The Artist and The Activist Personality Type

Methylation imbalance shows itself in four personality types that can help you predict how you might react to different supplements and pharmaceutical drugs. Knowing your type can give you a shortcut in your journey to balance your methylation, but still always start with the steps in the MTHFR and Methylation Roadmap in the FREE TOOLS section of the website.

If you haven't taken the Methylation Archetype Quiz, do that first.

The Artist and The Activist MTHFR personality types are highly linked. These Methylation personalities can give you clues about how you will react to different supplements and prescriptions.

The Artist and The Activist Methylation Personality Types Are Linked

Artists and Activists are very similar, with a tremendous overlap in personality and typical response to supplements. These types of people care deeply about what they care about (their cause or their art), but tend not to get too bothered about what society in general cares about. These types are more likely to march to the beat of their own drum rather than try to achieve standards that don't matter to them. They tend to be emotionally sensitive and empathic, channeling those sensitivities into their art or cause. It would be easy to assume that all artists work in art-related fields, but this is not true. I have met many people in science-related fields who approach their work the way artists do. The hallmark here is getting lost in your work for hours (days) and forgetting to come up for air, but also bringing a creative approach to your work, no matter what type of work it is. Activists tend to approach their cause in the same way, throwing their whole selves into it. Also, activists may work on their cause outside of their profession and not in it. The work isn't important, it's the personality driving it.

Both of these types are prone to lower histamine levels, but more chemicals and food sensitivities. This means both types could be affected by food and chemical sensitivities, rashes with certain detergents or lotions, and sensitivity to chemical smells like perfumes or gasoline. They typically tolerate leftovers and fermented foods, which are high in histamine, and may even prefer them. Histamine breakdown is complex, so several genes contribute to this outside of even the methylation pathway, so the histamine piece is not as predictive as the rest of the personality.

The Difference Between The Artist and The Activist

These two types are very similar, and sometimes, if you test your personality type, you might get one result and resonate more with the other. Choose the one you resonate with because these two types are incredibly similar. If I had to pinpoint a difference, I would say it hinges on the suffering component. Both of these types feel acutely suffering of humans, animals, and the planet, but activists are usually more motivated to solve the problems through direct action, while artists are more motivated to express the problem so that there is more recognition and understanding generally. Again, this is a broad generalization, so go with the personality that describes you best.

The Best and Worst Supplements for Activists and Artists

The Artist and Activist personality types overlap in how they respond to supplements and drugs. Both groups typically react very well to good sources of folate, including folinic acid and 5-LMTHF, and L-5MTHF is the best place to start for this group.

Typically Good Reaction	Typically Bad Reaction (or can tolerate at a very low dose)
Benzodiazepines	SSRI Antidepressants
Lithium (Rx) or Lithium Orotate	Antihistamines
High-folate foods	Estrogen - birth control pills, artificial hormones
Folate, Folinic Acid, 5-LMTHF	SAMe
B12	Methionine
B3, B6	Copper
Zinc	Tryptophan, phenylalanine
Antioxidants - C, E, A, NAC, etc...	St John's Wort
Manganese	Tyrosine
Magnesium	DMG, TMG (methyl donors)
Choline	Inositol
DMAE
Omega-3 fatty acids

Finding your best path forward should always start with the basic steps to balance methylation, including eliminating folic acid and introducing high-folate foods. If you haven't already, check out the MTHFR and Methylation Road Map to start those steps. Also, if something is on your typically bad reaction list, but is suggested by your doctor, it's a good idea to discuss it with them in light of this data.

The best path forward with supplements will still involve trial and error, but this list gives you useful starting points and can save you some time. Remember, all of this depends not only on your MTHFR gene but also on your other genes and nutritional deficiencies or excesses, so be patient with yourself when finding the best nutrients for your body.

Also, when you're balancing your methylation, remember the foundational advice. Start low, go slow, and change one thing at a time. This means that you should start with the lowest dose you can find, increase doses only very slowly, and make one supplement or diet change at a time so that if you have symptoms, you can figure out what is causing them.