Hi, all.
For what it's worth, I think that Dr. Myhill and her coauthors have done a very nice job quantifying the mitochondrial dysfunction in ME/CFS.
As I've written them before, what they haven't done is to explain the root cause of it. All of the detrimental factors they have identified, including oxidative stress, buildup of toxins, viral infection, and depletion of essential substances such as carnitine, coenzyme Q10, and magnesium can, in my opinion, be traced back to the vicious circle mechanism involving glutathione depletion, a functional B12 deficiency, partial methylation cycle block and loss of folates from the cells. I think that it will be necessary to break up this vicious circle by use of a methylation protocol in order to completely correct the mito dysfunction.
I note that Dr. Howard does measure glutathione, but it is a red blood cell total glutathione test, rather than a plasma reduced glutathione test, and I believe that it is less reflective of tissue intracellular reduced glutathione levels, which is what counts. Nevertheless, he often finds low glutathione in PWMEs.
I also note that Dr. Myhill has included methylation treatment on her website, but I don't think she uses it on all her patients.
I really think that if the GD-MCB vicious circle is put together with their mito dysfuction work, we have a pretty solid explanation for what is going on in the mitochondria in ME/CFS, and why. I'm planning to write to them again about these things. I very much appreciate their work.
Best regards,
Rich