Problems With Sulphur

[Amazoniac]

- Fat, Fiber and Cancer Risk in African Americans and Rural Africans

Rates of colon cancer are much higher in African Americans (65:100,000) than in rural South Africans (<5:100,000). The higher rates are associated with higher animal protein and fat and lower fiber consumption, higher colonic secondary bile acids, lower colonic short chain fatty acid quantities and higher mucosal proliferative biomarkers of cancer risk in otherwise healthy middle aged volunteers. Here we investigate further the role of fat and fiber in this association. We performed two-week food exchanges in subjects from the same populations, where African Americans were fed a high-fiber, low-fat African-style diet, and rural Africans a high-fat low-fiber western-style diet under close supervision. In comparison to their usual diets, the food changes resulted in remarkable reciprocal changes in mucosal biomarkers of cancer risk and in aspects of the microbiota and metabolome known to affect cancer risk, best illustrated by increased saccharolytic fermentation and butyrogenesis and suppressed secondary bile acid synthesis in the African Americans.

 

[Lejeboca]

- Regulation of the cytosolic sulfotransferases by nuclear receptors
- Tocopherol Moderately Induces the Expressions of Some Human Sulfotransferases, which are Activated by Oxidative Stress
- The Role of Sulfotransferases in Liver Diseases

- Friend Turned Foe: A Role for Bacterial Sulfatases in Colitis
- A single sulfatase is required to access colonic mucin by a gut bacterium
- Colitogenic Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron antigens access host immune cells in a sulfatase-dependent manner via outer membrane vesicles
- Colonic mucins in ulcerative colitis: evidence for loss of sulfation

 

[artist]

I might be the person mentioned upthread who screwed themselves up with molybdenum trying to resolve sulfur problems. Lots of people do 1mg doses with no problem, but I was not one of them, and the consequences have been pretty severe/permanent and complicated my life immensely. I was very cavalier about supplements until this happened, so please don’t anyone repeat my mistake. I’m still trying to figure out exactly why molybdenum affected me so strongly (or why others aren’t so affected by a megadose of a trace mineral…)

Supplementing copper in the aftermath has reduced my histamine intolerance immensely (so I probably was borderline deficient to start with) but not reversed the vein damage that molybdenum induced, and the fragility of my veins has caused them to continue to worsen long after ceasing the molybdenum. Anything that increases LPS seems to antagonize them. Bacterial overgrowth induced by molybdenum does also seem possible. I wonder if molybdenum could induce a worse functional deficiency in sulfur/sulfate by burning through limited substrate, or perhaps some other side-effect from excess sulfation. Perhaps Epsom salts could help me. Definitely going to reread this thread a few times.

@Amazoniac is a saint

 

[sunny]

I don't think taking molybdenum will solve it, although a diet without enough organ meats, leafy greens and seeds (legumes, whole grains and nuts) might be deficient indeed. Not only from the risk of causing further imbalances, I just posted elsewhere for example that joint problems is a common adverse effect from higher intakes (environmental exposure or supplementation); but also because if the body allowed bactaeria that thrive on sulfur to grow, molybdenum will make the situation worse because some of them need it for similar enzymes involved in sulfur metabolism.

DMSO and sulfate (as magnesium sulfate for example) might provide relief, but if a molybdenum deficiency is involved, those will make it worse over time.

Avoiding those foods altogether is probably not a good idea if the overgrowth was compensatory because it will either go into dormancy and become more resistant, or send the signal to the body that more owagrowth is desirable. However, reducing the intake is worth considering and trying to add other fermentable foods that won't support their growth (there are plenty of them).

Here's a good starting the places..

Glutathione Depletion/Methylation Blockades in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome​

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1. To get an isolated case of CFS (I’m not talking here about the epidemics or clusters), you have to have inherited some genetic variations from your parents. These are called polymorphisms or single-nucleotide polymorphisms. We know what some of the important ones are, but we don’t know all of them yet. This is a topic that needs more research.​

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2. You also have to have some things happen in your life that place demands on your supply of glutathione. Glutathione is like a very small protein, and there is some in every cell of your body, and in your blood. It protects your body from quite a few things that can cause problems, including chemicals that are toxic, and oxidizing free radicals. It also helps the immune system to fight bugs (bacteria, viruses, fungi) so that you are protected from infections by them.​

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3. Oxidizing free radicals are molecules that have an odd number of electrons, and are very chemically reactive. They are normally formed as part of the metabolism in the body, but if they rise to high levels and are not eliminated by glutathione and the rest of the antioxidant system, they will react with things they shouldn’t, and cause problems. This situation is called oxidative stress, and it is probably the best-proven biochemical aspect of chronic fatigue syndrome.​

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4. There are a variety of things in your life that can place demands on your glutathione. These include physical injuries or surgery to your body, exposure to toxic chemicals such as pesticides, solvents, or heavy metals like mercury, arsenic or lead, exposure to infectious agents or vaccinations, or emotional stress that causes secretion of a lot of cortisol and adrenaline, especially if it continues over a long time. Just about anything that “stresses” your body or your mind will place a demand on glutathione. All people experience a variety of stressors all the time, and a healthy person’s body is able to keep up with the demands for glutathione by recycling used glutathione molecules and by making new ones as needed. However, if a person’s body cannot keep up, either because of extra-high demands or inherited genetic polymorphisms that interfere with recycling or making glutathione, or both, the levels of glutathione in the cells can go too low. When glutathione is properly measured in most people with CFS (such as in the Vitamin Diagnostics methylation pathways panel), it is found to be below normal.​

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5. One of the jobs that glutathione normally does is to protect your supply of vitamin B12 from reacting with toxins. If left unprotected, vitamin B12 is very reactive chemically. If it reacts with toxins, it can’t be used for its important jobs in your body. A routine blood test for vitamin B12 will not reveal this problem. In fact, many people with CFS appear to have elevated levels of B12 in their blood, while their bodies are not able to use it properly. The best test to reveal this is a urine organic acids test that includes methylmalonic acid. It will be high if the B12 is being sidetracked, and this is commonly seen in people with CFS.​

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6. When your glutathione level goes too low, your B12 becomes naked and vulnerable, and is hijacked by toxins. Also, the levels of toxins rise in the body when there isn’t enough glutathione to take them out, so there are two unfortunate things that work together to sabotage your B12 when glutathione goes too low.​

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7. The most important job that B12 has in the body is to form methylcobalamin, which is one of the two active forms of B12. This form is needed by the enzyme methionine synthase, to do its job. An enzyme is a substance that catalyzes, or encourages, a certain biochemical reaction.​

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8. When there isn’t enough methylcobalamin, methionine synthase has to slow down its reaction. Its reaction lies at the junction of the methylation cycle and the folate cycle, so when this reaction slows down, it affects both these cycles.​

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9. The methylation cycle is found in all the cells of the body (not counting the red blood cells, which are unusual in a lot of ways). The methylation cycle has some important jobs to do. First, it acts as a little factory to supply methyl (CH3) groups to a large number of reactions in the body. Some of these reactions make things like creatine, carnitine, coenzyme Q10, phosphatidylcholine, melatonin, and lots of other important substances for the body. It is not a coincidence that these substances are found to be low in CFS, so that people try taking them as supplements. Not enough of them is being made because of the partial block in the methylation cycle. The methylation cycle also supplies methyl groups to be attached to DNA molecules, and this helps to determine whether the blueprints in the DNA will be used to make certain proteins according to their patterns. The “reading” of DNA is referred to as “gene expression.” Methyl groups prevent or “silence” gene expression. Overexpression of genes has been observed in CFS patients, and I suspect this is at least partly due to lack of sufficient methylation to silence gene expression.​

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10. Another thing that the methylation cycle does is to regulate the overall use of sulfur in the body. Sulfur comes in from the diet in the form of amino acids in protein (methionine and cysteine) and as taurine and some as sulfate. The methylation cycle regulates the production of the various substances that contain sulfur that are needed by the body. The levels of various sulfur metabolites are often found to be abnormal in people with CFS.​

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11. One of the most important sulfur-containing substances in the body is glutathione, so now you can see how this is starting to look like a dog chasing its tail! The thing that causes chronic fatigue syndrome to be chronic, and keeps people ill for years and years, is this interaction between glutathione, vitamin B12, and the methylation cycle. When glutathione goes too low, the effect on vitamin B12 slows down the methylation cycle too much. The sulfur metabolites are then dumped into the transsulfuration pathway (which is connected to the methylation cycle) too much, are oxidized to form cystine, pass through hydrogen sulfide, and are eventually converted to thiosulfate and sulfate and are excreted in the urine. This lowers the production of glutathione, which requires cysteine rather than cystine, and now there is a vicious circle mechanism that preserves this malfunction and keeps you sick.​

NAC (cysteine) Increases Melanoma Spread

I would consider replenishing B-vitamins (especially niacin; thiamine and biotin shouldn't be too troubling as the situation improves), glycine, vitamin C, magnesium in low doses spread throughout the day (excess isn't absorbed and can fuel certain infections). The quinones must be useful as well because these sulfur compounds tend to inactivate them. If these continue to cause problems when ingested, topical is an alternative.
Walking plenty should also help.

Informative

 

[Lejeboca]

@Amazoniac is a saint

Not related to 'sulphur' but at least to 'problems': in case you didn't know The Amazoniac Corner

 

[artist]

I forgot to thank you for the head’s up @Lejeboca . Definitely an unfortunate loss