• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Has anyone experienced relief from cutting sulfates?

bigmillz

Senior Member
Messages
219
Location
NYC
What the title says...has anyone without a doubt benefited in a short/medium term from lowering their sulfate intake, specifically with regards to stress and the fight or flight response its supposedly related to?
 

ahmo

Senior Member
Messages
4,805
Location
Northcoast NSW, Australia
My most obvious symptom from sulfates was facial eczema. or some sort of facial outbreaks. This is what provoked me to deal w/ sulfates. It's now nearly 4 years later. I tolerate small amounts, very small. I can't say much about how I'm helped by avoiding them, since I don't go there. When I self-test, my body always rejects sulfurous (high thiol) foods.
 

Violeta

Senior Member
Messages
2,895
My most obvious symptom from sulfates was facial eczema. or some sort of facial outbreaks. This is what provoked me to deal w/ sulfates. It's now nearly 4 years later. I tolerate small amounts, very small. I can't say much about how I'm helped by avoiding them, since I don't go there. When I self-test, my body always rejects sulfurous (high thiol) foods.
@ahmo, do you have any snp's on the solute carrier SLC26a? I see it has something to do with thiocyanate. Isothiocyanate is the sulfur in the brassica vegetables, I don't know if it's the sulfur in all vegetables. What made me think of this is that I started taking biotin and all of a sudden I have been able to eat broccoli and cauliflower. I haven't been able to eat them for years. I forget now why I thought the biotin would have made a difference, and I haven't had genetic testing done, but just asking around for now.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3602804/

Pertaining to humans starts at section 5. Diagram #3 interesting.
 

bigmillz

Senior Member
Messages
219
Location
NYC
My most obvious symptom from sulfates was facial eczema. or some sort of facial outbreaks. This is what provoked me to deal w/ sulfates. It's now nearly 4 years later. I tolerate small amounts, very small. I can't say much about how I'm helped by avoiding them, since I don't go there. When I self-test, my body always rejects sulfurous (high thiol) foods.

What do you consider to be high thiol foods?
 

ahmo

Senior Member
Messages
4,805
Location
Northcoast NSW, Australia
@Violeta I have 4 SLC26a snps: 3 hetero, 1 homo. I used higher levels of biotin before my intensive detox a year ago. Now I'm only using the 25mcg in my B complex.

I realized after my response here yesterday that my shorthand answer was probably less than useful. The facial response was the way I first uncovered the sulfur problem. Later I came to understand that I was experiencing high ammonia, w/ several symptoms, including breathlessness, maybe irritability. I used a selection of ammonia-reducing supps, generally via footbaths. That included ornithine, arginine, citrulline, lysine. I later replaced them all w/ malic acid, from following advice on this thread.
I also tried varying amounts of molybdenum, eventually settling on the dose that seemed to help.

Here's a good high thiol list.
http://livingnetwork.co.za/chelationnetwork/food/high-sulfur-sulphur-food-list/
 

bigmillz

Senior Member
Messages
219
Location
NYC
Following up on this...

Consistently (4 trials) if I remove high thiol foods from my diet, I feel WONDERFUL in about 3 days.
During the first 3 trials, I jumped the gun and challenged thiols after about 3 more days, putting an end to the improvement.
On the 4th trial, I've been on a low thiol diet for almost 2 weeks, with 1 slip up a week ago, and the improvement hasn't returned. It faded around the 3rd day as well. I've been strictly controlling it as well.

Very frustrated - did anyone else see an immediate improvement upon lowering thiols/sulfates, and did it persist? Did my body adjust after those 3 days? Really been in a slump all week (tired, miserable, weak), so I feel something is working against me.

To better define "improvement" in a tangible way, my daily bike ride average speed went from 12mph (with a 20mph sprint) to 15-20mph (with multiple 35mph sprints).
 

Gondwanaland

Senior Member
Messages
5,092
Do you take B6 or P5P? It is pretty amazing what it does for instance for onion chopping... When I take some B6 at breakfast and then later in the morning start preparing lunch and chop onions, I have no eye discomfort.
 

bigmillz

Senior Member
Messages
219
Location
NYC
Do you take B6 or P5P? It is pretty amazing what it does for instance for onion chopping... When I take some B6 at breakfast and then later in the morning start preparing lunch and chop onions, I have no eye discomfort.

I don't currently...I was taking Thorne's B Complex #12, but it started making me feel worse, I'm guessing from the B6. I picked up Douglas' B Complex (all P5P) to try next when my sulfate levels drop enough.
 

Gondwanaland

Senior Member
Messages
5,092
I don't currently...I was taking Thorne's B Complex #12, but it started making me feel worse, I'm guessing from the B6. I picked up Douglas' B Complex (all P5P) to try next when my sulfate levels drop enough.
Indeed I find B6 very hard to supplement because I get too many side effects.
 

bigmillz

Senior Member
Messages
219
Location
NYC
I did. It seems that P5P (six milligrams per day) unlocked my thyroid, it made me feel better for a couple of weeks, then hyperthyroid, now hypothyroid. I had to stop all B vits, but next time I will try this approach. Won't be possible without iodine though.
I am trying to figure this vitamin out in a dedicated thread.

Cool, thank you...going to wait on the sulfate levels for a bit, and then move forward with the P5P B complex.

In your first link, I didn't see anything about iodine. What do you mean?

I was actually looking at your thread the other day, some good stuff in there too.
 

Gondwanaland

Senior Member
Messages
5,092
In your first link, I didn't see anything about iodine. What do you mean?
Take a look at the Krebs chart in my sig or in the B6 thread. B6 literally extracts fuel (aminoacids) from food, and together with B2 (which activates all B vits) supply material to the thyroid turn into energy. Additionally, both B2 and B6 are directly involved in facilitating T4 production. There must be enough Iodine in your body for that (and Selenium to turn T4 into T3). I have iodine deficiency, and just now am contemplaing to supplement with it (but since I have autoimmune thyroiditis it won't be so simple).

What makes it so complicated is that you never find all the information you need in a same source. This book seems to do it to some extent (B vits x thyroid).
 

bigmillz

Senior Member
Messages
219
Location
NYC
Take a look at the Krebs chart in my sig or in the B6 thread. B6 literally extracts fuel (aminoacids) from food, and together with B2 (which activates all B vits) supply material to the thyroid turn into energy. Additionally, both B2 and B6 are directly involved in facilitating T4 production. There must be enough Iodine in your body for that (and Selenium to turn T4 into T3). I have iodine deficiency, and just now am contemplaing to supplement with it (but since I have autoimmune thyroiditis it won't be so simple).

What makes it so complicated is that you never find all the information you need in a same source. This book seems to do it to some extent (B vits x thyroid).

Got it - I assume any form of B6 (P5P or pyridoxine) will satisfy the requirement?

I ran into problems with iodine as well. Mainly because I switched back to cooking from eating out, and was making everything with non-iodized salt. Adding that helped a lot!