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Hi Chis, I am a bit late to the party on B2 in terms of my own health. I have the MTHFR 677t polymorphism and homozygous for SCADD. I have been experiencing progressive paralysis of my legs and arms are being affected as well and severe internal tremors since 3 years ago after the V. I have severe b2 deficiency on nutreval test over a year ago. I guess I have not been taking enough since I learned about the deficiency. However I have also been very confused with lack of medical care in interior of BC and also showing positive lyme test (from an alternative lab, not standard) that has got me off track which I think could be a false positive due to high stress. However I also have the low CD57 natural killer cell as well that supposedly indicate lyme. My history and the onset tells me it's not lyme however and that perhaps riboflavin deficiency could affect natural killer cells. It's concerning that heat from the MTHFR destroys the enzyme. Should I consider injections? Thank you for your work!

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Hi Chris, love your work, your unique approach gave me insights for my work.

I have a HUGE question for you: You say that Riboflavin 5'-Phosphate is worse than cheapo staff, because our gut is cutting of that 5-phosphate of everything, but at the same time you recommend Pyridoxal 5'-phosphate as a better form of B6. What am I missing?

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It's not about the phosphate, it's about the fact that pyridoxal is superior to pyridoxine.

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I’m a little bit confused about forms of niacin:

How to identify “slow-release”(not inositol) vs “extended-release”?

I’m able to find “sustained-release” and “time-release”, but they seem the same to me by the description.

Is there a way to identify “more dangerous” form by looking at specific compounds? Or what question should be asked to a manufacturer to be sure what form they are selling?

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Well inositol would be on the ingredients (e.g. inositol hexonicotinate) if it is in there usually. I think the extension of the release over time though is the basis for the greater liver harm so the difference shouldn't matter there.

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Does regular niacin have any known benefits that other forms do not share? (except for the effect on cholesterol and redness)

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No that’s the benefit, it involves inhibition of fatty acid release and rebound release after a few hours.

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Another question caught up with me today:

Are there studies on ionic mineral supplements and their better absorption and utilisation?

Especially zinc is concerning me: is there a possibility to ingest more than ~21mg/day using ionic zinc (considering that approximately 7 mg is absorbed in 5 hours from any tablet form)?

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Everything has to be ionic to be absorbed unless it's in an amino acid chelate. If it's a salt, it should ionize in the digestive tract. If it's ionic that just means it's dissolved already. Ionic could overcome a problem dissolving the salt. Amino acid chelates overcome the problem of ions binding to other things in the intestines, but raise the problem that the amino acid transporters could be saturated by those amino acids present in dietary protein or other supplements.

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You won't find unphosphorated *pyridoxal*. Because it's very unstable, its phosphorated form is much more stable.

And "pyridoxine* hydrochloride is synthetic.

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Is liverwurst a good enough source of riboflavin?

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author

There is nothing that is “good enough” on its own because it depends on how much you eat. Liver wurst is likely to be 1/5 liver. See chrismasterjohnphd.com/101 for how much of what foods to eat.

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