Sulfites ABC

Supplements for SUOX/CBS SNP-combo by Tiiu Ounila/Nutritonal Therapist

The following post can be found also in the  FB Group. 

Genetics and Sulfite Intolerance.
Supplementing certain nutrients will boost your Sulfite oxidase enzyme to work better, and this way help your body to metabolise the added sulfites and sulphur containing amino-acids: cysteine and methionine.

Personally I have suffered of sulfite issues my whole life. I just didn’t know that I was reacting to sulfites, and it took many years to finally put it all together, but when my diagnosis was official the first supplement I started to look into was Molybdenum.
And I would say that Molybdenum is the most important mineral for sulfite issue. (It is used by other enzymes as well, but that would need a separate post)

I am going to use a simple example to put this all together, and we are gonna bake a cake, since I love to bake, and the Molybdenum would be the eggs in that cake. Eggs are important ingredients to make a fluffy and beautiful cake, and how many eggs you want to put into your cake depends on many factors. You can make a coffee cake with less eggs, but you need more eggs to cake base you are going to decorate and add a filling.

#1 Molybdenum – as a supplement look into amino acid chelated form or sodium molybdate. During the last 5 years when I have used Molybdenum daily with various amounts I have noticed that the sodium molybdate works better for me, and I am able to stop a serious asthma attack only with Molybdenum supplements. I got an asthma diagnosis back in 2005 but haven’t used an inhaler since 2011 when I started supplementing with Molybdenum. (Also if you use steroids containing inhaler remember that steroids make you more prone to react to sulfites, this goes also with steroids taken orally). The daily dose depends from person to person and you should ask your health care practitioner how much would be the best dose for you. This goes with all supplements. And always remember that we all have other health issues as well and those have an impact for the dosing of supplements as well. Only a practitioner/Dr who knows all your issues can give you indications what to follow for long term.
You can get your Molybdenum levels tested with Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis,HTMA, or you can check your blood uric acid levels. Both will give indications about your Molybdenum levels and how your body uses it.

Good cake needs also other ingredients and it is not easy to bake without the sweetener. I am not a fan of refined sugar, so any sugar which comes from either beet sugar or cane sugar or corn is something I won’t recommend.
# 2 B12 would be the sweetener, and there are 3 choices for the B12 and your genes will tell which would be the optimal B12 for you. If you don’t know your genes, then adenosylcobalamin aka Dibencozide would be the best. The other two are hydroxycobalamin and methylcobalamin. MTHFR status alone won’t tell what would be the best B12 for you.
Every baker prefers different sweetner, also our bodies needs the different forms of B12. Some people will do best when they supplement all three forms. Same like adding to your cake a bit of coconut sugar, honey and date syrup for instance.
Then there are those who will benefit most when they take the hydroxy- and adenosylcobalamin.
And again some will tolerate only hydroxy- or adenosylcobalamin.
Only a few people will feel good only by taking methylcobalamin.
Finding the right combo for each person is easier when you know your genes, but then we also need to consider what feels best, and it is like using your taste buds when choosing the sweetener to your cake.

Even though there are also flourless and fat free cakes, both flour and fat are key ingredients when baking many traditional cakes so the next two supplements: Boron and Vitamin E will be added next to this mixture.

The flour you use in your cake can be almost anything- gluten free flour choices are endless and then of course there are all the choices of gluten containing flours. But also the amount you use counts for the cake. Different recipe=person, different amount of flour=Boron.
#3 Boron, is an important mineral, specially for the bones, but it is also one of the key nutrients required by the sulfite oxidase enzyme.
The amount of Boron your body needs depends on many factors. Since it might affect on your hormone levels, specially on your oestrogen and testosterone levels you should monitor those levels carefully and supplement the high doses only for a certain period of time (3mg is a standard supplement size). If you suffer already osteopenia or osteoporosis your Doctor might have put you on Boron supplements, or it is part of the various Bone supplements available. HTMA test will show also your Boron levels.

Then we need some healthy fats. If I am making a cake for myself I would choose grass-fed butter, but if my vegan friends would be coming over I would use the coconut oil. So again there are not just one choice.
# 4 Vitamin E. Most vitamin E is made of soy and that is something what many will want to avoid, specially the GMO soy, but if you are not allergic/intolerant to soy, and you don’t have G6PD issues you can be just fine by supplementing with GMO free, soy based mixed tocopherols for vitamin E. Not everyone can tolerate soy and in that case we need to look into alternatives. Soy free vitamin E is often made of sunflower seed oil or annatto seeds, which both are fine for most soy-allergic people. Other option is to use high vitamin E – oils like hemp seed oil. I wouldn’t recommend high omega 6 containing vegetable oils unless all the other options are out.
Again the dosage varies person by person, but therapeutical doses are often 400IU daily. Or those can be as high as 800IU for a certain period of time.

Well, since the cake I have in mind is a cake which I am going to fill and decorate the only missing ingredient is baking powder. But since most baking powders contain starch, I started using baking soda aka bicarbonate of soda years ago and that have never failed my cakes or other baked gods. Just simply mix it first with the flours/dry ingredients you are using.
So let’s take a pinch of bicarbonate of soda and add that to the flours/cake mixture. Like I have been doing with
#5 Strontium.
This is an other bone mineral, which is again added to the most bone supplements. The Strontium was part of the first list of supplements I got from the Genetic lab to Sulfite issues and I have supplemented it ever since, so almost 6 years now. When I am saying pinch of soda I would also recommend only a little of
Strontium maybe once a week or a few times a month.
I take mine once a week, and I haven’t had any adverse reaction to it during all these years. I have also kept my long term steroid use caused osteopenia under control, and the bone density has actually gotten better during the last years.
One issue with Strontium is that it is available currently only as citrate form. And citrate forms often contain trace amounts of citric acid and like we all know there are some trace amounts of sulfites left in the citric acid due to how it is manufactured. I have been super sensitive to sulfites, even to trace amounts, but no issues with the Strontium citrate, probably because I have kept the doses low. Since Strontium is a powerful mineral on treating osteoporosis the other forms are only available as drugs and that means that those contain a lot of nasties. And I wouldn’t recommend those to boosting sulfite oxidase enzyme. So it is your health care practitioner who should be able to evaluate if the pinch of the soda – Strontium would be also good for you to boost the Sulfite Oxidase enzyme activity.

These are the 5 key nutrients I consider important for those having Sulfite Issues. Specially when a person reacts badly to added sulfites. Not only from the diet, but also from the environment. When a person reacts also to high sulfur/thiol foods there are often other issues as well which need to be fixed, and other supplements are needed for most persons.
And besides the supplements there are also many other things which will help you get better and most importantly to eat more variety of foods. Gut healing is the key, but if I start to talk about that here, then you are going to read the whole chapter of the book here.

I am also interested to know, how many of you take all the 5 supplements, or what of these you are taking? You can just write on the comments below what you take from these 5.
(Please don’t add the other supplements you might take to this post)

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The supplement recommendations above are from my personal experiences what I have used to turn around my sulfite issues and from the research/studies I have done during the last 6 years around the Sulfite topic.
Those who are on my friend list on Facebook have seen that I have been able to add back practically all the high sulphur/thiol foods which previously made me really sick. I am also able to use high sulphur/thiol supplements daily. Something what I would have not believed a few years ago. Added sulfites aka the laboratory made chemicals are something I won’t be adding back to my diet/life anymore. I strongly believe our bodies are not made to metabolise the various chemicals we are exposed every single day and many of our health issues are due because of the toxic environment.

All this still amazes me everyday, specially when I am cutting cauliflower or the onions which were the foods I reacted with anaphylaxis only by inhaling the cooking smells.
Power of the Epigenetics or what ?