panicky and having suicidal thoughts after 2 months of unsuccessfully addressing methyl trapping

[fprefect]

i think my biggest issue right now is the low mental clarity. i haven't been able to test anything other than the vit d recently, and that was a week ago.

i am thinking of retesting 30mg or less of sodium to help with the orthostatic intolerance and think a bit more clearly. last time i did that, mental clarity improved a bit till the next potassium dose, but i got loose stools for 2 or more days. i don't know if that was due to sodium itself or that my (mild as of 1 year ago) candida infection didn't like the salt.

i'd appreciate a shout out if this seems like a bad idea.

Ford

 

[Kathevans]

I really don't know much about orthostatic intolerance, but your comments on salt interest me. Before discovering this forum, I spent a lot of time on Bee Wilder's site called Healing Naturally. She healed herself using diet, basic vitamin supplements, and self care modalities like skin brushing and coffee enemas, and the basic food stuffs she added to her diet were Coconut oil (which frankly I love, but never could get above 2 tablespoons a day before my heart began to pound nightly), a tablespoon of lemon juice in water with meals to aid digestion, and a lot of SEA SALT, again to aid digestion--it apparently increases stomach acid that many of us lack--and to support adrenals.

So some of these things I've brought along with me for the ride. I do believe that sea salt is a better product than basic table salt. It has many, many natural minerals in it that are helpful to the body. Its only drawback is that it doesn't have iodine in it and over two years of using it, I developed an iodine deficiency (Oh, the places we go with our healing efforts!). The physical stiffness that I experienced as a symptom of iodine deficiency was corrected by a very low dose--225 mcg, I think the RDA, only 3 drops--per day.

So Celtic Grey Sea salt has been in my pantry for years and I use it liberally. In fact, while I don't drink an electrolyte drink per se, I do drink a lot of water and add 1/8 of a teaspoon of sea salt to each liter so that I maintain my sodium levels (which have been problematic in the past).

This said, I know that potassium and salt are rivals, and keep my potassium supplementation,when I do take it, separate.

This is my salt story.

 

[fprefect]

i am still unable to respond properly due to not thinking clearly.

I send along my compassion.

If I replace your Berocca Performance with Country Life Coenzymated B Complex, many of my symptoms are identical--certainly the emotional instability, certainly the pain levels, many of the symptoms--and finally understanding that many of my issues most likely had to do with methyl trapping, a couple of months ago I cut back to none, determined to build up little by little, to get to that place of low lower Bs so I could move forward with B-12 supplementation.

But my body had other ideas. Heart irregularities, depression, despair and exhaustion moved in and only began to resolve as I re-introduced the old thing that had worked so well till it didn't. (sort of) In the interim, I tinkered with B2 (as FMN), B6 and B12, Potassium, and though there might have been initial good results, I continued to spiral down. Right to that place where I told my husband and son I felt like walking in front of a truck or driving off the road. Not that I believe I would ever do that. But still.

Yesterday, my (Ok, @Gondwanaland, does DH stand for 'Dear Husband'?!) DH sat down with me and poured over the very careful spread sheet I've been keeping daily for the past couple of months. He was a physics major and understands well the scientific method. His advice to me was: there are too many variables. Go back to the place where you were the most stable.

So, I added another 1/2 B Complex yesterday, and while I was anxious and racy during the day, I was calm and slept better at night than I have in weeks. 2 hours + 3 hours + 1 hour. Wow. (for me) Of course, there was a headache, and my left hand Dupuytrens ached and this morning my sciatica is bothering me. But an emotional center for the moment holds sway.

From where I sit, pain is easier to deal with than all that sleepless emotional stuff.

I have the sense that more of the lower Bs may actually help me tolerate methylation. @Sherpa has certainly commented on this, and I'm sure many others. On the other hand I was jarred out of complacency by all the talk of Vitamin D on this thread. It's actually one thing I am clinically low in. Over the past two months as I bought Fermented Cod Liver Oil, started and stopped it because of stomach upset, I realized yesterday that I'd completely stopped taking my vit D drops. Yikes! Thanks for that. I began with 400 whatevers yesterday, 4 drops. (I have to be careful about how fast I increase anything), so even that may have added to my better sleep/calm last night.

It isn't easy working these issues from the inside out. I really got your house of cards metaphor. I hear that even on your Berocca Performance, you aren't feeling well and I hope you find the combination that supports the methylation that so clearly helps.

Here's to strong foundations, wherever and however we manage to build them.

hi @Kathevans.

thank you. i can empathise with your difficulty in finding the right balance. suicidal thoughts are a hassle, even if you don't feel you are going to act on them.

it is a good thing you figured out it is due to methyl trapping and stopped the downward spiral. that seems difficult to pinpoint since most methyl trapping on PR seems related to megadoses and onset is usually faster.

it was very sensible reducing the variables.

i don't know the details of sciatica, but you might want to confirm the pain isn't from low b12. if it is, and you haven't found a way yet to sustainably increase your b12 intake, that might be cause to rethink your approach. congrats on the improved sleep.

for me, the panic seems easier to eventually reverse than central nervous system issues and b12 deficiency. so, i am allowing it for now.

if vit d improved your sleep, you might benefit from other items that affect your body clock. ie. melatonin, blue light, dawn and dusk simulation, dark therapy.

i agree. my current situation is one rollercoaster i didn't mean to ride.

cheers. i hope you sort things out also. i would be interested to hear how you reduce your methylfolate production. incidentally, keeping magnesium, b2 and b6 low help me with this, while causing other issues.

Ford

 

[Kathevans]

i would be interested to hear how you reduce your methylfolate production. incidentally, keeping magnesium, b2 and b6 low help me with this, while causing other issues.

Methylfolate production? I was getting from 200-800mcg in the multi B-complex I was taking(was actually taking the full 800/day for years before I realized it was exactly what was causing so much pain)--and have stopped as of three days ago. After increasing the amount first to try for more sleep, which worked for 3 days before going in the other direction... Like you (I think it was you earlier in this post!), it then took 3 more days for the folate to lower enough in my system that I could sleep again. But still not well.

I'm still increasing the D, but only by 100 mcg or whatever the amount is, per day. I'm hoping that helps somewhat. And today I took one of Dr. Ben Lynch's B-Minus, a B-complex that has no methyl donors in it. We'll see how that works.

Unfortunately, I've added an extra and often very disrupting variable today by doing some cleaning around the house (despite my exhaustion, I felt I was living in a pig-sty...) So, on one hand if I clean a little, it can give me a deeper, sometimes longer sleep; whereas if I push too hard, I can end up being up half the night. We'll see!

I think I must sound much less in control of all that is happening to me at this point, which is exactly how I feel. I know that what I need is more of the B-12 for the pain, but also like you, have had a hard time tolerating it. I ran a test a few weeks ago of 1/4 sublingual for 5 days and slept less and less. I think my next move is to go to either 1/8, or even 1/16 and see if I have any reaction. I won't push for so many days this time. I'm too exhausted for that kind of experimentation.

 

[fprefect]

i am still unable to respond properly.

Just a quick one. At about 1200mg a day, I was taking too much potassium for whatever methylation was going on. I kept pumping it in and my sleep got much worse, as well as some heart symptoms. I carefully added higher potassium foods like yogurt and squash and am currently taking no supplemental.

Also, I was pretty sensitive to magnesium, especially at night, but found that by using BodyBio drops and upping by one every few days or longer, that my sleep improved, I did feel calmer and I could tolerate higher levels at first during the day, and eventually at night. I did this over months.

Just my 2 cents.

All the best.

@Kathevans

it is good you figured out your high potassium. that is dangerous. improved sleep is pretty sweet.

i did wonder if my palpitations are due to high potassium. however, when i add b12, i get cramps which subside a bit with added potassium. i think i still have low potassium. also, the palpitations subside after i calm myself down. i think the palpitations are due to the panic, although sometimes they may have been due to methyl trapping.

i tried adding cashews when i first suspected low potassium. i don't think i absorb potassium from food well right now. the low potassium symptoms improved with 100mg potassium supplementation where 600mg of potassium from cashews didn't help.

thanks for the reminder re sensitivity. i doubt that will work for my magnesium intake, but i am going to try increasing my salt very slowly.

Ford

 

[fprefect]

i am still not thinking clearly and can't respond properly.

Those are very important results and I draw blood every 2 months to know what to do next.

The basics:
Red Blood Cell panel
White Blood Cell panel
Iron panel
Thyroid panel (including Free T4, Free T3, Reverse T3, Anti-TPO and Anti-TG antibodies)
1,25 vitamin D
25 OH vitamin D
B12
folate
homocysteine
Protein C Reactive
Erythrocyte sedimentation rate
Lipid panel

Taking thyroid hormone replacement (compounded T3 and T4) allowed me to stop taking citalopram.
5-Htp helped my husband for a few weeks, but now he needs more dopamine and vitamin D brought him out of the depression hole.

However, our integrative doctor made the mistake of prescribing us Zinc without copper, which made me severely anemic. Anemia causes brain fog, fibromyalgia, weakness, and more. And DH (yes @Kathevans it's dear husband ) got severe IBS-D and depression from zinc without copper. In the very 1st day I gave DH Zinc+Copper his IBS-D stopped.

It would be very helpful to know if you have anemia, because your doctor would supposedly know what to do.

My anemia was severe, but serum B12, folate, iron and ferritin were on the high end of the range, so I knew I needed copper, B6, B1, B2.

@Gondwanaland, thank you for this. i have wanted to get more regular testing done, but haven't had the energy.

i wouldn't know what to do with these results given my low mental clarity:
Red Blood Cell panel
White Blood Cell panel
Iron panel
Thyroid panel (including Free T4, Free T3, Reverse T3, Anti-TPO and Anti-TG antibodies)
Protein C Reactive
Erythrocyte sedimentation rate
Lipid panel
do you have any good links i can read? i would google, but am not sure i can currently make sense of the search results.

always nice being able to stop medication. i have been concerned about 5htp and dopamine also.

i can empathise with having dr's advice cause new issues. anemia causes fms!? i wonder if my allodynia is related to this. zinc improves it. b12 used to improve it, but now makes it worse. i might be anemic. hair metals test from 1 year ago showed low copper and iron. not sure if folic acid is masking anemia from low b12. perhaps i should target copper and iron so i have more of a functioning brain to tackle everything else.

nicely done stopping his ibs-d.

how on earth did high serum B12, folate, iron and ferritin suggest copper, B6, B1 and B2 to you? sounds like magic to me right now.

Ford

 

[fprefect]

i am thinking less clearly. i ran out of rye bread yesterday, which i mistakenly thought was gluten and wheat free. the replacement is gluten free and improved my mental clarity, but then made my sleep and mental clarity worse today. so, the low mental clarity was partly due to either gluten/wheat intolerance or due to the fructan in rye bread feeding my klebsiella infection, amongst other things. mental clarity might be worse today due to fructan not feeding lacto, bifido and some other beneficial bacteria. it boggles my mind that bacteria cells outnumber us 10 to 1 and we still don't know enough about our interaction with them.

the cns symptoms are still present. so methyl trapping still seems like one of the ongoing issues.

Ford

 

[Gondwanaland]

i wouldn't know what to do with these results given my low mental clarity:
Red Blood Cell panel
White Blood Cell panel
Iron panel
Thyroid panel (including Free T4, Free T3, Reverse T3, Anti-TPO and Anti-TG antibodies)
Protein C Reactive
Erythrocyte sedimentation rate
Lipid panel

A RBC panel will essentially tell you about anemia. Anemia causes brain fog and body aches.

WBC panel tells you about active infections and antioxidant status.

Iron panel tells you about anemia, it can confirm or lead to other clues

Thyroid is all about mental clarity and cognition

PCR and lipid panel can tell you if your food is hurting you (going gluten free and lowering carb intake improved my results - note: I do not eat a low carb diet, but learned to balance carbs, fat and proteins)

ESR can confirm infections (unespecific)

 

[fprefect]

i am still not thinking clearly enough to respond properly.

mental clarity was a bit better. woot! no good idea why, though.

i tested 15mg salt to improve mental clarity. this made it worse, and the opposite of what happened a month ago, cos that's how i roll, apparently. i should probably increase my potassium intake before mucking with sodium again. i'd appreciate tips on balancing sodium and potassium.

also, the padding in my feet seems to be decreasing. i am getting increasing pain while standing and even when placing weight on my feet while sitting. i think it is related to added b12 intake. i tried googling the web and PR, but didn't find anything useful. i know someone on PR had the same issue, but i can't find his post again. any ideas?

Ford

 

[Gondwanaland]

padding in my feet

I think @ahmo had that once

 

[ahmo]

I didn't experience decreased padding. I was having pain in the ball of my foot, which pointed to stressed kidneys. Could it be that you're dehydrated?

 

[fprefect]

i am still not thinking clearly enough to respond properly.

i am trying to increase potassium slowly before i retry adding salt.

@caledonia, thank you for your thoughtful and detailed response. sorry about the delayed and long reply.

I was referring to your BHMT SNPs, which would impede the secondary (backup) methylation pathway. So if the primary pathway was methyl trapped, a way out could be to work on the secondary pathway with sunflower lecithin. Then if that was running better, you would hopefully feel better and be able to adjust the supplements for the primary pathway.

this sounds intriguing. i will try to remember this once the mercury is better dealt with.

Mag makes panic worse, and you're taking 2g of potass. It's possible that you're not taking enough potass, therefore adding mag will cause potassium deficiency symptoms. (As an example, I'm taking 3780mg of potass split into 4 equal doses throughout the day.)

Note - just saw Kathevans post on too much potass causing issues. There is a sweet spot for potassium. Too much or too little can both make you feel bad.

My low potass symptoms are more like panic type symptoms - bouts of rapid pounding heartbeat, feeling anxious, could also have twitching feet at night like low mag will cause. Also ringing in the ears. Most of this seems to happen at night and it wakes you up.

My high potass symptoms - feeling kind of toxic and nauseous, metallic taste in the mouth, chest pain.

my potassium does seem low after increasing the methyl b12 from 47mcg to 50mcg. i take about 2.5g split across 10 doses since i get loose stools if i take more than 400mg or so at once. i didn't realise magnesium would cause potassium deficiency. i thought added magnesium helped potassium absorption. i may be muddled.

that must have been difficult figuring out those symptoms were high potassium. i have had twitching feet once or twice, but only after waking, as far as i know. and like the tremor in the hands, it seems to improve with b12. i suspect that is the methyl trap at work.

Your detox SNPs look ok - there doesn't seem to be an issue with glutathione SNPs. So then you would look at your methylation SNPs. You have an MTRR (B12 SNP) but no MTHFR. Therefore, genetically, B12 would seem to be your worst problem.

thank you for taking a look. do you mean recycling b12 would be my biggest issue or adding it or both?

Yes - this could be the root of many (or all) of your issues.

According to Andrew Cutler, the ALA will chelate mercury, but if it's only taken like once a day, the mercury will then redistribute back into your tissues and brain, causing all kinds of problems.

The correct way to take ALA would be to take a very low dose (like 25mg or even less) every 3 hours both day and night for a couple days, then take several days off. There are several supports that need to be taken along with this to alleviate various symptoms that go along with chelating mercury.

thank you for this. if you don't recall, this was in reference to saying i take 600mg ala daily, but that energy dropped like a stone when i reduced it.

i get lost when i read cutler. dude is helpful, but more longwinded than me right now!

i want to reduce ala. i suppose i will need to find band aids to make that workable. one weird thing is that i had been pressing my right thumb into my index finger (for a stupid reason) prior to testing the ala reduction. there was a depression in my finger as a result. when i reduced ala, this swelled into something like a blister. think there was some pain inside my finger(s). don't recall for sure. adding the ala made the blister go down again. i don't even know how to google for what that might be and whether i should be concerned.

i had thought i might stick with the 600mg, but also take frequent 1mg doses to chelate gently. this sounds harebrained, but i don't know how to get off the ala.

If you stopped the ALA, there would be a redistribution of mercury for awhile, but it should eventually stop and then you should feel better. I did a trial of chelation with ALA (the wrong way) in March, and it took a good month to two months before I felt recovered from that. My symptoms were flu-like muscle and joint aches, extra fatigue and loss of energy, transient anxiety/depression, OCD death thoughts as well as brain fog. So yeah - not good.

wow. that sounds like a big ordeal. i am sorry you went through that.

Also, if I raise my rate of methylation above the very low amounts I'm using, I get similar flu-like muscle and joint aches and extra fatigue and loss of energy. I believe that, at least for me, methylation is causing more mercury redistribution. However, it may not be going to the brain like with the ALA, so that's a plus.

this sounds plausible, although i am not sure cutler agrees. he doesn't seem to like methylation.

So I think the way out is to do Cutler style chelation, which I looking into doing for myself.

if i recall correctly, cutler suggests some other chelator as a first step. ala is the final one, i think. but you probably know all that. i hope it goes much better for you this time.

For you, I think the next step would be to forget everything I said about other supplements, and get off ALA to let all the redistributed mercury settle back down again. You might want to consult with the Frequent Dose Chelation Yahoo Group before proceeding. They might have some ideas on supports that would help you through the redistribution, such as DMSA. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/frequent-dose-chelation/info

thank you for the link and your thoughts. other than not knowing how to get off ala sustainably yet, chelation sounds pretty rough even on healthier people. i am not sure i can handle it right now. however, i don't know if i have a choice. i am thinking of addressing the low mental clarity first since i can't do squat without it (via adding salt, addressing possible anemia, possible thyroid issues, possible adrenal issue and known high oxalates). perhaps i might then be able to navigate and tolerate chelation, although the methyl trap would probably be worse by then. does this make sense? might mercury interfere with this approach?

In general, mercury affects methylation by affecting MTHFR and MTR/MTRR as well as CBS. So it's like having SNPs in those areas, even though genetically you may be ok. If you already have some SNPs in those three areas, it makes those areas even worse.

this is very interesting. it sounds like mercury could be causing/increasing the methyl trap if it had more effect on mtr/mtrr than mthfr in my situation.

Ford

 

[fprefect]

i am still not thinking clearly enough to respond to all posts.

after adding 400mg potassium yesterday, shaking in hands, allodynia, sleep, pain in base of skull and tinnitus are a bit to somewhat worse. quite mysterious. however, mental clarity is (sporadically) a bit better, as well as some other things. i think potassium is/was low. i don't know if i can tolerate it though.

i just remembered other details:
- my husband's serum phosphorous was a little above range, and vit D is needed to bring it back into range due to calcium metabolism.
- you have been taking high dose ALA which chelates zinc and copper, so if you haven't been replenishing minerals this is something to look into.
- I had the same shortness of breath and dark mood when I took B2 last year and this is what prompted me to accept a prescription of citalopram. The activation of B2 involves thyroid hormones, and I think that low thyroid is what made me depressed from taking B2.

Hang in there

@Gondwanaland, thank you. this is helpful. sorry about the late reply.

your approach of regular testing makes sense. i am trying to get the energy and mental clarity to do this.

i don't think i have tested phosphorous before. perhaps it is high since my brief test of 500iu vit d moved my mood closer to normal.

i didn't know that ala chelates zinc and copper. i wonder how much of my deranged mineral transport is due to ala rather than mercury toxicity. hair minerals test from 1 year ago said zinc was in range and i mostly haven't changed supplementation of that. copper was on the low edge of normal. i want to redo the hair test and perhaps test copper supplementation if it is low.

it is interesting how people on PR casually mention crappy experiences so matter-of-factly. i guess we gotta do what we gotta do. i can empathise with the dark mood. perhaps my thyroid function is low also. for me, the shortness of breath appeared when i tried reducing b2, but the dark mood appeared when i added b2. how did you resolve the shortness of breath?

thanks. if not for your and others' responses, i would still only be thinking about reducing berocca and methyl trapping without addressing the bigger context that might help.

Ford

 

[Gondwanaland]

the shortness of breath appeared when i tried reducing b2, but the dark mood appeared when i added b2.

I was re-reading the thread No Love for B2 today and found interesting info there. It is pretty intricate, but roughly you need B1 with B2 because B2 lowers serotonin.

But in my current approach with having anemia, I can say that my supplementation is working great for me because I am covering (almost) all bases to increase red blood cells by taking B1, B2, B6, and copper with zinc. I am assuming my high serum iron is becoming bioavailable, because my brainfog and body pain are gone. Folate and B12 are also needed, but I am getting them through food since they are high in serum.

I am also taking B5 and B7 because at the same time I am addressing dietary oxalates, and every now and then I take some B12. I know at some point this regime will stop working, and then perhaps I will retry methylation.

It just seems that I am deficient in so many things, but I feel better addressing it in parts.

 

[Kathevans]

@Gondwanaland I didn't know that B2 lowers serotonin. Interestingly, the only B that I seem low in on my recent basic labs was B1, Niacin! My doc is now having supplement with 100 mg/day and I've been taking it at night because it does make me sleepy (not to be confused with putting me to sleep).

A little l-tryptophan helped me two nights ago to achieve a lovely (for me!) night's sleep, but last night I doubled my evening magnesium to 300 mg, which I think was a mistake. I actually felt anxious through the early hours of the night. I've been trying to trouble-shoot nightly headaches that are pretty much gone in the morning, and this may be the problem, or a contributing factor. Was it @ahmo who has said that magnesium competes with potassium? I've been taking extra niacin for the slight PVCs that I experience, but it would be better to eliminate the symptoms...

Btw, I have stopped the infamous B-Complex that was causing the methyl trapping, and have been taking the very, very low dose Nature Made, which has no folate or B12. I'm trying to get these through diet for the moment, as well. I am thinking of doubling the tiny dose of Bs or to begin by simply adding some B6 which Sherpa has pointed to as great for sleep/dreams...not to mention important for those high oxalates many of us are working with.

Doing more than one thing at once has only gotten me tangled in symptoms, so I'm trying to take it slow. The Bs very slowly...and a bit of L-tiptop ham for that all important sleep--and with thanks (and let's face it, a bit of envy!) to @aturtles I think we all know how important methylation is. If only we could all dive right into that pool!

But since I seem to have issues with taking potassium just now--makes my kidneys sore--then perhaps I'll stick with addressing some of the gut issues, along with the lower Bs.

 

[Gondwanaland]

B1, Niacin

B1= thiamine
B3= niacin

l-tryptophan helped me two nights ago to achieve a lovely (for me!) night's sleep

Trypthophan converts to serotonin and GABA (with the help of B6, I think)

I doubled my evening magnesium to 300 mg, which I think was a mistake. I actually felt anxious through the early hours of the night. I've been trying to trouble-shoot nightly headaches that are pretty much gone in the morning, and this may be the problem, or a contributing factor. Was it @ahmo who has said that magnesium competes with potassium? I've been taking extra niacin

Magnesium will increase you need for potassium and calcium
Niacin increases the need for potassium (generally B1, B2, B3 and B9 will need more potassium)

adding some B6 which Sherpa has pointed to as great for sleep/dreams...not to mention important for those high oxalates many of us are working with.

In addition B1 and B7 are also needed to deal with oxalates

But since I seem to have issues with taking potassium just now--makes my kidneys sore

I have that same problem. We definetly have kidney issues, Kath

 

[aturtles]

@Kathevans , TMG (Trimethylglycine) helped me a lot with anxiety while doing methylation work.

 

[Kathevans]

Thanks all. And apropos of the niacin...Woops! I'll get there. I just upped only my B6 by 25 mg with lunch as the Nature Made has only a very low 5mg in it and I just took the longest nap In recent history...over an hour and 15 minutes. Oh yay.

So, yes,@Gondwanaland, it does convert tryptophan to serotonin. I was doing some B6 research this morning and it said just that...how important B6 is to those neurotransmitters. and those oxalates, too...

I must get some TMG to add to my arsenal...

 

[fprefect]

i am still not thinking clearly enough to respond to all posts.

i am trying to figure out if i am handling the added potassium ok. it is confusing since the methyl trap seems to be getting a bit worse while adding potassium.

At least you still have a sense of humor

@caledonia, i try, although the low mental clarity, panic and depression are a bit much sometimes. if i meet an untimely demise despite my best efforts, i aim for my attitude to be like Oscar Wilde's. broke, abandoned by nearly all of his friends, on his deathbed in a cheap hotel in France where he hated the wallpaper in his room, he said, "This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. Either it goes or I do."

And let me just say, in defense of potassium: I no sooner increased my B-Complex by 1/2 because of some issues, than on that famous third day, I began to have potassium issues. Since it had been upsetting my stomach, I ignored it last night and today---well, let's just say, I'm playing catch up. Taking extra, drinking lots of water, eating yogurt with an orange (I'd normally try to avoid this much fructose). But here I am. Thank heavens I consulted with my husband this morning and he agreed with me that I ought to lower the B-Complex right away. Only took 1/2 today, though it's possible I should have stopped completely. (I'm not that far along in my experimentation!) Still waiting for the headache to clear... the sick potassium headache, that is, not the tight face and jaw methyl-trap headache...

@Kathevans, thanks for the reminder re potassium. that is a real bummer when new symptoms show up after a delay. i am glad you sorted at least part of it out.

I have read that Neuroprotek is a highly recommended anti-histamine. Never used it myself, but I know it is sold by Amazon for instance.

@Gondwanaland, thank you again. i am not sure whether to test anti-histamines or not. h2 blockers deplete folate, but also stomach acid, which is probably already lower due to my reduced b6 and cfs in general. i didn't find any mention of h1 blockers depleting folate. hopefully, better mental clarity will suggest a way forward.

Ford

 

[aturtles]

i am trying to figure out if i am handling the added potassium ok. it is confusing since the methyl trap seems to be getting a bit worse while adding potassium.

I doubt potassium is the culprit, Ford. Our bodies need a lot of it and go through it fast.

You're more likely to be in potassium deficit than in excess. An accomplished nephrologist of my acquaintance assured me that if your kidneys are healthy it is nearly impossible to overdose on potassium. I told him I was taking 5 grams a day or more. He shrugged, said he wasn't worried.

Now, if your kidneys aren't healthy, then you might want to consult a doctor. But you would anyway.

Otherwise, it's really unlikely to be a potassium problem. I'd suspect that last.