Thank you for your very good series on this issue. We have some pretty bad mental health issues and our family and of course are treating it with medication. I'm not saying we're going to go off of it due to this info, but it would be great to prevent severe episodes in my family members who have horrible anxiety, especially between meals.
Thanks Chris! Two questons: Is S-sulfocysteine higher in diabetics? Does it generally increase overnight or when fasting due to gluconeogenesis? Thanks
So what's the takeaway? Should people take more molybdenum? I can barely handle that supplement on its own, yet take it in my trace minerals supplement.
Chris, I'm wondering if this mechanism happens more in people who are not adapted to burning their own fat once their liver glycogen runs out. My understanding is that if one is fat adapted, then the cells that use fat for fuel (most cells except brain cells I believe) can run on fat, the brain cells can run on ketones, and then some glucose can be generated from triglycerides--enough to keep the blood glucose stable. Therefore, the body would not need to generate glucose from protein. Am I understanding that correctly?
Coming from Carnivore and Ray Peat way of thinking I avoided many Molybdenum containing foods. Now introducing them back again, I can feel surprising effects
Libido back, Less hunger, more energy
Just from fava beans and oats, still experimenting. But thank you so much for shedding the light on Molybdenum
This is huge! Very helpful indeed, and this helps me to possibly solve a mystery I have wondered about. I have tested my glucose levels during HypoGlycemia episodes and have found the levels very low at times, and 'normal' at other times with similar symptoms. Moreover, I have noticed that when I go meatless for a day or more, I never get HypoG symptoms even if i miss a meal by hours. I might get hungry, but I don't get that weak, irritable, shaky, desperate feeling that I do with classic HypoG. When I am eating meat regularly that is when I am most at risk for HypoG if I am late for or miss a meal. Your theory here solves that mystery for me. An all carb diet, which is supposed to make classic HypoG worse, actually works well for me in preventing HypoG episodes, but probably not so healthy so I generally try to eat a 'balanced' diet.
Next mystery, if what we think as HypoG is really sulfite problems, why are those symptoms alleviated by eating foods high in carbs, salt, and fat? When I am in that weak, shaky state, the number one combo my body craves is orange juice and potato chips. I rarely have these in the house, but that is what I crave. When I eat that, or similar sugar/fat/salt combinations, I get fairly rapid remission of symptoms (although I won't really feel fully recovered till the next day)
Does that combo somehow help clear sulfites/metabolites from the system?
Thank much Chris for sharing your research with us!!!
Most diagrams of sulfite to sulfate metabolism show cysteine diverging to s-sulfocysteine, but after you get to sulfite that can also diverge to thiosulfate. I have read that both s-sulfocysteine and thiosulfate can test for sulfite oxidase deficiency:
NMS Labs has a $247 test for urinary thiosulfate. But the problem is they only sell to researchers, crime investigators, etc. They don't provide any kit. I think they would accept an order from a doctor but most doctors won't want to set up an account with a vendor for ordering a single test.
Chris, does your research suggest that thiosulfate would be an equally good marker for sulfite oxidase inefficiency? I think you should probably not refer to this as sulfite oxidase deficiency since people who have that rarely survive childhood and get massive brain damage along the way. The condition you are trying to describe is genetic polymorphisms - possibly made worse by diet - that result in excess sulfite accumulation.
Any ideas on how to get the Mayo Clinic panel? Call the Mayo Clinic and request an appointment with one of their physicians and then hopefully have that appointment done via telehealth?
Would love to hear your take on it in a future post! Or if you've already covered it, then I can find it myself.
I wanted to bring it to your attention because it offers a compelling hypothesis for a number of questions I've had about my own energy levels and how certain foods/ingredients have directly impacted them.
Thank you for your very good series on this issue. We have some pretty bad mental health issues and our family and of course are treating it with medication. I'm not saying we're going to go off of it due to this info, but it would be great to prevent severe episodes in my family members who have horrible anxiety, especially between meals.
Fascinating - thank you!
Thanks Chris! Two questons: Is S-sulfocysteine higher in diabetics? Does it generally increase overnight or when fasting due to gluconeogenesis? Thanks
So what's the takeaway? Should people take more molybdenum? I can barely handle that supplement on its own, yet take it in my trace minerals supplement.
Chris, I'm wondering if this mechanism happens more in people who are not adapted to burning their own fat once their liver glycogen runs out. My understanding is that if one is fat adapted, then the cells that use fat for fuel (most cells except brain cells I believe) can run on fat, the brain cells can run on ketones, and then some glucose can be generated from triglycerides--enough to keep the blood glucose stable. Therefore, the body would not need to generate glucose from protein. Am I understanding that correctly?
Coming from Carnivore and Ray Peat way of thinking I avoided many Molybdenum containing foods. Now introducing them back again, I can feel surprising effects
Libido back, Less hunger, more energy
Just from fava beans and oats, still experimenting. But thank you so much for shedding the light on Molybdenum
This is huge! Very helpful indeed, and this helps me to possibly solve a mystery I have wondered about. I have tested my glucose levels during HypoGlycemia episodes and have found the levels very low at times, and 'normal' at other times with similar symptoms. Moreover, I have noticed that when I go meatless for a day or more, I never get HypoG symptoms even if i miss a meal by hours. I might get hungry, but I don't get that weak, irritable, shaky, desperate feeling that I do with classic HypoG. When I am eating meat regularly that is when I am most at risk for HypoG if I am late for or miss a meal. Your theory here solves that mystery for me. An all carb diet, which is supposed to make classic HypoG worse, actually works well for me in preventing HypoG episodes, but probably not so healthy so I generally try to eat a 'balanced' diet.
Next mystery, if what we think as HypoG is really sulfite problems, why are those symptoms alleviated by eating foods high in carbs, salt, and fat? When I am in that weak, shaky state, the number one combo my body craves is orange juice and potato chips. I rarely have these in the house, but that is what I crave. When I eat that, or similar sugar/fat/salt combinations, I get fairly rapid remission of symptoms (although I won't really feel fully recovered till the next day)
Does that combo somehow help clear sulfites/metabolites from the system?
Thank much Chris for sharing your research with us!!!
Most diagrams of sulfite to sulfate metabolism show cysteine diverging to s-sulfocysteine, but after you get to sulfite that can also diverge to thiosulfate. I have read that both s-sulfocysteine and thiosulfate can test for sulfite oxidase deficiency:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24035933/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/509724/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8605694/
NMS Labs has a $247 test for urinary thiosulfate. But the problem is they only sell to researchers, crime investigators, etc. They don't provide any kit. I think they would accept an order from a doctor but most doctors won't want to set up an account with a vendor for ordering a single test.
Chris, does your research suggest that thiosulfate would be an equally good marker for sulfite oxidase inefficiency? I think you should probably not refer to this as sulfite oxidase deficiency since people who have that rarely survive childhood and get massive brain damage along the way. The condition you are trying to describe is genetic polymorphisms - possibly made worse by diet - that result in excess sulfite accumulation.
What’s the solution here, apart from getting tested? Molybdenum?
Any ideas on how to get the Mayo Clinic panel? Call the Mayo Clinic and request an appointment with one of their physicians and then hopefully have that appointment done via telehealth?
Hey Chris,
Longtime fan - I saw this post on Reddit yesterday with an accompanying paper on Fructose and its impact on cellular metabolism.
Post - https://old.reddit.com/r/Biohackers/comments/1c4y652/tracing_the_roots_of_metabolic_dysfunction_a_case/
Paper - https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2022.0230
Would love to hear your take on it in a future post! Or if you've already covered it, then I can find it myself.
I wanted to bring it to your attention because it offers a compelling hypothesis for a number of questions I've had about my own energy levels and how certain foods/ingredients have directly impacted them.
Should we be focusing more on being able to use glucose and glycogen well before a more advanced approach?