Looking at my OATs test again I looked a little further into my very high reading of Quinolinic / 5-HIAA ratio. It should be under 2.5 but mine is over double at 5.5. I originally thought this just meant I have low serotonin which wasn't a surprise considering how anxious/depress I am. Today I found an online guide giving some more breakdown of what each reading means and the breakout for Quinolinic / 5-HIAA states " A high ratio indicates excessive inflammation due to recurrent infections, excessive tryptophan intake, immune overstimulation, excessive adrenal production of cortisol, or excessive exposure to phthalates"
This seems to be another sign pointing to immune dysfunction. I am really starting to believe I am being affected by the EBV when I tie my high EBV antibody readings in with these OAT's test results. My methylation test also shows normal Methionine with low SAM levels which points to an ATP issue. I have read a few articles stating the effects of EBV on ATP production.
If this is in fact what is going on I think I have a theory on why I got so much worse these last few months. I have never felt "great" and have always dealt with low energy but have reached a new low these past months. So as I mentioned in my introduction thread I wanted to quit smoking cigarettes' for general health and thought it might be dragging down my energy levels. During this attempt I read about how niacin (nicotinic acid) might help with cravings since it might work on some of the same receptors in the brain. This was before I knew about MTHFR or methylation and I blindly started dosing high levels to help with cravings. I did this for a while I would say 2+ months until I crashed so far and finally thought to look further into the niacin. This is when I heard about it using up methyl groups and led me to all the methylation research to get here today. I think its possible this High stress / low methylation environment let the virus take over and dig its claws deeper.
These test results are 3+ months after I gave up on the quit attempt and after I did Freddd's protocol for a while. I'm sure my levels were even lower back then(I also stopped all supplements for 3 weeks prior to the test). I eventually gave up on the quit I am back to smoking and obviously stopped the high dose niacin. I feel better than I did during the middle of the quit attempt but haven't recovered to pre quit levels which weren't great to begin with either. Just thinking out loud thanks for all the help everyone
This seems to be another sign pointing to immune dysfunction. I am really starting to believe I am being affected by the EBV when I tie my high EBV antibody readings in with these OAT's test results. My methylation test also shows normal Methionine with low SAM levels which points to an ATP issue. I have read a few articles stating the effects of EBV on ATP production.
If this is in fact what is going on I think I have a theory on why I got so much worse these last few months. I have never felt "great" and have always dealt with low energy but have reached a new low these past months. So as I mentioned in my introduction thread I wanted to quit smoking cigarettes' for general health and thought it might be dragging down my energy levels. During this attempt I read about how niacin (nicotinic acid) might help with cravings since it might work on some of the same receptors in the brain. This was before I knew about MTHFR or methylation and I blindly started dosing high levels to help with cravings. I did this for a while I would say 2+ months until I crashed so far and finally thought to look further into the niacin. This is when I heard about it using up methyl groups and led me to all the methylation research to get here today. I think its possible this High stress / low methylation environment let the virus take over and dig its claws deeper.
These test results are 3+ months after I gave up on the quit attempt and after I did Freddd's protocol for a while. I'm sure my levels were even lower back then(I also stopped all supplements for 3 weeks prior to the test). I eventually gave up on the quit I am back to smoking and obviously stopped the high dose niacin. I feel better than I did during the middle of the quit attempt but haven't recovered to pre quit levels which weren't great to begin with either. Just thinking out loud thanks for all the help everyone