Symptoms consistant with high ammonia but blood test normal

[sleepingbeautycan]

I went whole hog into the Dr Yasko belief that my CBS +/- could cause high ammonia mainly because of two things:

1. The symptoms I have had for a long time were consistent with the high ammonia theory:
   1. Pain in the trapezius muscle exasperated by protein
      
   2. Blood tests with low eGFR, high creatnine, high chloride and high leukocytes in urine.
      
   3. Enlarged spleen
2. She predicted my anxiety symptoms when starting MethylFolate and MeB12.

So I have been taking many of the supplements that help with flushing ammonia and I feel great. Because of all the CBS confusion on this site, I decided to test my serum ammonia. I ate big protein for 3 days went off of the supplements specifically for ammonia and when I felt horrible I went and got my ammonia tested. It was 24 umol/L. Right in the normal range (9-33)

Should I continue with the ammonia fighting program because it gives me energy and makes me feel better or should I get some more testing done to see what exactly is going on. My money is limited and my doctor may or may not be inclined to order the tests. The ammonia supplements will continue costing money though so the tests may save money in the long run.

 

[Valentijn]

If something makes you feel better and is safe, then might as well keep doing it. Treatments can help for reasons which have nothing to do with incorrect claims by Yasko or anyone else.

 

[Mary]

I was going to say the same thing as Valentijn. It sounds like whatever you are taking is good for you - I think anything that gives you energy and makes you feel better has to be a good thing! BTW - what are the "ammonia" supps you are taking? (I put "ammonia" in quotes because they are very likely good for other things)

 

[sleepingbeautycan]

Well, I guess the supplements I am on that seem to help are:

• Charcoal 3x per week at bedtime
• Vitamin E
• Glutathione
• Malic Acid

I think the biggest help is the low protein diet. Which is good short term but when I went vegan a few years ago, I felt great for a while but after a bit I got more and more tired/depressed.

The ones I tried that seemed to make things worse were:

• Molybdenum
• HydroxyB12

 

[Mary]

@sleepingbeautycan - interesting. The only one of those that helped me with energy was malic acid, although charcoal helped at various times with detoxing.

I'm wondering if your B12 tanked when you went vegan - vegetarians/vegans are notorious for being deficient in B12, which deficiency of course will cause fatigue and depression.

I don't know anything about ammonia issues - but I know there are several people here who are knowledgable and hopefully one of them will weigh in.

In the meanwhile, I would keep up what you're doing. Unfortunately much of what we do here are lab experiments with ourselves as the guinea pigs!

 

[sleepingbeautycan]

It also may be that all of the vitamins and minerals that I was taking to support methylation are helping make me feel good (I stopped methyl products but kept taking the supports) .