I didn't soak the Brazil nuts, as I suspected that the plant toxins helped get things moving. It's not a sustainable long-term strategy, so I've been looking for other better solutions. If P5P helps with constipation, as I've since learned it can, I may not need to use the nuts therapeutically any more. P5P has some of the quickest and most dramatic benefits of any therapy I've tried.
I bought the P5P at the local Vitamin Shoppe. The sales clerk recommended it as the best version of B6, which my later Googling confirmed.
http://www.vitaminshoppe.com/store/en/browse/sku_detail.jsp?id=VS-1266#.UcZeDPnCYqI $11.99 for 100 50 mg tablets.
I serendipitously stumbled on the B6 connection to constipation. I had started taking P5P due to many interesting connections between my chronic symptoms, personal and family history, and "pyroluria." I had investigated pyroluria before years ago when I noticed interesting correlations in the reported symptoms, but there was scarce info on it and most of it dismissed the concept and therapies as quackery. I had even tried B6 before, but bought a standard cheap version and used the recommended dose and didn't notice anything from it.
Now there is more info on the Internet about pyroluria (though still not a lot and much of it vague or dismissive). I had discovered before that it was only after I took much more than the suggested dosage on the bottles that I benefited from zinc and potassium supplements and that the more bioavailable chelated forms of zinc produced none of the nausea that cheap forms did. So I decided that maybe this could be the case for B6 too. This time I asked for the most bioavailable version and Googled for dosage recommendations for people with pyroluria. Sure enough, the suggested dosages for pyroluria were far higher than the doses on the bottle and there were multiple reports that people with pyroluria don't notice any improvement at standard doses, but people with substantial pyrroles will tend to notice dramatic improvement at high doses within a day. This all proved true for me.
I noticed one morning after taking my highest total daily dose of P5P (200 mg spread throughout the day), that I had a stronger than normal morning peristalsis signal (it's normally weak to nonexistent for me without helps like a large breakfast) and better movement. I hadn't seen a connection made between pyroluria and chronic constipation before, but I Googled it and several sources did report constipation (especially morning constipation with nausea and lack of morning appetite) and IBS. I had all these symptoms in the past--IBS-C with little or no peristalsis, morning constipation which later became constipation throughout the day and eventually IBS-C with intermittent diarrhea. Cutting out gluten improved this to just constipation with slightly better peristalsis. P5P seems to be further helping.
IBS vitamin B6 constipationI've long suspected that something is interfering with my neural signals and thus preventing much of the normal peristalsis signal, and this notion of pyrroles seems to fit with that. I'm speculating, but if this pyroluria thing is real, then perhaps something like this is the scenario--pyrroles block neural signals including peristalsis signals, B6 binds with the pyrroles, clearing up the neural blockages and enabling the peristalsis signals to get through. I've also noticed improved mental clarity and better short-term memory, including of dreams, since taking P5P.
I've also noticed that various therapies, such as going gluten-free, then going Paleo, then going LC Paleo, then raw LC Paleo, have excellent short-term effects for me, including often some euphoria in the early days, but then some of the old symptoms gradually start to creep back--so subtly it's almost imperceptible until it gets bad enough to notice. I now suspect that the beneficial therapies reduce the level of pyrroles and other toxins in my system short-term, but then they gradually increase again. By focusing more directly on the pyrroles (assuming I have them), it may have more impact, and so far that seems to be proving out.
Another thing I've noticed over the years that I so far haven't found any info on, is that if I eat more of certain carby foods or alcohol (especially certain types of alcohol, with certain brands of mead and unfiltered sake being less of a problem), the next morning a full bladder of urine will be quite irritating and my flanks (kidneys?) may also ache. The discomfort largely or totally goes away after morning urination. Perhaps that irritation is caused by accumulated pyrroles in the urine? If I take plenty of P5P, that bladder irritation is largely or totally avoided, even if I drink alcohol the previous evening, which I put to the test.
I think I'm on to something here. This so far seems to be the biggest breakthrough for me since trying gluten-free and Paleo.
The odd thing about this pyroluria thing is that there is so little on it, the studies didn't support it, and there aren't many success stories. People post on forums or in blogs that they are going to try it or are having early success, then they stop posting. I discovered that even Chris MasterJohn reported years ago that pyroluria therapy was very beneficial for him, and he wrote a couple of snippets relevant to it, but he didn't continue to write about this. It's rather mysterious and puzzling. Do people later learn that it doesn't help long-term? Did Chris stop writing about it once he started working toward a PhD, for fear of getting in trouble because pyroluria is regarded as quack nonsense in academia?
P5P has been having more benefit re: dental scum than anything I've tried so far. I've also read that pyroluria patients tend to have too high omega 3 and too low omega 6. That would explain why RF CLO only seemed to have minor benefit--which could have all been due to other things I was doing. So I'm going to try the pyroluria therapy and go against standard Paleo recommendations and up my omega 6 intake while cutting back on omega 3. Interestingly, an important animal form of omega 6--arachidonic acid--has become popular with bodybuilders in recent years as a muscle booster (via hormetic stressing of muscle tissue).
Arachidonic acid is reportedly a key part of the anabolic process of muscle repair, healing and building. Arachidonic acid deficiency would fit with my lifelong undermuscling and below-normal response to weight lifting. It would also explain why eggs, liver and red meat seem to be some of my best foods.
