MTHFR defect (23andme) and chronic infections

[alicec]

Compound heterozygosity in medical genetics is the condition of having two heterogeneous recessive alleles at a particular locus that can cause genetic disease in a heterozygous state. That is, an organism is a compound heterozygote when it has two recessive alleles for the same gene, but with those two alleles being different from each other (for example, both alleles might be mutated but at different locations)

You seem to have completely missed the critical qualification provided by the authors in the haemachromatosis study which you linked to illustrate how the terminology compound heterozygous is used- viz in trans (on opposite strands) and in cis (on the same strand).

Only when the SNPs are in the former orientation does the condition arise.

 

[alicec]

@Learner1, you made statements about the association of folate SNPs with ME/CFS and about the meaning of compound heterozygous. @Valentijn and I have been discussing with you the technical problems associated with your statements.

Changing the subject to a broad consideration of folate metabolism doesn't change the fact that some of the things you said were wrong and we were simply pointing this out.

On the bigger question of the importance of folate, I would agree with a number of the things you say, but that is not relevant to the technical discussion.

 

[gabriella17]

@Markus83 A simple way to find out if you are dealing with low potassium is to drink low-sodium V8 or tomato juice, which is high in potassium; I'd drink a couple of glasses and see if there is any improvement. And if there is, you can decide whether to add a potassium supplement, after reading about it. Many on this board have to take extra potassium because it's been difficult if not impossible to get enough in food alone. A banana or two just doesn't cut it for most of us. People with ME/CFS tend to have trouble with low intracellular potassium, despite adequate blood levels: http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...ded-in-methylation-treatmt.18670/#post-291422

Great suggestion with the V-8! I looked it up and it has 469 mg of potassium per 8 oz.

Another option: for potassium, I mix 1 tsp of cream of tartar into about a half cup of ice water. Sometimes I add a little bit of lemon if I have it, but it's really not at bad at all, and is a good option if you're watching your sodium or calories (or budget - I buy it in bulk at WinCo). 1 tsp has 495 mg potassium, only 1.6 mg of sodium, and 7.7 calories.

 

[Mary]

Great suggestion with the V-8! I looked it up and it has 469 mg of potassium per 8 oz.

Another option: for potassium, I mix 1 tsp of cream of tartar into about a half cup of ice water. Sometimes I add a little bit of lemon if I have it, but it's really not at bad at all, and is a good option if you're watching your sodium or calories (or budget - I buy it in bulk at WinCo). 1 tsp has 495 mg potassium, only 1.6 mg of sodium, and 7.7 calories.

I've never heard of taking cream of tartar for potassium - interesting idea and certainly cheap enough!

Regular V8 has roughly 500 mg of potassium - low-sodium V8 has about 900 mg, which is why I recommend it. I recently found out that low-sodium tomato juice also has about 900 mg of potassium.

But moneywise, the cream of tartar sounds like a great idea - thanks!