So I was doing very well for a while, on just a sort of basic Methylation protocol. But now I'm struggling a great deal again, and I think I may have figured out the potential reasons why...
(I realize this is very very long, but please bare with me)
Some background...
My MAIN issues are glutathione deficiency, and very poor digestion. I am an "overmethylator" (or all the symptoms that go with that), almost certain I have copper toxicity (though 'somewhat' doubting lately), tested for MTHFR, but clearly have other mutations too, specifcally that of CBS upregulation causing ones.
No money to really test anything else atm though, and still trying to find a new doctor atm. I've also tried pretty much everything in existence, every medication from doctors, supplement, protocol, diet that there is... and not only did none of it ever help, but most of it made me worse (until I discovered methylation).
I should also mention, that because my digestion is so poor... I can only handle a very limited amount of supplements per day. Like 2-3 pills (better if it's a complex then), regardless of what they are. And almost every supplement, (and food for that matter), save Bs, make me feel worse, or doesn't digest at all. Dozens of food allergies too.
However I eat really healthy (can't tolerate more than veggies and turkey though). I exercise, sleep early (9pm), drink plenty of water, destress, not working (can't cus of this illness and anxiety/ocd).
My story, and reasoning...
I've been trying to get better for many more years than I care to admit, but only recently found out about methylation, glutathione, copper toxicity, and all the things involved.
I've been on the "methylation protocol" for 9 months now, and was making real progress and felt like I was actually healing for the FIRST TIME EVER, but this happened a few times during said protocol... and then things that I was doing for it slowly stopped working each time, after a while, and I'm trying to figure out why.
Right before I started the protocol too, I developed bad heart palpitations, this terrible "skull splitting headache" (I call it) on the left side of my head just above my temple, very bad kidney area pain, very bad thyroid pain, as well as extremely dark infrequent urine, despite drinking a lot of water... and a bad intolerance to all animal protein (ammonia). An unreal worsening of my anxiety. On top of dozens of symptoms I already had.
But as soon as I discovered MTHFR and started Folate ALL OF THIS went away, almost immediately (save the ammonia)... For a time... I did after a while go through what I guess would be "overmethylation hell" too, but also still suffered from sulfur and meat intolerances, and had to follow a sort of anti-ammonia protocol. I was already doing charcoal and magnesium flushes (for the copper), which I found helped me a TON.
But the problem with the Folate, and pretty much everything following it... was that after a few months (or less), it stopped having any effect. Not that I was just used to it or something, but I literally regressed COMPLETELY in every symptom and form of my illness.
The same thing happened when I added B2 (sometimes with folate, sometimes seperately)... I felt great, for a bit... then awful, basically completely reverted back to as sick as before. B12, same thing (tried all 3 non-cyano kinds). Felt good, then awful. Couldn't even digest it after a while.
I realized that I in fact, needed all of the B vitamins for this to work... and that each time I took any of the above 3, or any other Bs by themselves, it appeared to me that I was simply depleting all of the other ones (thaimin, niacin, b5, b6, etc). Which turned out the be the case. Because the absolute most drastic healing and improvement I've ever made, happened a few days after I started a "Methylated B complex".
And THAT was truly amazing... I felt great. Like I could actually FEEL the GSH production happening (or at least it's benefits). I was able to digest foods again I haven't been able to in YEARS. My terrible insomnia went away, actually tired at night and energetic during the day, aches gone, migraines/headaches slowly fading... New things happening in my body that I've just never experienced before. I could eat meat again finally! As much as I wanted, and sulfur intolerance was MUCH lower.
And then... that all stopped too. After about a month of feeling great, I started getting really cold... particularly in the morning and noon. Heart palpitations started to return... bad bad kidney area pain, except this time mostly in my lower back. Pains everywhere, migraines, "skull splitter", etc. Now my thyroid is killing me again. Insomnia and restless sleep is back, bad. I either urinate extremely frequently (especially when cold) or not at all... Soon enough my intolerance to meat came back, sulfur intolerance became worse again. And my unbelievably bad anxieties are back. A complete regression, from where I'm standing.
And something very odd too... my potassium intolerance, and fat intolerances (every single kind) have gotten AWFUL. Something that USED to be a big problem for me, many years ago... before I got worse. Oddly enough. And on top of potassium intolerance, I also seem to be not even ABSORBING salt very well... and I have no idea why. My saliva will be salty, and (sorry to be gross) my BMs will REEK like low tide... So my sodium-potassium ratios are completely out of whack... My adrenals are burnt out much easier, and I'm much more irritable, etc.
This situation though, is one where something clearly has to change... it's definitely NOT a situation where I'm just "detoxing" or will get better if I "stick with it".
Whenever I take my B complex now too, I usually feel much WORSE. If I take individual B's it's not so bad... but it seems like the methyl Bs, or any methyl-bound nutrients, seem to cause the biggest problems...
And now I feel like I'm basically back where I started, and getting even worse. With some new symptoms - actually I should say old, because the ammonia symptoms, and the freezing cold/urinating very frequently, intolerance to all fats, etc, were things that I USED to have problems with many years ago.. I almost feel like maybe this is sort of a twisted form of progress? Or that I was actually so sick, that whatever function was causing THAT to happen, even stopped. But now has rebuilt enough to feel like this again? But it clearly seems to be an ammonia problem...
Although something brand new I've never experienced before... I get a sort of weird pressure on my face, that gets really bad sometimes. Almost always after I take my B complex, or go for a walk... which makes me feel awful now. The only upside, is that it appears that taking all those B vitamins has improved my digestion of a few other supplements... particularly that of minerals, but not so much other vitamins like a, c, e.
I'm going to post in a reply, what I 'think' is might be causes of all this, and also some questions... I know this is already really long, but I could REALLY use some help here.
(I realize this is very very long, but please bare with me)
Some background...
My MAIN issues are glutathione deficiency, and very poor digestion. I am an "overmethylator" (or all the symptoms that go with that), almost certain I have copper toxicity (though 'somewhat' doubting lately), tested for MTHFR, but clearly have other mutations too, specifcally that of CBS upregulation causing ones.
No money to really test anything else atm though, and still trying to find a new doctor atm. I've also tried pretty much everything in existence, every medication from doctors, supplement, protocol, diet that there is... and not only did none of it ever help, but most of it made me worse (until I discovered methylation).
I should also mention, that because my digestion is so poor... I can only handle a very limited amount of supplements per day. Like 2-3 pills (better if it's a complex then), regardless of what they are. And almost every supplement, (and food for that matter), save Bs, make me feel worse, or doesn't digest at all. Dozens of food allergies too.
However I eat really healthy (can't tolerate more than veggies and turkey though). I exercise, sleep early (9pm), drink plenty of water, destress, not working (can't cus of this illness and anxiety/ocd).
My story, and reasoning...
I've been trying to get better for many more years than I care to admit, but only recently found out about methylation, glutathione, copper toxicity, and all the things involved.
I've been on the "methylation protocol" for 9 months now, and was making real progress and felt like I was actually healing for the FIRST TIME EVER, but this happened a few times during said protocol... and then things that I was doing for it slowly stopped working each time, after a while, and I'm trying to figure out why.
Right before I started the protocol too, I developed bad heart palpitations, this terrible "skull splitting headache" (I call it) on the left side of my head just above my temple, very bad kidney area pain, very bad thyroid pain, as well as extremely dark infrequent urine, despite drinking a lot of water... and a bad intolerance to all animal protein (ammonia). An unreal worsening of my anxiety. On top of dozens of symptoms I already had.
But as soon as I discovered MTHFR and started Folate ALL OF THIS went away, almost immediately (save the ammonia)... For a time... I did after a while go through what I guess would be "overmethylation hell" too, but also still suffered from sulfur and meat intolerances, and had to follow a sort of anti-ammonia protocol. I was already doing charcoal and magnesium flushes (for the copper), which I found helped me a TON.
But the problem with the Folate, and pretty much everything following it... was that after a few months (or less), it stopped having any effect. Not that I was just used to it or something, but I literally regressed COMPLETELY in every symptom and form of my illness.
The same thing happened when I added B2 (sometimes with folate, sometimes seperately)... I felt great, for a bit... then awful, basically completely reverted back to as sick as before. B12, same thing (tried all 3 non-cyano kinds). Felt good, then awful. Couldn't even digest it after a while.
I realized that I in fact, needed all of the B vitamins for this to work... and that each time I took any of the above 3, or any other Bs by themselves, it appeared to me that I was simply depleting all of the other ones (thaimin, niacin, b5, b6, etc). Which turned out the be the case. Because the absolute most drastic healing and improvement I've ever made, happened a few days after I started a "Methylated B complex".
And THAT was truly amazing... I felt great. Like I could actually FEEL the GSH production happening (or at least it's benefits). I was able to digest foods again I haven't been able to in YEARS. My terrible insomnia went away, actually tired at night and energetic during the day, aches gone, migraines/headaches slowly fading... New things happening in my body that I've just never experienced before. I could eat meat again finally! As much as I wanted, and sulfur intolerance was MUCH lower.
And then... that all stopped too. After about a month of feeling great, I started getting really cold... particularly in the morning and noon. Heart palpitations started to return... bad bad kidney area pain, except this time mostly in my lower back. Pains everywhere, migraines, "skull splitter", etc. Now my thyroid is killing me again. Insomnia and restless sleep is back, bad. I either urinate extremely frequently (especially when cold) or not at all... Soon enough my intolerance to meat came back, sulfur intolerance became worse again. And my unbelievably bad anxieties are back. A complete regression, from where I'm standing.
And something very odd too... my potassium intolerance, and fat intolerances (every single kind) have gotten AWFUL. Something that USED to be a big problem for me, many years ago... before I got worse. Oddly enough. And on top of potassium intolerance, I also seem to be not even ABSORBING salt very well... and I have no idea why. My saliva will be salty, and (sorry to be gross) my BMs will REEK like low tide... So my sodium-potassium ratios are completely out of whack... My adrenals are burnt out much easier, and I'm much more irritable, etc.
This situation though, is one where something clearly has to change... it's definitely NOT a situation where I'm just "detoxing" or will get better if I "stick with it".
Whenever I take my B complex now too, I usually feel much WORSE. If I take individual B's it's not so bad... but it seems like the methyl Bs, or any methyl-bound nutrients, seem to cause the biggest problems...
And now I feel like I'm basically back where I started, and getting even worse. With some new symptoms - actually I should say old, because the ammonia symptoms, and the freezing cold/urinating very frequently, intolerance to all fats, etc, were things that I USED to have problems with many years ago.. I almost feel like maybe this is sort of a twisted form of progress? Or that I was actually so sick, that whatever function was causing THAT to happen, even stopped. But now has rebuilt enough to feel like this again? But it clearly seems to be an ammonia problem...
Although something brand new I've never experienced before... I get a sort of weird pressure on my face, that gets really bad sometimes. Almost always after I take my B complex, or go for a walk... which makes me feel awful now. The only upside, is that it appears that taking all those B vitamins has improved my digestion of a few other supplements... particularly that of minerals, but not so much other vitamins like a, c, e.
I'm going to post in a reply, what I 'think' is might be causes of all this, and also some questions... I know this is already really long, but I could REALLY use some help here.
Last edited: