was told not to worry. At the time of testing they also had performed several tests for prominent venous distention in upper thoax and neck. In one test it showed he had cervical lymphadenopathy, (not sure what that is) There was no evidence of thrombus or obstruction. They did find however that his liver and spleen were enlarged and his gull bladder was distended. The blood tests they took showed his AST at 83 and his ALT at 101. Both extremely high, His WBC, RBC, HGB, HCT, MCV, and MPV were also high. His MCHC was low. Can you tell me if any of these things have to do with the Mutation. Even though we are seeing different clinics at Childrens hospital, I am really not getting any answers. Not once did they ever tell me to test the other children. My sister had a leg amputation at age 29 due to blood clots, and all but 1 foot of bowel removed due to blood clots at age 31. Would this mutation run in the family? Any light yu can shed would really help.
Thanks
Ann –
Sorry to hear about your son.
A1298C MTHFR mutation may have some effect here – but not entirely. It also depends if he has two copies of the gene mutation or one.
MTHFR does run in the family.
It sounds like he is fighting some form of infection which may be stemming from his gallbladder. Hard to say though.
Keep me posted.
Thank you for all your work!
I read that you like sauna and I do too. I was wondering what is your opinion on having a sauna/ steam bath during pregnancy (first month-when you don’t know if you conceived).
I read one scientific article on this, generally cited in this case, but it did not convince me. The theory is that raising the women’s body temperature (fever; and fever is equated to hot bath; hot tub; sauna) can cause mutations and spina bifida.
It was done as a “retrospective” study of women in California. It found that “hot tubs” are connected with birth defects and sauna ranked second in the list. But I thought that it might also be because of the high chemicals in “hot tubs”.
Here are my questions:
1. Do you think that heat can be bad and particularly bad for mthfr mutant pregnant women?
2.Since your wife is Russian, do you know of any study done in Russia/Finland or in the Magreb (steam bath) on this subject? What do women do there traditionally?
This kind of study would make more sense to me if done in those countries, since it could offer a larger amount of data.
Thank you.
Elena –
I love sauna – immensely.
I do not recommend having sauna while pregnant as hyperthermia causes toxins and chemicals to be mobilized from storage sites – especially fat and tissues. It is not really that temperature is bad – it is the fact that sauna increases mobilization of undesired compounds into the bloodstream which get into the developing baby.
1) Yes. Sauna and hot tubs are potentially bad for pregnant women – MTHFR or not.
2) I have not seen a study here on this subject. I do know that it is not recommended over there though to sauna while pregnant – at least in Russia. Finland I am not sure. I hope so.
If women do sauna or steam, they do so for a very short time and lower temperatures.
I personally do not recommend hyperthermia while pregnant for more than 5 to 10 minutes.
Ok, I am really frustrated. This is going to be quite long, I will shorten it as much as possible. Let’s start with my uncle and work down. He has some autoimmune eye disease that is degenerating his sight and soon he will not be able to see. My aunt has some characteristics of lupus, but they aren’t calling it systemic lupus, also has Addison’s and RA, as well as an unidentified antibody in her CSF and other symptoms they can’t relate to any of these things which are a lot like my symptoms. My mother, has symptoms of MS, but has been checked for it and her myelin sheath is intact and no sign of scar tissue. She has hair loss, depression, anxiety, heart racing, extreme cold sensitivity, night sweats, tingling in hands and legs, shortness of breath, severe fatigue, numbness, headaches, memory loss, aches and pains all the time. My brother, has Insulin Growth Factor Type 1 Diabetes, has severe nausea and a constant migrane and cannot eat very well. I’m sure you know, it’s a very rare form of that particular autoimmune disease. My sister, they thought she had Addisons, she doesn’t.. they can’t figure her out. Let’s talk about her first. She passes out and has “mini siezures” as the EMT’s call them. She is 90 lbs and 5 ft and they have to pump 2 to 3 bags of IV fluids in her every time she passes out. THey have done a glucose monitor on her hip that checks her sugar every 3 minutes (or seconds, can’t remember) and her sugar gets remarkably low (40s) at night and she is still coherent. She also has night sweats, general weakness, hair loss, anxiety, panic attacks, depression, difficulty sleeping, nausea, abdominal pain, mucous in stools, cloudy urine, vaginal discharge, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing at night, headaches, and cramping in legs at night.They have also flushed her kidneys to find nothing unusual and she has bicornate uteruses and poly cystic ovarian syndrome(they aren’t sure she really has it now with all the other symptoms). She also has chest pains, EXTREME fatigue (sleeping 20 hrs a day when she is allowed to and still feels tired), GI problems (diarrhea and constipation alternating basically). They don’t know what’s wrong with her, but they tested her IGF-1 and it was “normal”. Now to me, I have had a 1:160 speckled ANA titer when I was pregnant with my son, as well as low protein S. I also have both MTHFR gene mutations, C677T and A1298C but normal levels of homocysteine (never checked my urine, just plasma). These were all checked three years ago when I was pregnant with my son. My ANA now, is negative, my RA is normal, I do however have Thyroid peroxidase antibodies and thyroglobulin antibodies that are starting to attack my thyroid. I however, have a LAUNDRY list of symptoms I am having that they can’t explain. For instance, my hands and feet swell, hurt, and my hands turn a blueish color on the palms and red in the joints. I have LOTS of pain upon getting out of bed in the morning in my feet, they feel like they are going to break. I have mood swings and severe panic attacks, difficulty breathing, nausea, cramps in legs and my back feels like it’s breaking when I lie down (I have to ease down, and then come up and then let down and come back up over and over until I can finally get used to the pain and lie down), hair loss, occassional night sweats, heightened cold sensory, migranes and dizzy spells, memory loss, heart palpations and intermittent mini nose bleeds (which are more like mini clots in my nose). i also have pain during intercourse… enough to make me burst out and cry, but no endometriosis or anything abnormal was seen during my c-sections. I have severe fatigue and have to drink 2 energy drinks a day to even function, sometimes I have to take B12 as well to not fall asleep while I am driving to work. My EKG is normal too by the way. My mother has had 2 miscarriages in the 3rd trimester and my aunt has had 4. I have not had any and neither has my sister. Now, my daughter has a small cleft palate in the back of her mouth that barely nicked the hard palate, she also has a split uvula and a whole side of her labia was fused ( we used a cream to fix that) and she also is pre-asthmatic. My son, had an inguinal and umbilical hernia, he is what they are calling a “reactive hypoglycemic” for now until more testing is done on my brother, sister and I. WHAT IS GOING ON?? Can this be caused by the MTHFR mutations??? I am so at a loss right now. My sister goes to a rheumatologist in a few weeks and I go on the 20th of February. I am LOSING MY MIND!!! Please help with any information you have.
thanks so much,
Brianne
Hello Doctor Ben,
While I have never been tested I have arrived at a pragmatic determinations of my lifelong inability to utilize folic acid, folinic acid and vegetable food source folate. All of these block the utilization of Metafolin in my body and those of many others. The website listed above is a hotbed of MTHR testing and discussion of paradoxical folate deficiencies and induced folate deficiencies via glutathione, NAC, whey and other items. I an others are in the process of solving the problems of these induced deficiencies and restoration to health. Also, another source of testing and consulting will be much appreciated in that web community. There are thousands there with intense and very personal interest in these polymorhisms and their affect on health. In addition, we are all always looking for quality products serving our needs at affordable prices. Feel free to drop by and introduce yourself to a lot of very interested people.
Hi Fred –
I am very familiar with Phoenix Rising and am impressed with Rich and all those interacting there. I believe I’ve read some of your posts as well.
Thank you for the invitation to stop by and interact. I will do that.
Gaining additional perspectives in the web of health is always needed – and appreciated.
I am a firm believer of ‘let food by thy medicine’, elimination of gluten and dairy, digestive health and specific detoxification methods such as sauna, colonics, coffee enemas. Understanding how our environmental affects our health is also critical.
Supplementation can be a double-edged sword and often is. For example, I am working with a gentleman who has MTHFR and has not been doing well at all – in a wheelchair, unable to walk unassisted. This is until I stopped all of his supplementation and put him on a strict fruit/vegetable/chia seed diet. He has improved dramatically in a matter of days. Journey still continues…
While my company, Seeking Health, provides supplements, we also provide lifestyle products such as enema equipment and neti pots.
I have no problem issuing all at Phoenix Rising a long term discount program for Seeking Health items. I know obtaining and maintaining health can be frustrating and expensive at times – and I want to help those continue on their journey towards it. I will talk with my team about this and we’ll go from there.
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/forumdisplay.php?49-Detox-Methylation-B12-Glutathione-Chelation
I didn’t realize that the link wouldn’t show. We are solving a lot of the practical problems like low potassium caused by high rate cell formation, commonly called “detox” and induced folate deficiencies, commonly called detox”. Some are much more up on the polymorphisms than I am though I clearly have a number of them. Thankyou for your generosity. A lot of us spend hundreds of dollars per month for these kinds of items. The “web of health” is complicated and an active interchange can clarify a lot of things. We all have a common goal despite having a wide variety of theories. I am glad I ran into your site. I’ve posted some links and there is already discussion springing up. You will find that there are people who will agree or disagree about almost everything. What we are all desireous of is results, and that comes by combining information and trying things.