Saturday, June 25, 2016

Cyanocobalamin - a very poor choice, part 2

When the body has to detoxify cyanide, the most well-known pathway is facilitated by the enzyme rhodanese, which converts cyanide to thiocyanate, which is then excreted via the kidneys. But what does thiocyanate do to us before it's excreted? I'm sure there are other things I haven't come across yet, but my early research has turned up studies showing that thiocyanate induces hypothyroidism in weaned mice and is associated with neurological diseases. Then there's a website for anesthesiologists saying
Thiocyanate toxicity causes anorexia, fatigue, and mental status changes, including psychosis, weakness, seizures, tinnitus, and hyperreflexia. Thiocyanate is usually excreted in the urine. Toxicity can be minimized by avoiding prolonged administration of nitroprusside and by limiting drug use in patients with renal insufficiency. If necessary, thiocyanate can be removed by dialysis.
I fear I'm going to sound like a broken record before I'm done with researching cyanocobalamin, but we should really be using other forms of cobalamin (B12) in our breakfast cereal and vitamin supplements. Instead of adding to the body's cyanide load, we could be decreasing our suffering from cyanide and its metabolites if we used hydroxocobalamin. Hydroxocobalamin and cyanocobalamin are both synthetic, but at least hydroxocobalamin dissociates more easily and helps reduce the body's cyanide and thiocyanate loads. I'll have to do more research later on methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin, the forms of B12 that naturally occur in food (mostly animal products).

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