If tired and inflamed, then sleep; and sulfite sensitivity.
“Sulfite-bearing preservatives may cause allergic- and asthmatic-type reactions as well as chronic fatigue, brain fog, vertigo, hives, and digestive issues.”
A quote
“If you have to choose, SLEEP trumps exercise.
A lack of sleep decreases recovery and promotes food cravings & overeating.
If you have to skip a workout so you can eat & sleep better,
do it & don’t feel bad about it.” - James DiNicolantonio
The salicylate toxicity symptoms or sulfite sensitivity can cause a racing heart, odd or distracted thinking, and difficulty breathing in addition to digestive upset, and extreme fatigue. Retinoid toxicity symptoms include fatigue but aren’t quite the same racing heart, tight chest, or worsened ADHD symptoms. All the varied ‘sensitivities’ though add to inflammation and the general flu-like unwellness and swollen lymph nodes.
How much sleep? Lots - 12 hour nights and naps during the day - is that excessive? or just what my body needed to help me get through it to have a good day again - once I figured out which food things I was doing wrong. (Sulfites - dried Asian mushrooms, new purchase, tasty but the test trial did not go well yesterday. The reason to have written lists is that it becomes too much to remember readily. Reading labels is also important but less useful for me if written in Chinese.)
My health has been very up and down veering from feeling fine with six or seven hours of sleep at night, to feeling like I need to rest after each meal and sleep twelve hours at night. Bad days can be frequent enough that it can be easy to start thinking that is ‘normal’. Twelve hours of sleep a night is not normal even for a toddler or a teenager - ten hours is typical. Newborn infants sleep sixteen hours on average out of the 24, but in little 2-hour stints with a 45-minute feeding in between, burp, diaper change, and back to sleep again - a schedule that is a little rough on the newly breastfeeding mother. New moms deserve to be served their breakfast in bed - Public Service Announcement. They need the nutrients and the rest from doing anything besides nurse and take catnaps with the baby.
Fatigue isn’t mentioned as a symptom of sulfite sensitivity in the following excerpt, but the racing heart and difficulty breathing can make you not want to do anything other than lay down and try to let the heart rate slow. I was feeling hot and cold chills, I couldn’t stay comfortable for more than a few minutes - jacket on, jacket off, on, off, etc. Genetic differences can make sulfite sensitivity more likely but nutrient deficiencies effecting the methylation cycles may be the cause too. Sulfates are part of health and needed, sulfites are not really good for anyone and are found in air pollution, but most people process them adequately if not exposed to an excessive amount.
“The toxic effects of sulfites can trigger allergic reactions. Symptoms of sulfite sensitivity include asthma, hives, tissue swelling, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, seizures and shock resulting in death. Levels as low as one part per million can trigger asthma. Symptoms also include:
Severe respiratory reaction
Flushing
Feeling of temperature change
Vomiting
Difficulty swallowing
Dizziness
Contact dermatitis
Occurrence of Sulfites
Sulfites occur as a result of fermentation and are found in:
A variety of cooked, processed and baked food
Dried fruits, canned vegetables, guacamole and maraschino cherries
Condiments, jams, gravies, dehydrated or precut or peeled potatoes [frozen potato products], molasses, shrimp, and soup mixes
Beverages such as wine, beer, hard cider, fruit and vegetable juices, and tea
Processing of food ingredients including beet sugar, corn sweeteners and gelatin can also generate sulfites.
Sulfites also occur naturally in a number of foods such as maple syrup, pectin, salmon, dried cod, corn starch, lettuce, tomatoes, soy products, eggs, onions, garlic, chives, leeks and asparagus.” (asthmaandallergycenter.com/article/sulfite-sensitivity/) *Link was included in the last post without an excerpt.
Fatigue is mentioned in this link - and that allergy testing won’t identify this problem - exposing the person to a small amount and watching for the reaction is used to diagnose the sensitivity. That link also mentions variability - shrimp may or may not have been treated with sulfites so a person might react to shrimp occasionally but not always - making it harder to figure out what is going on. (experiencelife.lifetime.life/article/are-you-sensitive-to-sulfites/)
“Sulfite-bearing preservatives may cause allergic- and asthmatic-type reactions as well as chronic fatigue, brain fog, vertigo, hives, and digestive issues.” […]
“Allergy tests will not reveal a sulfite sensitivity; healthcare providers must administer minute doses to determine a patient’s risk.” (experiencelife.lifetime.life/article/are-you-sensitive-to-sulfites/)
Sleep helped me and I have the luxury of not having a 9 to 5 job that would make it difficult for me to rest when I need to rest. When my bowel troubles are too flared up it seems like I need to lay down for a half hour after eating to help my digestion work better - and with less pain.
Beano anti-gas enzymes might help but not having the salicylates that cause gassiness helps more. An upset gut doesn’t like a lot of things. Caffeine for me, or more precisely, even a little smidge of instant coffee leads to trouble for me eventually. Maybe fresh-made coffee would be better, but I really should stop trying, sadly. Better health is worth it though.
Yes, instant coffee has some sulfite content which fresh-made coffee likely wouldn’t have. (coffezy.com/does-coffee-contain-sulfites/)
Disclaimer: This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health care guidance. Please see an individual health care professional for individualized health care guidance.
Jennifer have you written about peripheral neuropathy? I'm already using red lights whenever possible, grounding, think I have my diet and supplements sorted out pretty well, taking Benfotiamine, I'm not diabetic ... usually it seems to be improving, but then something goes wrong and slam it's all worse again... I guess it could just be a byproduct of poor circulation. I used to take saccharomyces boulardii , I guess I will start that again since problems with yeast are reocurring 😝.
The MOCO enzymes are coenzymes for nitrates, sulphites, acetylaldehydes and other metabolic enzymes. Making sure to get adequate Molybdenum that is bioavailable helps with sulphites and nitrites. I take about 160% of the daily requirement split between AM and PM and it helps me to metabolize these things. I do have some genetic snps that limit the amount of this enzyme, but supplementing a little twice a day makes it so I don't get deficient. I also take a little copper with these to make sure I don't have problems.
I still cannot overload on sulfites and nitrates, but I have way less issues. Molybdenum is found in higher concentrations in certain foods, but some people like me cannot break it out of these foods well because I can't break apart certain veggies. Sometimes because of a distant ancestor you can't metabolize things the same way others do. In my case, on my paternal side, I have one point seven percent inuit genes. I cannot eat totally like an eskimo but I need some of the diet. In males, three percent of far northern european males have this genetics. Can't metabolize sucrose or mannose well, and need more fish than most people in my diet...which might be why I and my father and uncles on my dad's side loved eating fish. I seem to metabolize organic grassfed organic beef and venesin pretty well, but commercial meats not so well. Also, I make amylase in my mouth, but not much in my organs, so I have to drink a coke every so often to disolve bezoars because I like veggies. I am not really fond of the tast of coke, but to me it is medicine and medicine usually does not taste good.
So maybe boosting molybdenum in your diet or taking a multivitamin containing about one hundred percent or more of it might help some but not all people with issues. Ammonium molybate works best for me, but sodium molybdate works all right. I can't find a reasonable priced multimineral pill with the ammonium molybdate in it so I get the sodium or other forms of it most times. My genetics cause mild Wilson's disease symptoms. Since I have been taking the molybdenum...eighteen years now, I have had way less headaches from aldehydes, nitrates, and sulpher foods. Since it is a cofactor deficiency it means many food types are effected, aldehydes form from alcohol motabolism, so they effect how much sulphur foods you can eat too. too much sulphites can give you intolerances to nitrates too. So this issue can cause some diverse allergy symptoms.