Other evidence supporting GSH Depletion--methylation cycle block hypothesis

[Guest guest]

Hi all.

I want to mention some more evidence that suggests that this

hypothesis is relevant to CFS.

Carnitine--There are a number of studies showing that this is low in

CFS, and that supplementing it helps some. Carnitine requires

methylation for its synthesis, so a deficit in methylation capacity

would explain the low carnitine in CFS.

Coenzyme Q10--Two studies have found that supplementing this is also

helpful in CFS. Co Q10 also requires methylation for its synthesis.

Again, a methylation deficit would explain low Co Q10.

Vitamin B12--Regland et al. gave hydroxocobalamin shots (1000

micrograms) weekly to 10 female PWCs who had low B12 and high

homocysteine in their spinal fluid. They found that the ones who did

not have an MTHFR polymorphism were helped more by the B12,

presumably because their methionine synthase operation was not

hindered by a shortage of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate in addition to a

shortage of B12. All of this implicates the methylation cycle in the

pathogenesis of CFS.

Folinic acid--There's a new study (Lundell et al., 2006) showing that

81% of 58 CFS patients experienced subjective improvement of symptoms

after taking folinic acid. This again implicates the methylation

cycle, which is intimately linked to the folate cycle at methionine

synthase.

The evidence seems to keep piling up.

Rich