Hi,
I'm new here and just made my first post in the "Introduce Yourself" section, so I don't want to repeat myself here...
But I was hoping that someone (Rich?) could take a look at my methylation test results and give me a few tips. I'm just not sure what my next step should be (my doctor isn't familiar with the simplified methylation protocol)...
Here are my results:
Glutathione (oxidised): 0.54 (range 0.16-0.50)
Glutathione (reduced): 2.6 (range 3.8-5.5)
S-Adenosymethionine (RBC): 240 (range 221-256)
S-Adenosylhomocysteine (RBC) 53.8 (range 28.0-49.0)
5-CH3-THF: 15.3 (range 8.4-72.6)
10-Formyl-THF: 3.9 (range 1.5-8.2)
5-Formyl-THF: 4.70 (range 1.20-11.70)
THF: 0.40 (range 0.60-6.80)
Folic Acid: 14.8 (range 8.9-24.6)
Folinic Acid (WB): 12.7 (range 9.0-35.5)
Folic Acid (RBC): 382 (range 400-1500)
Adenosine: 24.8 (range 16.8-21.4)
Thanks!
Karina
Hi, Karina.
Here are some comments on your methylation pathways panel results:
You have pretty severe glutathione depletion, with a reduced glutathione value among the lowest I've seen (However, if it will make you feel any better, Dr. Audhya recently told me that he has seen one near 2.0).
Your oxidized glutathione is above its reference range, indicating that you are suffering from oxidative stress.
Your SAMe level is good, but your SAH level is above its reference range, meaning that you have a partial block in your methylation cycle. This is also reflected in the not-too-bad level of 5-CH3-THF in the presence of a very low value for THF. With such a low glutathione level, it is not surprising that methionine synthase is so seriously blocked, because you would have a severe functional deficiency of vitamin B12, and that will mean that your cells will have difficulty making methyl B12, which is needed as the coenzyme for this reaction.
Your other folates aren't too bad. The low RBC folic acid indicates that your lipid cell membranes are damaged, which would be expected when oxidative stress is present.
Your adenosine is high, but it may come down when the methylation cycle function has been restored.
I think that the simplified methylation protocol will help you, with some modifications: I think you should use methy B12 instead of hydroxo B12, because your glutathione is so low that your cells will have difficulty making the conversion at a fast enough rate. Also, in your other post, you mentioned low serine. Serine is needed to react with homocysteine in order to feed it to the transsulfuration pathway, which is necessary for making glutathione. The low serine may be largely responsible for your very low glutathione level.
I don't know what your other amino acids levels are (other than asparagine, which was also on the Spectracell panel). If you are low in methionine, glycine and/or glutamate/glutamine, this could also hinder the recovery of the methylation cycle and glutathione. You could run an amino acids panel to find out, or you could raise your protein intake or take a free form amio acids supplement.
As you probably know, your vitamin D level is low. Supplementing with D3 (perhaps together with rosemary leaf to increase its absorption) should help this.
You may have to work on your gut issues in order to increase your ability to absorb nutrients and excrete toxins, but if you are not losing weight, and you have at least one BM per day, your gut may be working well enough to handle the methylation treatment.
You didn't mention deficiency in glutathione on the Spectracell test, though you did mention low total antioxidant function. That's surprising in view of your very low glutathione on the methylation pathways panel. In cases like this, I suspect that there might be poor activity of the glutathione peroxidase enzymes because of genetic polymorphisms, or maybe selenium deficiency, because the Spectracell test is a functional test, while the methylation pathways panel measures glutathione directly.
Your immune system is not doing too well, as evidenced by the low NK function and the variety of pathogens your body is hosting. Bringing glutathione up by treating the methylation cycle block should help that.
Your HPA axis is pretty dysfunctional, but again, bringing glutathione up should help it.
I think those are all the comments I have. I hope they are helpful.
Best regards,
Rich