• 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, 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.

Spirulina anyone??

RUkiddingME

RUkiddingME

Senior Member
Messages
220
Location
Canada
Just started taking Spirulina (blue-green algae) a few days ago after reading about it's immune boosting properties. Tonight I came across a few sites that mentioned Spirulina should not be used if you have an auto-immune disease as it could seriously make your symptoms worse. ME/CFS was not listed although I have read that it's an auto-immune and neuro-immune disease. Which is it? Anyone tried this stuff?
 
Sallysblooms

Sallysblooms

P.O.T.S. now SO MUCH BETTER!
Messages
1,768
Location
Southern USA
It is one of the really good ingredients of my Green's First powder I add to my smoothie daily. My smoothie is amazing for immunity.
 
B

baccarat

Senior Member
Messages
188
No thanks.
I used to get loads of the stuff in the early stages of my illness. It alleviated fatigue but I'm sure I picked up bugs from it. The thing comes from water and is bound to be packed with all sorts of bad microorganisms. Some are too small to be filtered out. I subsequently learnt that it can be a source of liver flukes.
For that reason Im staying well clear now of any algae related products, including chlorella.
Good luck.
 
L'engle

L'engle

moogle
Messages
3,227
Location
Canada
I was thinking of getting spirulina. I ended up buying wheat grass instead. I gather they're somewhat similar.
 
F

FunkOdyssey

Senior Member
Messages
144
Calgarynat said:
Just started taking Spirulina (blue-green algae) a few days ago after reading about it's immune boosting properties. Tonight I came across a few sites that mentioned Spirulina should not be used if you have an auto-immune disease as it could seriously make your symptoms worse. ME/CFS was not listed although I have read that it's an auto-immune and neuro-immune disease. Which is it? Anyone tried this stuff?
Click to expand...

I tried it, before I was giving much thought to autoimmunity as a possibility in CFS. Sure enough it made me feel awful, flared up existing symptoms and began to trigger new ones. Real bad stuff in my particular case.
 
E

endomeister

Messages
36
Calgarynat said:
Just started taking Spirulina (blue-green algae) a few days ago after reading about it's immune boosting properties. Tonight I came across a few sites that mentioned Spirulina should not be used if you have an auto-immune disease as it could seriously make your symptoms worse. ME/CFS was not listed although I have read that it's an auto-immune and neuro-immune disease. Which is it? Anyone tried this stuff?
Click to expand...

I have tried Spirulina. It made me ill, and at first I did not know why. Later, after some research, I was able to confirm that it can potently stimulate TNF-alpha, an inflammatory cytokine.

I do not recommend it for most people for that reason. I have not had the same negative response to Sun Chlorella, however. It has benefited me greatly and helped my digestive system. YMMV.

There are other supplements which can aggravate auto-inflammatory and autoimmune conditions.

I have developed a chart of supplements which can help or worsen many CFS patients based on some preliminary research:

http://is.gd/B4oJMb
 
merylg

merylg

Senior Member
Messages
841
Location
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Hi endomeister,

Thanks for your chart :Sign Good Job: . It's very interesting. I had my doubts about garlic...whether I was allergic to it, or sensitive to it??? Interesting as it's part of the Lillium family and I am allergic to Lilly flowers!!!

I notice it's on your chart as a potent stimulator of TNF-alpha and therefore inflammatory :eek:

Too bad it is in the Neuro Health Formula I have!!! Do you have some references I could read about it?

Thanks,

meryl :victory: PS I take Chlorella (Swisse), helps detox
 
E

endomeister

Messages
36
merylg said:
Hi endomeister,

Thanks for your chart :Sign Good Job: . It's very interesting. I had my doubts about garlic...whether I was allergic to it, or sensitive to it??? Interesting as it's part of the Lillium family and I am allergic to Lilly flowers!!!

I notice it's on your chart as a potent stimulator of TNF-alpha and therefore inflammatory :eek:

Too bad it is in the Neuro Health Formula I have!!! Do you have some references I could read about it?

Thanks,

meryl :victory: PS I take Chlorella (Swisse), helps detox
Click to expand...

I have seen conflicting information in regard to garlic. Here is a quote from an article: "Garlic derivatives have both a stimulatory (7) and inhibitory (79) effect on lymphocyte proliferation and LPS-induced TNF-alpha generation".

Remember that with autoimmune and autoinflammatory conditions (like CFS, Behcet's Disease, etc), patients often greatly overproduce tnf-alpha and other inflammatory compounds in response to any stimulation. So, if a food has immunomodulatory effects which are both suppressive and stimulative, the stimulative effects may dominate.

Here is a pubmed link with some information on alliin, a compound in garlic: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10501628


Remember, also, that stimulating tnf will lower glutathione levels as inflammation generates all kinds of toxins that glutathione must mop up.

Garlic is also said to be rich in citrulline, a precursor for arginine. Arginine stimulates NO which is already in overdrive in some inflammatory conditions. In addition, a cause/trigger of some auto-inflammatory conditions are the herpes family viruses like HSV1/2, VZV, etc. These viruses are stimulated by arginine. This is yet another mechanism through which garlic may produce inflammation.

To counter arginine, many of us take lysine (which in fact does help counter arginine and reduce inflammation).


The upshot is be careful with garlic if you have any autoinflammatory or autoimmune condition, or sense it is causing problems for you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.