Good article i found on a relatively unknown but common condition called Pyroluria. This is what i believe went wrong with my own health and i naturally stumbled onto my needed treatment without even knowing that Pyroluria was even a condition at the time.

Pyroluria is a genetic condition which involves an abnormality in haemoglobin synthesis. This causes excessive levels of pyrroles to be released which bind to Zinc and B6 causing a very dangerous deficiency of these two essential nutrients.

Something all my doctors completely missed and if i had never developed stretch marks on my arms i probably would have never stumbled onto the importance of proper Zinc/Copper balance especially via diet. Although for years i had seen the patterns with my severe adrenal exhaustion and other chronic symptoms.

It is estimated around 10% of the population may have pyroluria and i wouldn't doubt that for a second. Anyone with a family history of depression, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, adrenal exhaustion, being highly strung out and creative, would probably benefit from researching into pyroluria.

I will probably do an article about this down the line. Initially the detox is immense from the removal of Copper, so go very slow. High doses of Zinc caused me to feel like i was going mad or going to die from Copper chelation. Copper is such a stimulating element that im also not surprised that it causes such a wide degree of nervous over-stimulation and burnout eventually.

[www.natuhealth.co.uk]



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2013 09:28AM by powerlifer.

and yes i forgot to link the article after all that lol.

[www.joanmathewslarson.com]

Another good article on Copper Toxicity.

[www.tvernonlac.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2013 09:26AM by powerlifer.

Curiously, a lot of the symptoms of this disorder were present in me from childhood to my early 20s, and becoming a vegetarian changed almost everything. I wonder . . .

Thanks for posting, powerlifer; as I work after-school day care at a grade school, I am always on the lookout for various signs and symptoms and will add this to my mental files.

Hey Tamukha,

Its strange how it relates to an awful lot of people i know, especially many who have kind of withdrawn from being so social in there early 20s and how it often spans whole families with the same sort of symptoms such as depression, anxiety, adrenal exhaustion, mental disorders such as schizophrenia and even alcoholism.

Did becoming vegetarian change for a positive or a negative ?. I firmly believe that i became intolerant to animal foods because i no longer had the stomach acid required to digest them. This is very bad for people with pyroluria because it means even less dietary zinc is being utilized. The only foods you end up being able to tolerate are Copper rich plant foods, which is why so many react badly to foods with more Zinc such as animal foods after being vegan or vegetarian for long periods of time.

Unfortunately this was my main reason for having to abandon a vegan diet, if it wasn't for zinc citrate supplementation i reckon i would have felt more poor effects sooner because i could start to feel my hard work was being un-done which was leading me down a road i couldn't handle a second time round.

I have a pyroluria urine test here that i am doing this week and will update. Even if i don't have the genetic pyroluria i still know many of my problems were caused by low Zinc and Copper imbalance. Even though i have been nutritional balancing for years and chelation, i suspect i have very deep stores of Copper from early childhood stress predisposing me to being an accumulator of Copper.

My chronic health problems started in my teenage years, during the years where the body demands high amounts of Zinc. Ive had the classic ridges on my nails all my life which is thought to relate to Zinc deficiency as is the white spots to some degree. Ive always felt like there was something genetically wrong to cause such poor health and its quite ironic but the huge amount of copper rich plant foods is exactly the opposite of what i should have been doing.

Rant over lol. If it is Pyroluria though it looks as if supplementation is required for life, if Pyroluria supplements are stopped the symptoms come back in as quick as 2-4 weeks(YIKES). I guess i naturally found the things to treat my Pyroluria such as Zinc, B6, Manganese before i even knew it was a condition. Which i guess was nothing more than pure luck, massive amounts of research and being very in tune with my body.

[www.natuhealth.co.uk]



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2013 02:33PM by powerlifer.

This is great information, powerlifer. Some of those very specific questions fit me, also. Especially things like - doesn't like to sit in the middle of the room - that's almost like the homeopathic questions. I'm going to find out if the HFS where I go for screenings has a test for that. I do have a big allergy to either copper or manganese. I started taking some angstrom minerals years ago and broke out in hives, so had to stop. Copper and manganese were two that I was taking, among others. Then a few years ago, I took the Vitamin Code vitamins and had a bad case of hives for three days. It contained both copper and manganese, so I don't know which it was, but now I'm thinking it was copper.

But with all that information, I'm confused. I guess the first thing you do is get a test, and then if you have pyroluria, you take zinc, B6 and manganese. I'll have to go back and re-read the articles.

A person could become a hypochondriac on here

KidRaw Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A person could become a hypochondriac on here

Haha yeah try to not let that happen, my health problems had me searching in every direction so i know how easy it can be to convince oneself.

If you do suspect pyroluria, i think the first site has a questionnaire which suggests that if you have over 15 of the symptoms then it would be a good idea to test, especially if you have a family history of the above like i say. If you just have one or two symptoms from that list i don't think its likely myself. I had most of those symptoms except the crowded front teeth which is common in pyrolurics.

The test is a relatively cheap urine test. I reacted very poorly to most commercial copper containing multi-vitamins also.

Taking Zinc caused the most intense detox experience ive ever went through, that alone made me aware that Copper or some heavy metal was causing me trouble. I had the metallic smell coming from my urine, sweat and bowel movements it was that bad.

Overall, Pyroluria should be made more aware to those with depression, anxiety, schizophrenia etc. I have read around 20% of schizophrenics have been found to have the genetic defect pyroluria, yet it rarely gets taken seriously by conventional doctors. Then again most of these doctors just want to prescribe anti-depressants and get you out the door these days it seems.

[www.natuhealth.co.uk]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2013 09:35AM by powerlifer.

I was just checking out the articles further and see they recommend some products, but I'm not thrilled with some of the fillers - the magnesium stearate, vegetable stearate.

[www.bio-recoveryinc.com]

This stuff looks great -

[www.bio-recoveryinc.com]

But is it synthetic or natural.

This looks like a good resource -

[www.aaemonline.org]

Many of these flow agents such as magnesium stearate are unfortunately unavoidable in capsule supplements. Powder supplements often don't contain these fillers.

The amino acid supplement will be synthetic and may be of use to vegans who often don't get conditionally essential amino acids in full form such as l-taurine. Otherwise if you eat lots of amino acid rich foods i would say it probably wasn't necessary. Then again ive found free-form amino acid supplements quite helpful for recovery and gains from bodybuilding despite a protein rich diet.

[www.natuhealth.co.uk]

powerlifer,

Vegetarianism changed my health for the better. My father was suspected of having had Wilson's Disease, so my brother and I were tested in childhood and showed negative; we metabolize copper fine. Soil around these parts--from which most of our childhood foods, which were natural, hailed--isn't too copper-rich, so that isn't a problem for me, thankfully. I think balancing out copper and zinc must be a serious problem in case of overload of the former

So i did the test in the end and it looks likely i have pyroluria or pyrrole disorder whatever you want to call it.

Urine
Urinary Kryptopyrroles * 0.11 units Up to 0.08

In essence the above is pretty much as good as you'll get for a confirmed diagnosis of HPU/Pyroluria. It has taken me 10+ years to get to this point of diagnosing my root problems. Fortunately my GP has actually been rather understanding despite not having a clue about any of this. I could see the patterns and the symptoms that low zinc/b6 deficiency induced by this disorder causes, whilst my doctors couldn't. Im actually rather proud of myself for once lol.

At this stage im about 99% back right with Pyroluria vitamin therapy despite not even knowing this was a condition until last year, i lost most of my adult and teenage life to this crap .

[www.natuhealth.co.uk]

I'd like to start taking zinc - I know I have a copper problem because it gives me hives. Do you happen to know of the best zinc brand that's not synthetic and doesn't have any fillers - otherwise, I'll just look it up myself. My daughter's going to a naturopathic doctor for her acne and he wants her to start taking zinc. Can just taking one mineral like that throw your whole body off balance - like an imbalance of the rest of the minerals - like how you're not supposed to take calcium without magnesium - or is it OK to just start taking zinc supplements? And is B6 something that you can get in a natural vitamin or does it have to be synthetic?

I never was into taking vitamins and supplements because I felt they made your body out of balance, but if they're natural and from food sources, I guess they're OK.

This is a very good question and your thoughts are correct Kidraw, taking supplemental doses of various minerals can upset the balance of other nutrients.

In the case of Zinc, Manganese is one mineral of potential concern as is Copper. You will find many who are depleted in Zinc, have elevated Copper levels, but eventually like i say supplemental doses of Zinc will lower or create a deficiency of Copper which can cause alot of serious health problems also.

In which case a qualified practitioner is essential. 99% of Zinc supplements are synthetic, this doesn't mean that they are bad. Most encapsulated supplements contain flow agents and other fillers.

Acne is another complex topic with many causes, alot of trial and error. One thing for sure is hormonal imbalance of androgen hormones is often involved.

[www.natuhealth.co.uk]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2013 10:47PM by powerlifer.