Hi Rich,
Ive written to you personally but not here on the forum. Im studying, waiting for some test results. Have a question: based on my detoxification test from Genova Diagnostics, one of my polymorphisms is GSTM1 is absent..no gene there at all. The suggestion from Genova, and my ND has suggested too, that I take glutithione precursors to help this blockage, things such as NAC, glutamine, glycine, magnesium and B6.
If I address JUST the methylation blockage FIRST, would this eventually help me produce glutiathione? Or should I also take the precursors at the same time I start up on supplements.
BTW...Im the one who cant tolerate garlic, so I cant take the neurological formula that Yasko uses, just to jog your memory. (I think my regular vitamin isnt too off the mark, btw.)
Thanks Rich,
Donna
Hi, Donna.
It's pretty common to have no GSTM1. Many healthy people have this gene missing, too, but the other GST enzymes seem to be able to "cover" for the missing one, at least to some degree.
I agree that building up glutathione would be a good thing to do, and ordinarily the supplements Genova and your ND have suggested would do that.
However, if you have CFS, with a partial methylation cycle block, then I have found out the hard way after about 5 years of trying to help PWCs build up their glutathione by means such as this, that the partial methylation cycle block, which lies upstream of glutathione synthesis in the sulfur metabolism, must be lifted in order to get glutathione to come back to normal and stay there. If the partial methylation cycle block is lifted, glutathione will come back up automatically.
There are also some problems with taking glutamine and NAC in some cases of CFS. Glutamine is readily converted to glutamate in the body, and that can make the excitotoxicity (anxiety, insomnia, "wired" feeling, hypersensitivity of the senses) worse. NAC can move mercury into the brain, if there is a large body burden of it, as is the case in many PWCs.
So I favor focusing on lifting the methylation cycle partial block first. Lately I have been suggesting that taking some liposomal glutathione might help to ease the excitotoxicity when starting the methylation treatment, but I haven't received any feedback on whether that helps or not, so I don't know for sure if it would.
Yes, I recall that you are not able to tolerate garlic, and therefore can't take the Yasko multi. In this case, another multi would probably cover most of it, though there are some additional ingredients in the Yasko multi that are aimed at helping the methylation cycle and related pathways, including the following:
Broccoli florets powder160 mg, Citrus bioflavonoids50 mg, Choline (as bitartrate)25 mg, Inositol25 mg, PABA (para-amino benzoic acid)5 mg, Garlic (Allium sativum) bulb powder200 mg, L-methionine150 mg, Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) seed extract100 mg, N-acetyl-cysteine75 mg, Pine (Pinus maritimus) bark extract25 mg, Taurine250 mg, Turmeric (Curcuma longa) root extract50 mg, Intrinsic Factor5 mg, Trimethylglycine (TMG)50 mg, Free Form Nucleotide Complex100 mg, Boron1 mg, and L-Carnitine (Tartrate)100 mg.
I guess you will just have to do what you have to do about this. That's one of the problems with combined supplements. If you can't tolerate one of the ingredients, you can't take the combined supplement. It's a trade-off, with cost and convenience usually being improved with combined supplements. Dr. Yasko has going more toward combined supplements and sprays lately, because it's very hard to get an autistic child to take so many pills, and they are the main candidates for her methylation treatment, which we have found also works in CFS.
Best regards,
Rich
