Mercury and Acetylcholine

Polly: Mercury can down-regulate (lower) the production of acetylcholine. [5] Acetylaldehyde from yeast can interfere with the acetylcholine too. Besides getting rid of the mercury and yeast, what else can you do to improve acetylcholine levels? You won’ t find acetylcholine in a vitamin shop, but you will find several substances that can improve acetylcholine levels. You might try one or more of these items: SAMe, phosphotidylcholine, DMAE, Jarrow’ s CDPCholine, or taurine. [6] These are carried in most vitamin shops. Always start slow on any of these supplements, and learn a little more about them first.

Methyl-Sulfonyl-Methane (MSM) inhibits acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine. Therefore, MSM might raise acetylcholine levels. Yet MSM also protects against the toxicity of certain insecticides that are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. Therefore it is difficult to say whether the effect of MSM would be to raise or lower acetylcholine levels. It would depend on the situation.

There are a couple of reasons to start slowly on any supplement that raises acetylcholine levels. Additional acetylcholine can stimulate the release of arachidonic acid (AA) and thus in some individuals, it may increase symptoms related to inflammation, including asthma. [7] If you are very low on acetylcholine, paradoxically you might be sensitive to anything that raises acetylcholine. This can happen if your body has upregulated its acetylcholine receptors to try and make up for the lack of acetylcholine. If this happens to you, try adding some vitamin B1 or preferably coenzyme B1 when taking these other supplements. Vitamin B1 is important for the production of acetylcholine. Yet, vitamin B1 will desensitize the acetylcholine receptors. [8] (Those with mercury poisoning are often low on B1.) Conversely, phosphotidylserine will increase the sensitivity of the acetylcholine receptors (as well as cortisol receptors). [9] I’ ve also heard that some people who are using TTFD seem to need more taurine. Everything is certainly an important balancing act here.

Sulfur Foods Intolerance

Shelley: The first time I read about not eating any sulfur foods was by accident, at my dentists if anything is by accident. I stopped eating eggs, onions, and garlic and felt so so much better. I had been feeling like chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) was just going to run me straight over. That was in the spring. Since then, I have read a bunch more on dental boards on the net, but I have not found any real clear explanations for this phenomenon. One of the clearest is from my doctor and is in the forum archives…about how mercury attaches to sulfhydryl and disulfide groups.

My intuition is telling me that I should really avoid the sulfur even though it is so important biochemically. I also have the sense that someday sulfur foods will be just fine to eat. Just not now.

The only thing I can figure to do on a weekly basis is to keep detoxing as best I can using other means, not sulfur — which at this point means sauna, lymphatic massage and colonics. This week, after my experiments with two days of MSM sulfur, the sauna was really hard to take and so was the colonic. I felt it was really rough detoxing. That may be why I have decided it is too rough on me for now to try any other sulfur stuff. It is better to avoid it now.

I think if one does suspect sulfur as a problem, the best test one can get to show where the problem lies is the Comprehensive Liver Detox Test through Great Smokies. The pathways that are described above are clearly shown in this test.

Mrs. Generic: Shelley, you said that your Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratories’ Liver Profile showed that you were sulfur sensitive. I had the same test done and it showed my plasma sulfate level was low. The lab report stated that my body is having some difficulty generating inorganic sulfate from cysteine. It went on to say that supplementation with glutathione, cysteine or their precursors might further imbalance the system. (Note: Methionine can be converted into cysteine. Cysteine can be converted into glutathione or taurine. Taurine can be converted into sulfite then sulfate.)

What foods and supplements do you stay away from and what supplements do you take that are helpful?

Shelley: It changes as to what I can take. I have been able to tolerate things now that were impossible 8 months ago. An example is milk thistle. I think it is doing very good things for my liver now, but before it made me really nauseous.

I still avoid N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC). That’ s for sure. And I avoid MSM for now. And anything that is like reduced glutathione, or cysteine. I make sure that the multi I take doesn’ t have any of those things in it. (I take Allergy Research Groups products.)

Two things have been suggested to me to help this situation. One I am doing now— the molybdenum. The second was to add supplements that are sulfates into my diet. The second I am still looking into but will give it a go when ready and after the monthly “ run it by my doctor” challenge.

I’ ve been thinking of slowly switching some of my supplements to sulfate form — like instead of iron bsyglinate, perhaps switching to ferrous sulfate. My next step is an amino acid panel. And that now too is no longer intuitive…I sort of see what I’m after here, now.

I take CoQ10, Milk Thistle, buffered C, iron (I am deficient in iron. I think this is another result of heavy metals), PCO phytosomes (another antioxidant), E (non-soy based), the multi (make sure none of it is yeast based, like the B’ s), quecertin, biotin, molybdenum, sometimes a probiotic, B12 injections, folic acid, and P5P (Pyridoxal-5-phosphate or coenzyme B6) Think that’ s it.

Polly: Vitamin B1 helps people use sulfur properly. The coenzyme form of it (TTFD or Benfotiamine) might be worth trying.

If you take supplements in the form of sulfates, don’ t take them with calcium. In Andy Culter’ s book, he said that sulfates in the presence of calcium would form insoluble precipitates (page111).

In an article at Jeff Clark’ s site, he suggests that if a person is intolerant to sulfur foods, that they should check their level of the amino acid histidine. They may be low on it. This is an excerpt from his article, repeated with permission. http://www.CFSN.com

“ Intolerance of sulfur bearing foods like garlic and broccoli along with elevated blood plasma L-cysteine levels indicate inactivation of the L-Histidine and iron dependent enzyme cysteine dioxygenase.

L-histidine is required by the body to regulate and utilize essential trace minerals such as copper, zinc, iron, manganese and molybdenum. Metals such as zinc, copper and nickel are transported by binding with L-histidine, and such binding appears essential for rapid excretion of excess metal.

Persons contaminated with heavy metals, suffering from chronic seasonal allergies, or following a low histidine diet are most susceptible to body depletion of adequate histidine stores—creating the possibility of mineral-enzyme deficiencies and dysregulation.”

(For some information on histidine, see Eric Braverman’ s book, The Healing Nutrients Within. Histidine is found in meat, but there is very little histidine in most cereals, grains, vegetables, fruits and oils.)

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