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Vitamin B1 / Benfo increases chemical sensitivity :(

jason30

Senior Member
Messages
513
Location
Europe
Hi all,

I have a B1 deficiency and I have a lot of benefits from B1 intake.
But unfortunately it increases the chemical sensitivity (MCS), and that gives so much symptoms that I had to quit B1.

I wonder if I can do something about this?

Thanks for any tips and/or thinking along.
 

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,335
Location
Southern California
@jason30 - I used to have a detox reaction to many different things - anything that had "cleansing" properties would cause me to detox: I would get tired, feel fluish/sick, digestion would be off, feel spacy. I don't know if this was MCS but it was very real. I was probably detoxing from something at least half of the time. A 20 minute treatment in a far infrared sauna left me feeling sick for 3 days. I think I was retoxing- toxins would get released from cells due to something I'd ingested or been exposed to, and the toxins would just circulate and get redeposited.

About 4 years ago I started taking glycine for sleep. I reacted extremely strongly to glycine - it hit me like a truck, it knocked me out and when I got up the next day I felt like I'd been hit by a truck, very strong detox reaction. I was also very spacey, got lost going to my sister's house. I would have stopped it, except muscle testing indicated it was good for me but in a very small dose.

So I started taking a very small dose and over a period of 6 months increased it very gradually, as my tolerance for it increased and by the end of 6 months I was no longer reacting to it. And, I was no longer reacting to the all the other things I used to react to - apple cider vinegar, cayenne, there so many things that made me feel sick, I've lost track. I believe the glycine got my detox pathways working properly. I also started inositol and glutamine around the same time and had much smaller detox reactions but still, they did cause me to detox, and this article lists all 3 of these as being necessary for Phase II liver detox: https://www.diagnose-me.com/treatment/liver-detoxification-phase-II-suppor, t.php And by the end of the 6 months I no longer reacted to them either.

I've only had one detox reaction since that time, when I got a new vinyl floor in my bathroom, but that only lasted a couple of days.

So I don't know if this has any bearing on MCS. It might - also B1 has helped me a lot so I hope you're eventually able to take it again. Also, when I first started B1, it gave me a noticeable boost in energy followed by severe fatigue - turned out it was increasing my need for phosphorous and thus depleting it (hypophosphatemia, hallmark of refeeding syndrome), which is another story. When I fixed the low phosphorous, the severe fatigue went away, but I continue to have to supplement with it.
 

jason30

Senior Member
Messages
513
Location
Europe
Thanks all for the reactions.

Taking bravo probiotic (it comes from Europe) seemed to help surprisingly. I would be interested if others noticed this too. Also avoidance of course. Good luck. I hope governments jump on board to help us soon, as in Now.

The bravo probiotic looks promosing, it is a bit expensive though. Where did you bought it?

Maybe trying one or more of the other VitB´s.

In my experience it´s good to take them not together.

Most of them also work in energy metabolism, maybe this codifies for different but somehow similar actions.
(review: B´s in the brain)

Thanks, I have experienced with a B complex but that didn't made a difference. Though, when I only take a B complex then I don't have the positive things of the Vitamin B1. Maybe less uptake because of the other B's.

@jason30 - I used to have a detox reaction to many different things - anything that had "cleansing" properties would cause me to detox: I would get tired, feel fluish/sick, digestion would be off, feel spacy. I don't know if this was MCS but it was very real. I was probably detoxing from something at least half of the time. A 20 minute treatment in a far infrared sauna left me feeling sick for 3 days. I think I was retoxing- toxins would get released from cells due to something I'd ingested or been exposed to, and the toxins would just circulate and get redeposited.

About 4 years ago I started taking glycine for sleep. I reacted extremely strongly to glycine - it hit me like a truck, it knocked me out and when I got up the next day I felt like I'd been hit by a truck, very strong detox reaction. I was also very spacey, got lost going to my sister's house. I would have stopped it, except muscle testing indicated it was good for me but in a very small dose.

So I started taking a very small dose and over a period of 6 months increased it very gradually, as my tolerance for it increased and by the end of 6 months I was no longer reacting to it. And, I was no longer reacting to the all the other things I used to react to - apple cider vinegar, cayenne, there so many things that made me feel sick, I've lost track. I believe the glycine got my detox pathways working properly. I also started inositol and glutamine around the same time and had much smaller detox reactions but still, they did cause me to detox, and this article lists all 3 of these as being necessary for Phase II liver detox: https://www.diagnose-me.com/treatment/liver-detoxification-phase-II-suppor, t.php And by the end of the 6 months I no longer reacted to them either.

I've only had one detox reaction since that time, when I got a new vinyl floor in my bathroom, but that only lasted a couple of days.

So I don't know if this has any bearing on MCS. It might - also B1 has helped me a lot so I hope you're eventually able to take it again. Also, when I first started B1, it gave me a noticeable boost in energy followed by severe fatigue - turned out it was increasing my need for phosphorous and thus depleting it (hypophosphatemia, hallmark of refeeding syndrome), which is another story. When I fixed the low phosphorous, the severe fatigue went away, but I continue to have to supplement with it.

Thanks a lot Mary , that makes sense. I am aware of phase 1 and phase 2 of the liver detoxification pathways and that it plays a big role in my MCS.

Glad to hear that glycine and inositol and glutamine helped for you.
I took glycine last year before sleep and it gave me a deeper sleep, but I didn't noticed more benefits so I stopped it after a while (and also because my sleep was good enough). I have the same experience as you with inositol, inositol helps me a lot but gives me detox reactions. And this is probably my biggest personal challenge, once I get detox reactions and feel bad I quit with the supplement. Maybe I need more perseverance in this. :)

Glutamine gives me strong reactions, I can't function anymore. Could be the conversion to glutamate or also detox of toxins and/or heavy metals.

May I ask which phosphorous supplement you use?

Thanks again.
 

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,335
Location
Southern California
I have the same experience as you with inositol, inositol helps me a lot but gives me detox reactions. And this is probably my biggest personal challenge, once I get detox reactions and feel bad I quit with the supplement. Maybe I need more perseverance in this. :)
That's interesting that the glycine helped with sleep but didn't cause a detox reaction for you - my reaction was quite severe with glycine! Whereas with inositol I had a mild but noticeable detox reaction. I can't tell you what to do here, but what worked for me was cutting the dose (of glycine in my case) to where it was tolerable and then gradually increasing. And it was muscle testing done by my experienced competent chiropractor that helped determine that while glycine made me feel so awful, it actually was good for me, in smaller doses. I know, I'm just repeating what I wrote above. :) You might need more perseverance. I can tell you that doing this made a huge difference for me. Detoxing used to be a regular unpleasant energy-sapping part of my life, for several years, and it's just not any more. I have to remind myself of what it used to be like, more days lost to feeling like crap. So for me it was very worthwhile to stick it out.

Glutamine gives me strong reactions, I can't function anymore. Could be the conversion to glutamate or also detox of toxins and/or heavy metals.
Glutamine can be tricky. It did cause a detox reaction for me, similar to inositol, mild but noticeable. But after awhile it seemed to start interfering with sleep - I'm guessing conversion to glutamate - so I had to stop it. I wanted to keep taking it because it seemed to increase my energy a little, but I couldn't handle the insomnia!

This is the phosphorous supplement that I take: https://www.swansonvitamins.com/swanson-premium-98-pure-monosodium-phosphate-4-oz-113-grams-pwdr

They changed the form of it. It used to be crystalline, like salt, and dissolved easily in water. Now it's powdered and tends to clump. However, I read somewhere that warm water might dissolve it, and it does! !Also, if you let it just sit in water for about 5 minutes before drinking it will dissolve that way as well. :)
 

percyval577

nucleus caudatus et al
Messages
1,302
Location
Ik waak up
Thanks, I have experienced with a B complex but that didn't made a difference. Though, when I only take a B complex then I don't have the positive things of the Vitamin B1. Maybe less uptake because of the other B's
Or less successful action.

From my experience I would say, that B5 or B7 or B2 before B1 are good. I would also say that zinc is good (I mostly use a retarded release supp in quite small dose, it also includes selenium,and vitC), this as well before (say an hour or ten minutes). But who knows what´s going on.