It's a little confusing Tracy. MTHFR is an enzyme that produces the methylated form of folate (5-MTHF) as part of the methylation cycle. There are a number of genes that influence the activity of the enzyme and these also take the same name - MTHFR. They are distunguished by designations such as C677T which refer to the slight variations from the "normal" in the bases that make up their DNA. You are absolutely right that these genes are inherited and would explain a family predisposition to poor methylation and everything that goes along with it e.g. psychological disorders, poor detoxification, high homocysteine etc. If you have SNPs for MTHFR and also folate deficiency due to stress, illness, poor diet, or gut dysbiosis...then you are in big trouble. Unfortunately I fall into that category as I'm sure many people with CFS and other environmental illnesses do! Thanks for reading my essay - glad it made sense of what you had already figured out :) Don't worry it's not you with the group emails. You should receive emails when somebody replies to a discussion you are actively involved in and also when a new discussion topic is started. You won't receive emails for new posts in discussions you have not replied to yourself - currently no way to change that unfortunately.