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Pyroluria with low copper?

Messages
56
Location
Brisbane
Is it possible to have pyroluria with low copper? When I do b6/zinc I do well for a couple of weeks before I crash and seemingly symptoms alleviate with copper rich food.
 

hixxy

Senior Member
Messages
1,229
Location
Australia
Is it possible to have pyroluria with low copper? When I do b6/zinc I do well for a couple of weeks before I crash and seemingly symptoms alleviate with copper rich food.

Try a copper supplement. Copper rich food isn't really testing the theory in isolation. I can't remember if you said the other day you'd tried a supplement or not.
 

hixxy

Senior Member
Messages
1,229
Location
Australia
http://planetthrive.com/2010/04/hpukpu-protocol-for-lyme-and-autism/

You also have to be careful with copper supplementation due to copper transport problems. If the copper carrier protein (caeruloplasmin) is low, you will just be creating free copper (toxic).

Unfortunately, copper deficiency can also cause low caeruloplasmin. So you don't know when running this test if it is just low for other reasons or low because copper is deficient.
 

hixxy

Senior Member
Messages
1,229
Location
Australia
Very interesting. I have low copper and low caeruloplasmin too, but there's no guarantee that you aren't also loaded with free copper. In which case if caeruloplasmin doesn't rise when you supplement copper, you're making yourself copper toxic, whilst staying copper deficient.

It's a hard thing.

I guess if you have a doctor willing to run repeated tests, you could monitor it. Not many of us have doctors willing to do this kind of thing though.

Likewise getting an RBC copper would be interesting. If there's enough in RBCs, serum and caeuloplasmin might not matter so much.

(This is speculation on a bunch of things I've read on this. I thought I was copper deficient about a year and a half ago for the same reasons as Boost, pyroluria treatment)
 

hixxy

Senior Member
Messages
1,229
Location
Australia
Last time iron studies were done:

Total iron binding capacity: 47 (45-72)
Transferrin saturation: 36% (22-55)

I'm presuming the TIBC was what you wanted?
 

hixxy

Senior Member
Messages
1,229
Location
Australia
Back in 09 I had a low TIBC with high Transferrin Saturation. It's interesting having a 10 year history of all my pathology.
 
Messages
56
Location
Brisbane
Unfortunately copper supplementation leaves me with a mixed feeling of better and worse at the same time. Almost as if it increases levels of some neuro transmitters while at the same time lowering others. I dont get that with copper rich food...
 

nanonug

Senior Member
Messages
1,709
Location
Virginia, USA
Get yourself a translation plugin for your browser or move to one with it built in (chrome)?

Hixxy, OK, it's true, my attempts at humor always fail miserably. But come on, that comment of mine to was supposed to be funny, man! :D

By the way, I tried Chrome but didn't really like it. There are a few pluggins I am used to on Firefox (which also sucks in its own special way) that just didn't work properly on Chrome.
 

CCC

Senior Member
Messages
457
Here's a sort-of transcript for the copper section

There's the copper-zinc-SOD in the cell (there's also an SOD outside the cell, which is also copper dependent; and an Mn SOD). SOD, catylase and glutathione are part of the body's defence against oxidative stress (which we could call rust). Copper is essential for SOD and it's needed for catylase (which needs iron, but iron is only as good as the copper) and glutathione peroxidase (needs Selenium and magnesium, but doesn't work as well in a copper deficient body). Copper is, in fact, the workhorse that prevents rust in the body.

So what about zinc and kryptopyrroles? ... some discussion about chemistry (minute 48.5).
Haemogloblin is 4 pyrroles with iron at the centre. This makes haem an important chemical, allowing iron to store oxygen in the body. But, the enzymes that get the iron where it should be work only in the presence of copper (min 50).

The issue with copper in this context is faulty haem production. While the pyrrole does cause issues with loss of zinc and b6, it's because copper is not available to make the haemoglobin, zinc and b6 are destroyed in the body.

This means we are treating a symptom of low zinc and b6, when, in fact, it is a copper deficiency that's causing the problem and never gets addressed.

[discussion of sugars in alcohol] ... when people are short of copper, they're going to crave sugar to help build dopamine. Drinking gets rid of the magnesium, zinc, b6. When the liver can't function any more, it stops making ceruloplasm, and then the alcohol craving continue ... [looking for sugar/alcohol to boost dopamine]​