Soulfest, This sounds interesting to me. I also have two COMT defects, one +/+ and one +/-, however on two neurological tests 1-2 years apart I always tested low dopamine and low serotonin and low epinephrine (well I failed 11 out of the 13 neurological tests and the low epinephrin was a - duh! - because I have severe allergies). As far as I know I have no catecholamine surges (that refers to stuff made from dopamine, right?) but the thing is that I have 18 genetic defects out of 30 and I ahve had neurological problems my whole life so idk if I can separate one thing out from another. It was only by reading WrongDIagnosis that I found I had many symptoms I ignored in common with others - things like feelings of insects crawling on me - weird stuff.
(I should tell you I have 3 genes causing low BH4 which seems to trump the two COMTs).
If you wouldn't mind I'd like to hear a bit more - but remember I dont know a lot of these terms...like what is dysautonia? I am starting to think I have dopamine responsive dystonia - which is like a diurnal ataxia - like you move a little jerkily instead of smoothly. Is that the same as dysautonia?
I have never had red urine from mB12 but I only took 5 pills one time and since it did nothing for me I did not pursue it. I am adverse to using up my supplement bottles in one day... I could not possibly afford that. I am fairly certain that the high mfolate dose is what I really should be taking but I cant - same reason, so I take 1/day and I think over time I am ok on that. Maybe could be a bit better, but unless I go one deplin it's not gonna happen.
Here is something strange - I get a feeling like Vicks Vaporub - like extra wonderful perfusion in my brain if I take a high dose of choline, or a high dose of omega-3 or from a deplin-sized dose of mfolate. I have been afraid that by ignoring this (not taking deplin for example) that maybe it means my homocysteine behind the BBB is really high (even though it is not high in the rest of me). But now I am starting to wonder if these substances are cholinergic. For instance mfolate raises BH4 which raises dopamine. I think maybe choline raises dopamine? Well anyway surealy raises acetylcholine (is this cholinergic?) I know so little about this, but it seems I have to educate myself or I never get anywhere. Did you sister say what things you should avoid because they are cholinergic?
Can you take me through cholinergic dumping symptom by symptom so I could recognise it? I am just a jumble of symptoms - my normal is probably actually weird - you know? For instance, would you think getting jitters from caffeine consumption icould be cholinergic dumping, or just normal? I have super caffeine jitters just now and suddenly wondered how many things I ignore as 'just me' are actually symptoms of something I could avoid.
Oh, btw, I take 1g/day of olive leaf extract high inh oleuropein polyphenol and now they are saying that cholinergic-containing polyphenols use up COMT in +/+ and +/- genotypes and result in 40-60% less chance of breast cancer. I am wondering if the reason I am not sensitive to methyls is because the oleuropein is sponging them up!
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/63/21/7526.full
Thanks for any info. Very interesting.
Rydra