Molybdenum and Migraines, part 2

(continued from yesterday)

The Migraine Connection to Sulfite

The air pollutant sulfur dioxide, a sulfiting agent, appears linked to migraine occurrence.[1] [2] Chemically induced sulfite oxidase deficiency is toxic to the brain, primarily to the cerebral cortex and striatum,[3] which first area is connected to migraine susceptibility.[4] Sulfite is a catabolic product of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), an gasotransmitter found in the brain[5] that is connected to vasodilation,[6] and vasodilation has been repeatedly observed in connection with migraines. It is still unclear exactly how H2S is broken down in the body; it was recently discovered that there appears to be a previously-unknown H2S catabolic pathway using neuroglobin.[7]

In most people, sulfite oxidase typically seems able to handle the amount of sulfite resulting from endogenous hydrogen sulfide production. However, in the absence of molybdenum, magnesium,[8] or P5P (active vitamin B6 is involved in making heme, which is part of sulfite oxidase),[9] sulfite oxidase might not reach necessary levels of activity, as those three nutrients are needed to form sulfite oxidase and its component, the molybdenum cofactor. Moreover, when sulfite oxidase is dealing with a high level of sulfite, nitrites also are substrates of the enzyme;[10] the connection between nitrites and migraines has much evidence behind it.[11] There is also evidence connecting sulfite consumption to migraines.[12]

mARC 1 and mARC 2

Two relatively recently discovered molybdenum-utilizing enzymes are the mARC 1 and mARC 2 enzymes. They appear to be involved with nitric oxide (NO) production,[13] and nitric oxide has long been reported to be involved with headaches, including migraines.[14] Molybdenum supplementation might, by facilitating optimal functioning of the mARC1 and mARC2 enzymes, contribute to appropriate NO production and possibly less migraine incidence. There is also evidence that interaction of NO and H2S is connected to migraine pathophysiology,[15] and NO and H2S cooperatively interact in many ways.[16]

Conclusion

I have written this because I have seen molybdenum help with migraines in several women with different etiologies (for example, one connected to hormonal fluctuation, one connected to neck injury and exacerbated by air pressure changes, and one of unknown causation), and I think current research supports a hypothesis that molybdenum does so by supporting optimal activity of the molybdenum-utilizing enzymes sulfite oxidase, mARC 1, and mARC 2. Because chronic migraines could be causing brain damage,[17] I think it urgent to explore whether molybdenum has potential to alleviate migraines.

References

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[1] Szyszkowicz M, Rowe BH, Kaplan GG. Ambient sulphur dioxide exposure and emergency department visits for migraine in Vancouver, Canada. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2009;22(1):7-12.

[2] Szyszkowicz M, Porada E. Ambient Sulphur Dioxide and Female ED Visits for Migraine. ISRN Neurology 2012;2012:279051.

[3] Grings M, Moura AP, Parmeggiani B, Motta MM, Boldrini RM, August PM, Matté C, Wyse AT, Wajner M, Leipnitz G. Higher susceptibility of cerebral cortex and striatum to sulfite neurotoxicity in sulfite oxidase-deficient rats. Biochim Biophys Acta 2016;1862(11):2063-2074.

[4] Lang E, Kaltenhäuser M, Neundörfer B, Seidler S. Hyperexcitability of the primary somatosensory cortex in migraine--a magnetoencephalographic study. Brain 2004;127(Pt 11):2459-2469.

[5] Gheibi S, Aboutaleb N, Khaksari M, Kalalian-Moghaddam H, Vakili A, Asadi Y, Mehrjerdi FZ, Gheibi A. Hydrogen sulfide protects the brain against ischemic reperfusion injury in a transient model of focal cerebral ischemia. J Mol Neurosci 2014;54(2):264-70.

[6] Bhatia, M. Hydrogen sulfide as a vasodilator. IUBMB Life 2005;57:603–606.

[7] Bilska-Wilkosz A, Iciek M, Górny M, Kowalczyk-Pachel D. The Role of Hemoproteins: Hemoglobin, Myoglobin and Neuroglobin in Endogenous Thiosulfate Production Processes. Int J Mol Sci 2017;18(6). pii: E1315. doi: 10.3390/ijms18061315.

[8] Mendel RR. The Molybdenum Cofactor. J Bio Chem 2013;288:13165-13172.

[9] Heinemann IU, Jahn M, Jahn D. Arch. The biochemistry of heme biosynthesis. Biochem Biophys 2008;474(2):238-251.

[10] Wang J, Krizowski S, Fischer-Schrader K, et al. Sulfite Oxidase Catalyzes Single-Electron Transfer at Molybdenum Domain to Reduce Nitrite to Nitric Oxide. Antioxidants & Redox Signaling 2015;23(4):283-294.

[11] D'Amico D, Ferraris A, Leone M, Catania A, Carlin A, Grazzi L, Bussone G. Increased plasma nitrites in migraine and cluster headache patients in interictal period: basal hyperactivity of L-arginine-NO pathway? Cephalalgia 2002 Feb;22(1):33-6.

[12] Millichap JG, Yee MM. The diet factor in pediatric and adolescent migraine. Ped Neurology 2003;28(1):9-15.

[13] Sparacino-Watkins CE, Tejero J, Sun B, Gauthier MC, Thomas J, Ragireddy V, Merchant BA, Wang J, Azarov I, Basu P, Gladwin MT. Nitrite reductase and nitric-oxide synthase activity of the mitochondrial molybdopterin enzymes mARC1 and mARC2. J Biol Chem 2014; 289(15):10345-10358.

[14] Thomsen LL, Olesen J. A pivotal role of nitric oxide in migraine pain. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1997;835:363-372.

[15] Wild V, Messlinger K, Fischer MJ. Hydrogen sulfide determines HNO-induced stimulation of trigeminal afferents. Neurosci Lett 2015; 602:104-109.

[16] Szabo C. Hydrogen sulfide, an enhancer of vascular nitric oxide signaling: mechanisms and implications. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 2017 Jan 1;312(1):C3-C15.

[17] Asma Bashir, Richard B. Lipton, Sait Ashina, Messoud Ashina. Migraine and structural changes in the brain: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neurology 2013;81(14):1260–1268.

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)

Molybdenum and Migraines, part 1

During the summer of 2016, I was working on a hypothesis connected to “morning sickness” when I started noticing that trigger food categories for nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) often overlapped with reported migraine trigger foods.

One day I was talking with a friend who informed me that she often had horrible, disabling migraine headaches that medications did not relieve; the medications made her feel even worse than the migraines, so she had stopped taking the medications. As part of my research on NVP, I had formulated a hypothesis that dietary molybdenum intake in various regions was inversely correlated with the NVP burden observed in those locales.[i] So I suggested to my friend that she try molybdenum supplements for her migraines. She did try them, taking a capsule of 500 mcg of chelated molybdenum glycinate when a migraine first started coming on; it worked dramatically. She has since found molybdenum effective to not only stop a migraine as it starts but to help relieve a migraine after it has already become quite painful.

Why did it work for her? And for several other friends and friends-of-friends who have since used it to ameliorate or end their migraine suffering? (Molybdenum has also resolved migraine-related nausea in at least two other women, which could be due to the same mechanism behind molybdenum alleviating NVP, as mentioned above.) Below is an explanation of how I think molybdenum intake might help alleviate migraines.

The Molybdoenzyme Sulfite Oxidase

There are only a handful of known enzymes in the human body that incorporate element #42, molybdenum,[ii] an essential trace mineral in the human diet. The most interesting of these molybdenum enzymes to my research on NVP was sulfite oxidase. Sulfite oxidase catalyzes the conversion of sulfite to sulfate, which is then recycled or excreted from the body. Sulfite is toxic to humans; it was formerly used in salad bars to keep cut produce fresh-looking until it sent many restaurant patrons to the hospital with severe symptoms that included anaphylactic shock, nausea, abdominal pain, seizures, and death.[iii]

Feeding rats in such a way as to make them deficient in molybdenum results in a loss of sulfite oxidase activity.[iv] Supplementing them with molybdenum in turn increases sulfite oxidase activity up to a plateau.[v] Molybdenum is essential for human health, as was discovered when a man kept on molybdenum-less total parenteral nutrition developed headaches, vomiting, and heart rhythm abnormalities, and then became comatose; his condition was reversed when he was given molybdenum.[vi] A lack of sulfite oxidase in infants causes severe neurological damage and early death.[vii] [viii]

(to be continued)

References

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[i] Taylor CE. A novel treatment for “morning sickness”: Nausea of pregnancy could be induced by excess sulfite which molybdenum can help alleviate. Med Hypotheses 2016;95:31-33.
[ii] Mendel RR. Cell biology of molybdenum. Biochim Biophys Acta - Mol Cell Res 2006;1763(7):621-635.
[iii] Yang WH, Purchase EC. Adverse reactions to sulfites. CMAJ 1985;133(9):865-867, 880.
[iv] Cohen HJ, Drew RT, Johnson JL, Rajagopalan KV. Molecular Basis of the Biological Function of Molybdenum. The Relationship between Sulfite Oxidase and the Acute Toxicity of Bisulfite and SO₂. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1973;70(12 Pt 1-2):3655-3659.
[v] Wang X, Oberleas D, Yang MT, Yang SP. Molybdenum requirement of female rats. J Nutr 1992;122(4):1036-1041.
[vi] Abumrad NN, Schneider AJ, Steel D, Rogers LS. Amino acid intolerance during prolonged total parenteral nutrition reversed by molybdate therapy. Am J Clin Nutr 1981;34(11):2551-2559.
[vii] Johnson-Winters K, Tollin G, Enemark JH. Elucidating the Catalytic Mechanism of Sulfite Oxidizing Enzymes using Structural, Spectroscopic and Kinetic Analyses. Biochem 2010;49(34):7242-7254.
[viii] Dublin AB, Hald JK, Wootton-Gorges SL. Isolated Sulfite Oxidase Deficiency: MR Imaging Features. AJNR 2002;23:484-485.

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)

Short video on observations about molybdenum preventing vomiting from "stomach bugs"

I've seen and heard enough instances and anecdotes to convince me that molybdenum is very effective for preventing nausea/vomiting from "stomach bugs" (i.e., gastrointestinal viruses), especially if taken before vomiting begins. So I made a video to tell others. It's probably one of the most visually-boring videos in the history of YouTube, but I think the content is quite exciting. Hopefully that makes up for my lack of graphic design skills. Please feel free to share. Here it is:

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)

Some other locations of neuroglobin

Two posts ago, I mentioned that there appears to be a non-canonical H2S oxidation pathway involving human ferric neuroglobin. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5486136/) Neuroglobin is high in the brain and also might be upregulated by hypoxia in the stomach fundus and the small intestine. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2945342/) As I was looking into neuroglobin, I noticed that it is also highly expressed in the adrenal glands, pancreas, and testis. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/58157)

If my idea is correct about neuroglobin being involved in causing an excess amount of sulfite to result from H2S catabolism--which sulfite then causes migraine symptoms in the brain and nausea/vomiting in the stomach/proximal small intestine--then there could also be hard-to-explain, individually-varying, molybdenum-deficiency-linked illnesses involving those other parts of the body, similar to migraine and "morning sickness." There certainly is a weird illness happening for some in their pancreases: idiopathic chronic pancreatitis (https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/487185). Maybe molybdenum could help with idiopathic chronic pancreatitis; at the very least, it wouldn't hurt to try it for the nausea and vomiting that often occur during episodes of pain. (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/160459.php) I have no idea about the adrenal glands and the testis, though. I don't know anyone who has issues with those body parts (at least openly), and I usually confine my research to something I can ask a friend/relative about in order to ground my hypothesizing to reality.

A cartilage study that should be redone with modern imaging technology

Back in 1973, Florida and Pennsylvania researchers published findings in which they unexpectedly discovered that rabbit cartilage cells (synovial cells and chondrocytes) could become infected by Influenza A2 viruses. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC422866/) However, using "light microscopy" to look at the cells, they were unable to detect any cytopathology in the infected cells, even after a period of 18 days. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC422866/?page=4)

But a lack of effect in cartilage cells from influenza doesn't make any sense, for influenza is known to often cause aches and pains in joints. (https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/864122/flu-symptoms-aussie-cold-virus-arthritis-joint-pain) Further, chondrocytes infected with influenza A might have the ability to tell T-cells to destroy them. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2567.2003.01621.x/full: "The ability of chondrocytes to process and present both endogenous and viral antigens also confirms them as possible target cells for [cytotoxic T cells] in the enthesis or joint during localized inflammation or infection.")

Something must be occurring within the influenza A-infected chondrocytes. We need more than 1970s microscopes on the job. Something like this:
             

Using sheets of light to scan cells, a new microscope can capture real-time 3D videos of what's happening inside cells down to the molecular level—feat once thought impossible.  

***

This new microscope, outlined today in the journal Science, builds on advances in what's called light-sheet microscopy, in which sheets of light scan the targets. Conventional light sheets are too thick to illuminate details smaller than cells, though. So Betzig and his colleagues used ultra-thin sheets as little as 250 nanometers (billionths of a meter) wide.

The new microscope can achieve resolutions of up to 230 nanometers and record at up to 1,000 frames per second, Betzig says. And crucially, the light sheets spread light energy in such a way to minimize damage to any single point in a specimen.

Scientists have used the new microscope to study embryonic development in nematodes and fruit flies, trace the pathways of nerve cells that form synapses in the brain, and follow the progress of proteins that clump together to cause disease.

"This really lets you look at the dynamic processes in cells in 3-D non-invasively," says Betzig, an engineering physicist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Va.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a11487/using-sheets-of-light-this-new-microscope-sees-inside-a-cell-17345685/

The invention of the microscope was a huge advance in medicine. Can you imagine how far imaging down to the molecular level will take medical science?

H2S --> sulfite and advances in understanding H2S metabolism

One of the points in my hypotheses about why molybdenum is helping people with nausea and migraines (and apparently "morning sickness," though I have fewer pregnant friends than friends with migraines) is that the molybdenum is enabling higher activity of the sulfite oxidase enzyme--which uses a molybdenum cofactor--in transforming toxic sulfite to excretable sulfate. But where is the sulfite coming from? I think it's a metabolic product of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which it turns out is important to making new blood vessels from existing ones (angiogenesis), vasodilation, and even keeping uterine muscles from contracting.

The pathways by which H2S is broken down in the body are still being clarified by researchers. Sulfite is often an end result, but sulfite is also used by the catabolism. Therefore, whether there is a net increase in sulfite from H2S catabolism is far from a given. A study published this past year by some Polish* researchers found that there appears to be a non-canonical pathway by which H2S is oxidized in the brain, and that pathway appears to use neuroglobin. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28632164) Guess where neuroglobin shows up besides in the brain? In the stomach and the small intestine! (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20828399) The two body regions where I've been observing molybdenum to have an effect on mysterious illnesses--nausea/vomiting and migraines--are also places where an unknown H2S catabolic pathway appears to be occurring. I look forward to more research on neuroglobin's interaction with H2S.

* I love Poland. Lots of easily-utilized glycine betaine in the national diet, and cutting edge research in very interesting fields.

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)

How internal "movies" are shaped depending on who the protagonist is

Many of people's disagreements seem to come from "watching a different movie" in their minds from the one being seen by the people they disagree with. That movie is highly influenced by people's experiences and what they've been told/shown, but it is also shaped by what role the individual person plays in the movie. I think that a fundamental rule of people is that "no one is the villain of his/her own story/movie."

Witness these two music videos done by Alexander Rybak showing the experience of stalking and harassing a love interest. When Alexander is playing the stalker, his actions are cute and kind of funny.

But when he is the one being stalked, he portrays himself as the tortured victim of a person who belongs in a mental institution.

He wrote the second song because he was actually being harassed by a fan, so I know he's not in favor of stalking. That's what makes it even more interesting that he portrayed himself as merely lovably obnoxious when the tables are turned. He undoubtedly had no intention of making stalking look like an OK thing to do, but he apparently can't help avoiding a portrayal of himself as a "bad guy."

The fight against rhinovirus is real and continuing

Now that we no longer fear gastrointestinal viruses in our household (see all the previous posts about molybdenum), our current nemesis is the "winter cold," which is usually caused by a rhinovirus. There's no vaccine for rhinovirus, and very little appears to exist in the way of effective treatments; Science-Based Medicine says that only honey seems to help--https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/you-cant-beat-the-common-cold-and-thats-a-fact/. But honey and my current low-simple-sugars way of eating aren't exactly compatible, so I'm still digging.

One promising lead is the finding that warmer temperatures help the body fight off a rhinovirus infection.

The researchers from Yale infected airway cells with a rhinovirus in their lab, and kept some at a normal body temperature (98 degrees Fahrenheit) and others just below it (91.4 degrees). Whether it’s cold or hot, infected cells tend to make little interferons, Tech Times reported — but in the two temperature groups, the virus persisted. In fact, the cells in below-average temps replicated immediately, while the cells in the normal temps died off much quicker and were not able to replicate as quickly.
That’s not all. Researchers used mathematical modeling and genetic approaches to better understand the underlying ways in which a virus grows. The found that not only does the warm temperature kill the infection off faster, but it maximizes the effect of an enzyme, called RNAseL, in the double-stranded RNA. The enzyme is part of the interferon response, and eventually helps to eliminate it. Taken altogether, these findings show that even in the absence of interferons, warm temperatures have profound effects on the body’s antiviral response and the outcomes of the common cold, the researchers wrote.
This also builds upon prior research out of Yale that found cooler temperatures enabled infected airway cells to spread in mice, according to Tech Times. Researchers found that at “several degrees below the normal body temperature, interferons that fought viruses were less able to perform their job.” And in a separate mice study, they found that the rhinovirus spreads to airway cells more quickly in cooler temperatures. So it’s no wonder that peak cold and flu season tends to be in the winter, when temperatures can drop well below zero.

http://www.medicaldaily.com/body-heat-kill-viral-infections-common-cold-391713

Could this help explain why so many people tout hot concoctions as home remedies for winter colds? The steaming hot liquid helps warm their noses and temporarily enables the virus-infected cells to die off more quickly? And why so many of the things they put in their hot concoctions are vasodilators or help enable vasodilation, such as chili peppers, lemon juice, ginger, alcohol (for some), and Vitamin C? I once was coming down with a cold around my birthday, and I wanted to celebrate with Thai food. At the restaurant, I ate much of a steaming tureen of tom ka gai (if you haven't had it before, I highly recommend it), and by the end of our leisurely meal, my cold was gone and didn't come back. I didn't know if it was the chicken, the ginger, the peppers, the lemongrass, or what, but maybe it was that the prolonged consumption of steaming, vasodilating substances enabled my virus-infected cells to die more quickly and replicate more slowly. (Whatever it was, it tasted wonderful.)

Besides lingering over a tureen of spicy soup, what other things can we do to help kill off a cold before it can make us miserable? Perhaps a special nose-warming device like a mini-hair dryer aimed into the nostrils would be a feasible intervention. (Someone beat me to that idea.) Or perhaps using flush-inducing niacin to warm up the facial tissues for a while would help. (Again, I've been beaten to the idea.) Also, when would one first start to use the heating/vasodilating intervention in order to maximize its effect? Right after the first sneeze occurs?

In the meantime, most of the family is "under the weather" because they came down with their colds days ago, and I didn't look all this stuff up until almost everyone was symptomatic. Only the kindergartner hasn't sneezed yet. (But I have a blow dryer handy for when she does. :) ) I did turn up the thermostat, and that seems to help their colds be less severe; I wish I didn't have to turn it down at night, but it's been very cold here and money is a consideration. I won't shrug off people's hot concoctions anymore now that there seems to be a plausible mechanism for their effectiveness at hastening the end of a rhinovirus infection.

[Update on 12/30/2017: The kindergartner sneezed within a day of this post. I quickly sat her in front of the computer with safety goggles over her eyes, instructions to hold her lips inside her mouth to keep them from chapping, and a blow dryer. She aimed the warm air up her nostrils on and off for around half an hour while watching comedy sketches, and that was the end of her possibly incipient rhinovirus cold. Not a sneeze, sniffle, or cough out of her since. An older child who had already been sick a few days let out a wet sneeze later, so she did the blow dryer treatment to herself, too. She also hasn't sneezed since, although she still had to deal with the accumulated mucus from the previous days. She insists the blow dryer treatment helped her, though. These are just anecdotes, I know, but it's nice not to have my children be sick. Next time a rhinovirus comes to call on our family, I'll use a blow dryer or a facial steamer at the first sneezes and report on whether the warm air in the nose seemed to help or was a waste of time.]

If it took that long to convince him, how long will it take to convince others?

When I first made the connection between molybdenum and less severe morning sickness, I relayed it to a sister who has had very hard pregnancies due to nausea and vomiting. She bought a bottle of molybdenum to have on hand, I suppose in case she became pregnant, though she wasn't planning on it to my knowledge.

Then a "stomach bug" infected her and her husband. She asked me if molybdenum would help with it, and I said I didn't know and she could try it if she wanted to. She hadn't yet begun throwing up, while her husband had. They both took molybdenum (just one tablet each, I think), and she went to bed. The next morning she woke up pleasantly surprised to find that she didn't feel sick after all. She though perhaps she'd been wrong about being infected, but when she ate granola for breakfast, her intestines let her know that all was not normal. Her husband, however, didn't stop vomiting. So naturally he didn't think molybdenum was doing much.

In the intervening 18 months, she and I have learned much more about molybdenum's use for gastrointestinal viruses. It is far more effective at stopping vomiting that hasn't yet occurred, and taking it encapsulated or pressed into a tablet seems to slow down its delivery to where it's needed most in the stomach.

This past week, her husband got another stomach bug. She messaged me last night, saying that I had "made a believer" out of her husband. She pushed him to take molybdenum the day before when he felt like he was getting a stomach bug. "An hour later, he felt pretty good and headed into work. He forgot he started the day thinking it was going to be sulfur and vomits in the next few hours until the afternoon when it crept up on him again, so he took another Mo and he's good to go!"

Approximately eighteen months after his wife was the first one to use molybdenum successfully to prevent nausea from a stomach bug, and he finally believes it. If it took that long for him, I should be patient with everyone else, even if I tire of sounding like a broken record.

[Edited 2/20/2018: She and her husband are now telling me that he didn't actually take molybdenum on that occasion over 1.5 years ago.]

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)

Could molybdenum end cruise ship norovirus outbreaks?

Just as I was helping my friend's family and my own beat back nausea and vomiting from a severe "stomach bug" (https://petticoatgovernment.blogspot.com/2017/12/another-dramatic-success-for-molybdenum.html) (my turn to host the virus was Monday, and thanks to molybdenum, the worst I experienced was a moderately sore stomach), the news carried a story about a Royal Caribbean ship having a big outbreak of what appears to be a gastrointestinal virus. (http://www.miamiherald.com/living/travel/cruises/article190143054.html) After all I've seen in the past 18 months of molybdenum's effectiveness and apparent safety, I feel like the kid in class who's practically jumping in her seat with hand raised to get the teacher to call on her, "I have an answer, I have an answer, call on me, please!" But, alas, I don't know anyone who works in cruise ship medicine. I live in Colorado. Not a lot of cruises originating out of Denver....

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)

Another dramatic success for molybdenum in treating a gastrointestinal virus

A friend was sick for about five days last week with a bad "stomach bug." Once we were able to get some molybdenum to him, he got better within a day. We saw him at a gathering on Saturday. In fact, we ate next to his family, and dd13 sat beside him. That evening, I pre-dosed all my children with 500-1000 mcg (depending on size) molybdenum after I realized just how easily they could have become infected, too.

Early the next morning, we heard that his wife had come down with the stomach virus. So, I took some molybdenum to her and then came home and asked my children every couple of hours if their stomachs hurt. Dd13 by midmorning reported that her stomach hurt, so I gave her more molybdenum (about 1000 mcg, if I recall correctly). Twice more during the day, her stomach hurt, so I gave her another dose of molybdenum each time. By the third time, she was reporting that the ache had moved down into her intestines. She slept through the night and never vomited. Whew.

I called the friend's wife afterward, and she reported that once she was able to get some molybdenum down, her vomiting ended. Double whew.

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)

Alexander Rybak

Our family is full of Alexander Rybak fangirls. Our children couldn't tell you the name of a Justin Bieber hit or Lady Gaga song (although they might know parodies of some of hers), but they can sing along with much of Rybak's music, including some of the Russian songs, which shows their great appreciation for him, for they don't speak Russian. Here's one of my favorites:

I'm a violinist but not remotely as good as he is. Here's another great song by him. He recorded it in Belarussian, Russian, and English. Even if you've never been to Europe, he can make a person wish they could see the skies he loves so well.

A bit more on angiogenesis and thymoquinone

Angiogenesis during pregnancy is crucial, for it is the forming of new blood vessels from existing ones. To create a placenta and a baby, this process must be able to go forth properly.

An overlooked dietary angiogenesis inhibitor is thymoquinone (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18644991, https://www.spandidos-publications.com/10.3892/or.2012.2165, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1567576916302053, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221052391200027X), one of the most active constituents of Nigella sativa (AKA black cumin, czarnuszka, black seed, etc.). (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4387228/) In 2013, it was shown that thymoquinone has a potentially disruptive effect on embryonic development in the middle of rat pregnancy (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/01480545.2011.648326); specifically, thymoquinone caused fetal death and resorption:

Results showed that TQ [thymoquinone] induces maternal and embryonic toxicities in a dose- and time-dependent manner. With a dose of 50 mg/kg, treated rats experienced a significant decrease in maternal body weight and complete fetal resorption when the dose was given on day 11 of gestation. On the other hand, 46.2% of implants were resorbed and the viable fetuses showed no TQ-related malformations when the dose was given on day 14 of gestation. At a lower TQ dose of 35 mg/kg, maternal and embryonic toxicities were observed only when it was given on day 11 of gestation.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/01480545.2011.648326

As in the rodent studies of thalidomide, thymoquinone does not appear to cause to cause any morphological abnormalities in rat fetuses. Just fetal resorption. This is striking to me because it resembles the only early indication that thalidomide is harmful to developing embryos. Thalidomide has a different effect on developing rodents than on humans. Thalidomide was initially approved for human use partly because the rodent tests done with it appeared to be showing that it was safe for developing embryos.

A 1962 study titled "Thalidomide and Congenital Abnormalities," by Victor Knapp, George Christie, and Mary Seller, all working in the UK, looked at the teratogenic effects of Thalidomide on rats, mice, and rabbits, and the study reported no abnormalities in the offspring of these animals after researchers had exposed the pregnant females to the drug. The authors noted that the study provided no grounds to think that drugs containing Thalidomide were safe for human use, and they argued that the only method guaranteed to safely deal with drugs of unknown teratogenicity would be to completely refrain from using them unless absolutely necessary. In 1963, Joseph A. DiPaolo, working in the US, discussed various birth defects found in mice fetuses whose mothers were fed Thalidomide daily, but he found only one kind of anamoly [sic] called fetal resorption, or the partial or complete dissolution of fetal tissues after some embryos had died in utero.

http://embryo.asu.edu/pages/studies-thalidomides-effects-rodent-embryos-1962-2008

Black cumin is much praised by some Islamic researchers. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28603137, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26396361, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27247928) I think this is because they have a "hadith" (post-Quran saying attributed to Muhammed) in which Muhammed was reported to have said that black cumin is good for all diseases except death. 

Narrated Khalid bin Sa`d: We went out and Ghalib bin Abjar was accompanying us. He fell ill on the way and when we arrived at Medina he was still sick. Ibn Abi 'Atiq came to visit him and said to us, "Treat him with black cumin. Take five or seven seeds and crush them (mix the powder with oil) and drop the resulting mixture into both nostrils, for `Aisha has narrated to me that she heard the Prophet (ﷺ) saying, 'This black cumin is healing for all diseases except As-Sam.' Aisha said, 'What is As-Sam?' He said, 'Death."

https://sunnah.com/bukhari/76 (Might Khalid bin Sa'd, Aisha, or Ibn Abi 'Atiq have heard wrong or unintentionally exaggerated?)

It appears to me from the way some researchers in Islamic countries talk about black cumin, they seem frightened to admit that, like all medicinal substances, black cumin might have some negative side effects, too. Which is irrational. Now, I totally get where they're coming from. After all, in the middle of a "Wheat Belly" trend, I refuse to dump wheat because D&C 89 (the Mormon Word of Wisdom) says that wheat is "for man." But lots of LDS people who believe that D&C 89 is a revelation from God have celiac disease and so don't eat wheat. It's important to find out where a particular substance helps and where it harms in order to utilize it wisely and for optimal effects.

It's been repeatedly noted that Muslim cultures/countries tend to top the global charts for birth defects (http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/healthy-living/2015/03/10/Saudis-unaware-of-high-birth-defect-rate-.html), including congenital blindness (http://jalili.co/covi/07_cbmena.htm) and deafness (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00439-001-0674-2?no-access=true), which were also results of thalidomide exposure during gestation (http://www.thalidomide.ca/recognition-of-thalidomide-defects/), interestingly enough. Researchers appear to almost unanimously conclude that consanguinity (marrying close relatives) is the main factor behind this higher rate of birth defects. (https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1742-4755-6-17, http://www.journalrmc.com/volumes/2_Association%20of%20Consanguineous%20Marriages%20%20with%20Congenital%20Birth%20Defects%20(1).pdf) But what if the least secular Muslims--the ones marrying cousins despite all the data about the higher risk of the practice because clerics tell them that Muhammed's approval of cousin marriages 14 centuries ago makes it evil to question them now--are also using black cumin during pregnancy because of the hadith recommending it? What if the black cumin is contributing to birth defects, too? How would we ever tease out evidence of such an effect while both cousin marriage and black seed use are promoted within the hadith-accepting sects of Islam? Ideas?

GDF15, "morning sickness," and angiogenesis

Last month, researchers at Cambridge announced that they had found a correlation between the protein GDF15 and nausea and vomiting in pregnancy. (http://www.newsweek.com/sick-pregnancy-protein-your-placenta-could-be-blame-723716) Here's the abstract from their prepublication paper:

Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy (NVP) affects 70-90% of all pregnant women, but its pathogenesis is unknown. Growth and Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF15), secreted from the trophoblast and decidual stromal cells, is present at high levels in the blood of pregnant women. The receptor for GDF15 has recently been identified and is specifically expressed in the hindbrain where it transmits aversive signals including nausea and conditioned taste aversion. We explored the relationship between GDF15 concentrations in maternal serum during pregnancy and self-reported NVP. In a study of 791 women from the Cambridge Baby Growth Study maternal GDF15 concentrations were higher in women who reported vomiting in the 2nd trimester (geometric mean: 11,670 pg/mL; 95% confidence interval 11,056-12,318) and were even higher in the eleven women who reported taking anti-emetics during pregnancy (13,376 (10,821-16,535) compared to those who reported no nausea or vomiting during pregnancy (10,657 (10,121-11,222); P=0.02 and P=0.04, respectively, adjusted for gestational age at sampling and maternal BMI). In conclusion serum GDF concentrations early in the second trimester are significantly and positively associated with second trimester vomiting and with maternal anti-emetic use. In the context of the recently revealed biology of GDF15 this data suggests that antagonism of GDF15 may have some potential for therapeutic benefit in NVP.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/11/17/221267.full.pdf+html

I am both delighted and worried by this paper, and the cause for both feelings is the same: GDF15 promotes (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11033-011-1182-7) and has an essential role in angiogenesis (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28831101), the creation of new blood vessels from existing ones. Around 18 months ago, I published my hypothesis that sulfite, a metabolic product of endogenous H2S used in angiogenesis, is the primary culprit behind NVP and that molybdenum supplementation can help the body more quickly break down that sulfite to sulfate via sulfite oxidase.* (http://www.medical-hypotheses.com/article/S0306-9877(16)30098-6/fulltext) So naturally I'm very pleased to see this recent finding that connects an angiogenesis promoter to NVP. What worries me is the paper's suggestion that antagonism of GDF15 might be a therapy to treat NVP.

We do not want to interfere with angiogenesis during early pregnancy. That's exactly what went wrong with thalidomide. Thalidomide inhibits angiogenesis, leading to truncated limbs and other awful consequences.

I found the lead author's professional Facebook page and posted my appreciation of his findings and concern about the proposal to antagonize GDF15. I hope he takes it seriously despite my lack of biology credentials. Whether I have a piece of paper from the proper college is irrelevant to the copious evidence of the necessity of proper angiogenesis in pregnancy.

* And if you've been reading my blog, you know that molybdenum ended up surprising me by being good for more than just NVP!

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)

Didn't see that coming...

A friend has an adult son who needs 24-hour care due to having suffered a traumatic brain injury. His medications caused him to frequently be nauseated, so nine days ago she started giving him a molybdenum supplement. The molybdenum appears to have stopped his diarrhea (I hadn't even known he was suffering from that). They used to have to change his clothes 3-4 times a day (their utilities bill from running the clothes dryer has been really high) due to his diarrhea, and now they never have to do so. Nine days of molybdenum, nine days without diarrhea.

I've asked her what medications her son was on in order to try to figure out why molybdenum is helping with the diarrhea. I also need to ask her what dosage she is using.

When I first started using molybdenum for "stomach bugs," it seemed like there was still a bit of diarrhea even though the molybdenum got rid of the nausea. But I was also using lower doses initially. Now that I think over the past few times our family has used molybdenum for circulating gastrointestinal viruses, there has been often been no diarrhea in connection with the viruses. What could be going on?

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)

Just another homeschool morning

My children are technically homeschoolers who attend school on a part-time basis. The mornings are when we do our focused schoolwork. It's startling how much children can learn when they apply themselves and aren't distracted by their classmates.

Today's math and history are done (the 1930s were so "depressing"...ba-dum-dum). Dd13 was struggling to have enough breath on a new trumpet piece, so today she watched two videos on trumpet playing breathing from the Lincoln Center. Now she's smiling over her reading of "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" from her composition textbook. Dd10 keeps talking my ear off about people like Thomas Edison and Marion Anderson--no, I hadn't known she could sing every voice part from bass to soprano--and is now happily playing the harp upstairs. Dd8 and dd5 finished reading/writing/math/etc. and are working on the Suzuki "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on their violins together; they want to do a concert tonight along with dd3, who is playing the toy electric pink plastic guitar that I usually keep out of reach because it's obnoxious.

I've been very pleased with the results of using the Story of the World four-volume history set as our homeschool history "spine." Dd13's history teacher at school says she knows so much history that he doesn't have to use Google when she is in the classroom because he can always count on her to know something when the rest of the class is coming up dry as to answers.

I've also been pleased to have avoided the miseducation of my children in several areas of social studies. To judge by the rhetoric coming out of US college students right now, it's apparent that they've been taught that slavery was a uniquely American evil perpetrated only by white men against black people. That's manifestly false to anyone who's got just a basic understanding of world history. Or even religion. Two nights ago at bedtime, I was reading a Bible parable to my children that started like this:

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
21Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
23Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. 24And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. 25But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 27Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. 28But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. 29And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 30And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. 31So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. 32Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:33Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? 34And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. 35So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

http://biblehub.com/kjv/matthew/18.htm

No races mentioned. That's because slavery is an ancient and world-encircling practice, for it is taking people's labor without respect for their individual freedom. And people have been taking things unjustly from others for pretty much forever.

A limitation of molybdenum for treating nausea and vomiting

I know I talk up molybdenum constantly--well, actually only when "stomach bugs" are going around or someone reports on how it went after trying it out out. I would like to talk about other fun nutrition/biomedical things, too. But I need to tell you about a serious limitation of molybdenum. Here goes:

Molybdenum doesn't help alleviate nausea and vomiting if it is not ingested.

Having it sitting in a cupboard over the kitchen sink doesn't lead to it actually helping! Taking it nine days before the nausea hits doesn't seem to do it, either. My second-grader now knows these things.

This past Friday, she woke up in the wee hours with her stomach hurting. She lay in bed thinking she could control it with her mind. (Yes, because that totally works with nausea. ;) ) She also thought that she didn't want to wake up her mom to ask for molybdenum, bless her little heart. This is the same second grader who successfully used molybdenum in October to avoid vomiting from a stomach bug going around her classroom. She knows it can help her, but I guess she was too groggy to think clearly. Anyway, to end the story, she came to me around 4:00 a.m. with the news that she'd thrown up in her bed. We cleaned her up, and she required multiple doses of molybdenum because she threw up much of her first dose. She was done vomiting by around 6:00 a.m., but she was wiped out from the ordeal and spent most of Friday on the couch watching PBS Kids. This was a very different experience for her than the one back in October, where she took molybdenum soon after feeling her stomach hurt and never threw up at all.

I'm still open to the possibility that molybdenum is helping due to placebo effect and luck (in science, one must always be open to having their hypothesis disproven), but her contrasting experiences are another data point in favor of molybdenum's being genuinely effective at resolving biological causes of nausea and vomiting.

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)

Update on "Report on molybdenum and a currently circulating GI virus" and a little complaining about an unrelated subject

Here we are six days later, and no one else in the family has thrown up since my kindergartner awakened me in the wee hours of Thanksgiving Eve, as reported below. After she threw up, I pre-dosed everyone with 500-1000 mcg of powdered molybdenum glycinate and some zinc, including the toddler, who shares a bedroom with the kindergartner. My father-in-law (a retired engineer, so someone who likes things proven to him), my 13-year-old, my 10-year-old, and I all experienced some stomach cramping/pain at different times over the Thanksgiving holiday, so we took extra molybdenum when it happened. Everyone recovered quickly, and no one else ever threw up.

I think this is a big deal. I stumbled on a highly effective nausea preventive that doesn't appear to have any side effects. It saved my Thanksgiving get-together, too.

But how do I tell more people? I'm merely a lawyer who likes to research things more interesting than subject matter jurisdiction. (I'm putting off writing a short brief on that subject right now, in fact. Why can't people just file certified copies when the statute says to do so? Grumble, grumble.) My discovery about molybdenum helping with nausea needs to be investigated by people with the proper background. Unfortunately, there is little profit motive for anyone to research this with expensive trials, for molybdenum is found in inexpensive foods: lentils and other legumes, barley, oats, etc.

I do "cold emails" to academic researchers about molybdenum sometimes after finding out about yet another success from a friend* or relative (I give them bottles of molybdenum to have on hand for when nausea or a migraine strikes), but I rarely receive responses to those emails. Are the emails just going into researchers' spam folders along with invitations to fake conferences? Is the idea of a "cure for nausea" just too snake-oil sounding? Is it that too many people don't know anything about molybdenum's role in the human body and aren't willing to do a quick internet search before discarding my email? I don't know. It's discouraging to not know how to get the word out. Sure, some local people and family members are being helped right now, but that's a speck of sand compared to the global population. It's not enough that I'm being "passed over" by the destroying angel of nausea and vomiting; I want other people to benefit, too. My inability to "sell" an idea so easy to test is a downside of my introversion and lack of entrepreneurship. And it's a big inability--my medical-school-trained brothers basically dismiss me as a crackpot, which I do not enjoy. If it's not a published trial, they do not want to hear it, much less try it.

Yet how do I stop saying molybdenum works when I repeatedly observe its effectiveness at helping with nausea and migraine? Like Galileo, my observations render me unable to change my story. :) "And yet it works."

* A few days ago, a nurse friend of mine told me that a pregnant friend of hers had been experiencing "morning sickness" a while back. My friend loaned her a bottle of molybdenum, which she took for a week. The pregnant woman reported that her morning sickness went away. Unfortunately, I don't know what dose she took or what she weighed. But I'm happy it seems to have helped her!

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)

Report on molybdenum and a currently circulating GI virus

Wednesday morning at about 3 am, my five-year-old came to my room saying, "Mommy, my tummy really hurts." I invited her to snuggle in bed with me, hoping that she was just cold and would fall asleep with me. I was probably in groggy denial. About two minutes later, she started to vomit, so I grabbed her to me and got her to the bathroom, where she vomited in the toilet and then had a severe bout of diarrhea. Within just a few minutes she went from normal to looking as though she was on the verge of dehydration. I was momentarily frightened, but molybdenum had proven itself in the past, so I calmly cleaned up her, me, and the bathroom, after which we went down to the kitchen and I gave her some molybdenum (1000 mcg of powdered molybdenum glycinate for nausea/vomiting) and zinc (30 mg of powdered chelated zinc for the diarrhea, a use which is well-supported by research--https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3113371/). She then cuddled up on the armchair in the family room under a couple of blankets, and I gave her a container to vomit into should the need arise. Within half an hour, she reported that her tummy only hurt a little, and not much after that she fell asleep. Once she looked deeply asleep, I went back to bed. I woke at 9 am the next morning to hear her loud, chipper voice carrying through the house; she was already totally over the virus.

Because these stupid gastrointestinal viruses are so contagious, I gave everyone in the family 500-1000 mcg of molybdenum on Wednesday morning (after I woke up). Then on Thursday, close to bedtime, I noticed my teenager curled up on the family room floor. She was so out of it from a virus, probably the same one, that she didn't even fully realize she was sick. So I gave her 1000 mcg molybdenum and 30 mg zinc and sent her to get ready for bed. An hour later she complained that her stomach was still hurting, so I gave her 1000 mcg more and she went to sleep after that. The next morning (today, which is Friday), she said her stomach still hurt, so I gave her 1500 mcg more of molybdenum, after which she ate a banana. By lunchtime, she was happily serving herself turkey, stuffing, rolls, gravy, etc. from the Thanksgiving leftovers. She's recovered after just a few hours discomfort and never even vomited.

If this is the same stomach bug other local people have been telling me about in the recent past, my children should have suffered for days, not just a few hours.

I don't think molybdenum directly affected the virus because I don't know by what mechanism it could do that. But supplemental molybdenum does seem to greatly reduce the duration of a GI illness in addition to relieving the vomiting and nausea caused by it. Perhaps it does so because freeing the GI tract from a burden of excess sulfite, via support of sulfite oxidase function, somehow permits other immunity-related resources to more quickly expel the virus from the GI lining or at least protects the lining from sulfite-induced vulnerability. Some things to research next week when the holiday is over.

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)

More soup for you! And you, too! Soup for everyone!

I just wrote a long comment on Joanne Jacob's blog, where she posted recently about charter schools not being able to close the gender gap that is leaving more and more boys out in the cold educationally. In it, I call for a rebirth of soup popularity. It's almost winter; surely that's not too controversial a call! Below is what I wrote in the comment:

Boys are more fragile when it comes to ADHD and autism (which look similar on brain scans - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160727110911.htm). A girl may have ADHD and still get acceptable grades because spaciness alone doesn't usually create a discipline issue, while boys' higher physical energy combined with ADHD does create discipline issues and greatly disrupts their classrooms and their own educational paths. No charter is going to solve ADHD and autism just with a different school culture.

We need to find a way to ameliorate and/or prevent ADHD and autism. I might have mentioned this before, but I think a possible key is easily absorbable glycine betaine in the diet. Glycine betaine is an osmoprotectant (i.e., it protects cell walls from perturbation by dissociated aqueous NaCl) which can nevertheless be easily boiled out of plant cells. Those regions where they frequently consume the water in which glycine betaine-containing food was boiled (i.e., cuisines including barszcz, palak/spinach, and beverages/soups made with wheat and rye) are experiencing much lower burdens of autism (e.g., Poland with 1/40th the autism of the USA). 

I've been testing glycine betaine (AKA trimethylglycine) with my own Aspie child by putting it in our family milk and increasing intake of pasta cooking water and palak paneer. Glycine betaine is an inexpensive supplement because it's a byproduct of making beet sugar, and beets are one of the best vegetable sources of glycine betaine. Spinach and amaranth are two other good vegetable sources. Wheat and rye are also good grain sources of glycine betaine in the European-style diet. Glycine betaine's value lies in its role in supporting the function of the enzyme betaine-homocysteine methyltransferase, which catalyzes transformation of homocysteine to methionine, important because the next molecule, SAM-e, is used for carrying out DNA methylation. My Aspie child's emotions are stable now; the last time she had a big meltdown was when she'd been traveling and hadn't had supplemental glycine betaine for a while.

If I had a charter school, I'd add beet/rye/spinach soups to the lunch menu and see what happens. If I ran a regular public school, I'd do the same. We should learn from the Poles. The drive for convenience that has us draining away our cooking water in the West appears to be a big waste of easily-utilized, important nutrients. It's time for a soup renaissance.

Thin people

As a weight-conscious American woman, I often wonder, "Why are southeast Asians so thin? Why are eastern Europeans so often thinner young adults than western Europeans (except for the French)? Why is my third child downright skinny?"

I think that Dr. Jason Fung's theories on obesity resulting from insulin resistance--which can be acquired in the womb--help explain why some people seem programmed to be thinner.

In order to avoid developing insulin resistance, one needs to avoid subjecting one's body to chronic high levels of insulin, which insulin is stimulated by high glucose levels in the blood. With my third child, and only with her, I exercised a lot during pregnancy, often taking long walks that lasted into early evening and apparently resulted in me using up all my circulating glucose; I have a strong memory of getting weak and hungry on those walks but pushing through anyway. 

Southeast Asians regularly eat a plant we call water spinach (AKA kangkong, ong choy, Ipomoea aquatica) that is proven in rats to inhibit glucose absorption and decrease blood glucose levels. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17651914, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11746851, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10967485) Certainly, genetics also plays a role, but if you've seen southeast-Asian-Americans whose gestational development and childhood occurred in the USA, you've probably noticed that they tend not to be as skinny as their peers raised in Asia.

Eastern Europeans eat rye bread much more than western Europeans, and rye bread also slows down glucose absorption. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25370913) However, some people in the rye-consuming countries, such as in Finland, also drink caffeinated coffee throughout the day, and caffeinated coffee appears to decrease insulin sensitivity and increase glucose (http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/27/12/2990/, http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/87/5/1254.full, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28031026), so a rye bread effect in them might be counteracted by their constant coffee consumption.

If I could go back in time to my pregnant self, I'd have a lot to tell me.

Schizophrenia, tyrosinase, ginseng, capers, and tyrosinase inhibitors (tea, mate, kojic acid, etc.)

The Texas church shooting two days ago has been weighing heavily on me, for I have a relative with schizophrenia. She refuses mental health treatment. She showed signs of early schizophrenia as early as her adolescence in that she had no close friends despite being able to engage in work, social events, and family events relatively well. Cold, distant, and detached describes her pretty well back then. (http://schizophrenia.com/earlysigns.htm) Then over the next two decades came hypersensitivity, ruminating thoughts, suicidal thoughts and hostility, hygiene neglect, lack of insight, nonsensical logic, delusions, affective flattening, and abusive behavior. It's a horrible thing to watch happen to a loved one, especially because the person, due to brain dysfunction, is convinced that nothing is wrong with her and that her problems are all due to mistreatment by others.

I think that tyrosinase activity is a key to schizophrenia. Tyrosinase is a copper-containing enzyme that is connected to both melanin and dopamine production. Tyrosinase is expressed in the brain. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-4159.2005.03019.x/full) One way researchers bring about schizophrenia in lab rats is by giving them the copper chelator cuprizone. (https://www.pubfacts.com/detail/28989170/Olig2-Silence-Ameliorates-Cuprizone-Induced-Schizophrenia-Like-Symptoms-in-Mice, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3058516/)  A look at an epidemiology map of schizophrenia quickly gives rise to a supposition that melanin and schizophrenia might be inversely related (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_schizophrenia), and higher melanin appears associated with altered dopamine signalling-connected sensitivity (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5569050/). Dopamine dysfunction is  involved in schizophrenia. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4032934/) As rats grow up, their cutaneous tyrosinase goes from making dopamine to making melanin in a way that temporally mirrors the common adolescent/young adult onset of early signs of schizophrenia in humans. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12832289)

I did some searching to see what could upregulate tyrosinase expression or increase its activity. Lymphoid enhancer-binding factor-1 (LEF-1) regulates tyrosinase gene transcription; overexpression of LEF-1 increases tyrosinase gene promoter activity, while LEF-1 knockdown decreases tyrosinase expression. (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0143142) This is a promising finding, for LEF-1 is underexpressed in schizophrenia patients. (http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC1888575) Components of ginseng root can upregulate tyrosinase expression, too (https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2014/892073/), and ginseng root extract does not have a net effect of suppressing tyrosinase activity (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12808298).

There are a handful of studies to indicate that ginseng root might actually be able to help ameliorate schizophrenia. A small study nearly a decade ago found that schizophrenia patients who took panax ginseng (AKA Korean ginseng) were less likely to have "flat affect" and other negative symptoms (negative in the sense of there being an absence of normal motivation, pleasure, etc.); the dosage was 200 mg/day, and it was taken for eight weeks. (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ginseng-may-help-treat-schizophrenia/) A 2015 study subjected pregnant mice to stress and then found that ginseng could reverse the prenatal stress-caused behavioral changes in the offspring. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4249748/)

If ginseng can really help with schizophrenia, wouldn't it have been noticed sooner? Ginseng is very important in traditional Chinese medicine. However, something else is very important in Chinese culture: tea, which just so happens to inhibit tyrosinase. (https://www.medscape.com/medline/abstract/10576599) Moreover, throughout eastern Asia, people regularly eat foods containing kojic acid, an important tyrosinase inhibitor in the field of skin-lightening research. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27725765, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289283346_Inhibition_of_tyrosinase_activity_on_dopamine_hydrochloride_by_kojic_acid)

There are many tyrosinase inhibitors that are in the human diet. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2705500/) There's mate in South America. (http://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/ArticleFullRecord.jsp?cn=HJPHBN_2015_v41n4_391) Perhaps mate is why Uruguay has more of a schizophrenia burden than Argentina despite being full of European-ancestry people and otherwise having a similar diet, for Uruguayans are mate-obsessed. There's rosmarinic acid, named after the culinary herb rosemary, which contains it. (http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?request_locale=es&recordID=KR2005011915) There's arbutin, found in bearberries, pear skins, and wheat. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8632348) It would take a supercomputer (good thing we live in the 21st century) to calculate the tyrosinase inhibition caused by an individual's diet, and the frequency of intake of the inhibitors would also need to be taken into account, for rare is the person who eats rosemary all day, while green tea at every meal is the rule in Japan and mate lovers in Uruguay seem to spend every waking hour cuddling their mate gourds.

The human diet doesn't appear to contain much in the way of tyrosinase boosters (http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/22/8/1303/htm). There are capers (https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-90-481-3419-9_127.pdf) and watery grapefruit and pomelo extracts (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20857432).  And then there is the possibility of ginseng root candy being a tyrosinase booster, so I will probably be giving some to my relative for Christmas this year.* This paucity of dietary tyrosinase boosters compared with the plethora of tyrosinase inhibitors is exactly what one would expect to find with an intractable issue like schizophrenia, for if tyrosinase activity is a key to schizophrenia, any tyrosinase boosters in the diet should have started to make themselves manifest by now by decreasing the prevalence of schizophrenia where they are consumed. But who consumes pomelo extract and capers regularly? (Actually, the countries where capers are most often eaten do in fact mostly show up at the bottom of the list for schizophrenia burden...I'm starting to get cautiously optimistic about my little hypothesis....my relative is getting capers for Thanksgiving.) And any tyrosinase boost from ginseng root might have been noted earlier were it not for the simultaneous consumption of tyrosinase-inhibiting tea in China.

* As with everything, ginseng shouldn't be overused. There are published case reports of two men who ended up with manic psychosis from using huge doses of ginseng (15-20 grams/day). (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261289619_Manic_Psychosis_Associated_With_Ginseng_A_Report_of_Two_Cases_and_Discussion_of_the_Literature) One can always get too much of a good thing.