In my experience the main symptom of sulfite toxicity is brain fog. If you take molybdenum and it makes you tired, you are on the right track: Sulfites
react with cysteine to form s-sulfocysteine, a glutamate analog, so effectively reducing glutamate levels initially makes most people tired. This disappears over time. At this point I assume I have a sulfite problem until my molybdenum dose is high enough that adding even more molybdenum does nothing for brain fog.
Like many people (
@Valentijn included, I think) I don't think that ammonia is behind the symptoms of what Yasko has labeled "ammonia toxicity"--although I do think the pattern of symptoms and their triggers is mostly accurate. At this point, I believe that the problem is asymmetric dimethyl arginine (ADMA), which can be tested for--although I don't know of anyone doing so including myself. Vitamin D reduces ADMA levels, and I believe this is why a UV-b lamp has been helpful for me. I am less clear on why malic acid is helpful, but it appears to be.
I skimmed through Yasko again to try to figure out what symptoms she attributes to "ammonia" toxicity...and couldn't find anything. She clearly thinks that BH4 depletion is the major driver of pathology from ammonia toxicity, so I think the best we might do is to look to BH4 deficiency. BH4, as you probably know, stabilizes nitric oxide synthase, allowing it to produce nitric oxide (NO) and preventing it from forming superoxide (OO-) which quickly finds NO to produce peroxynitrite (ONOO), a free radical that likes to oxidize BH4 . BH4 is also essential for the synthesis of major neurotransmitters (dopamine and serotonin, which themselves are necessary for epinephrine, norepinephrine, and melatonin).
The symptoms of BH4 as I have experienced them are these: Depression--sometimes severe--resulting from neurotransmitter deficiencies. Other cognitive problems (brain fog of a sort?), probably resulting from the same. And finally a hard-to-define uncomfortable feeling as if blood or lymph or something has become stagnant and is not flowing as it should. I assume this last symptom comes from deficient NO, which is necessary to dilate blood vessels.
One way to see if BH4 deficiency is a problem is to order BH4 and see if it helps. It has hard to find, but
here is a thread with some links that still seem to be working. Although this is cheap for a test, BH4 is expensive as a supplement which is why I don't take any currently. Alternately, you could try taking a highish dose of active B6 for a day or two and see if you become quite ill--less pleasant, but a cheaper first step. I am, however, only somewhat confident that everyone with ADMA issues reacts poorly to B6, so this might not work as a test, I'm not sure.
A decent subset of people with ME/CFS seem to be interested in "ammonia" issues, and having experienced the benefits of treating these symptoms I suspect I am not alone with these problems. Having said that, I have had a difficult time finding descriptions of what "ammonia" symptoms are and what symptoms are relieved from taking, for example, BH4. I hope if you or anyone else reading decide yall have ADMA ("ammonia") problems you will share what that feels like for you.