The Nutritional Institute

Have you ever experienced a headache or a snotty nose after drinking a glass of wine - perhaps so much so that you have begrudgingly given up your evening tipple? My Mum is such a person - if she consumes white wine or a red wine that is preserved with high levels of sulphites, she will experience a migraine. Thankfully she has worked out that if she plumps for a dark red (with lower sulphite levels), she can avoid that fate. I fortunately don’t succumb to a sore head after drinking wine, but I do wake the next morning to complaints that I was snoring in the night due to my nose being all bunged up!

So what is happening here? Sulphites are naturally found in many foods, but some of us struggle to convert them to sulphates, which are more useful nutrients involved in various important tasks. Other adverse sulphite reactions include skin and gut irritations plus asthma-type symptoms and coughing in some people - in a nutshell, anything you would think of as an allergic response.  Additionally, sulphites have neurotoxic effects in the brain, so imbalance in the sulphation pathways may be linked to neurodegeneration disorders.

I was lucky enough to attend a workshop last week on sulphation - it was conducted by my Cape Town Nutritional Therapy colleague Heidi du Preez, who is a wealth of knowledge on this fascinating subject. I had learned about sulphation at university, but not to the depth that came out of this 4-hour session. 

I was quickly reminded of the importance of sulphation in the body. Perhaps most importantly, it forms one of the detoxification pathways, which helps to break-down: many drugs, food additives, environmental toxins, steroid hormones, thyroid hormones, neurotransmitters and toxins produced from intestinal bacteria. Steroid hormones include oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone and the stress hormone cortisol - once these hormones have been produced, they must be broken down and removed from the body. For example, long-term excesses of oestrogen, due to compromised detoxification, may be linked to breast cancer, and long-term excesses of cortisol are likely to lead to adrenal exhaustion and chronic fatigue. 

Sulphation also helps to form key structural components in the body. For example, GAGs, which we would more commonly identify as glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate, are needed for a healthy gut lining and fluid joints. Mucins, like they sound, are a kind of mucus secreted in our gut to keep the stomach and intestinal linings healthy - pathogens like Candida and H Pylori have a harder job binding onto our gut lining with sufficient mucin production. Additionally, gastrin is needed in our stomach to break down our foods as part of a healthy digestion. 

Sulphates in our body are depleted by these chemicals and foods, plus many others: food colourants, clostridium bacteria, BPAs (in plastics), herbicides, fungicides, wine, beer, caffeine, citrus fruit juices, chocolate, aged cheeses, cured meats, paracetamol, aspirin, adrenaline (i.e. stress), cortisone, and excess oestrogen (e.g. birth control pill and HRT). Additionally, mercury, which deserves a sentence of it’s own, not only loads up our detox systems, but depletes sulphur - mercury comes from dental amalgam fillings, vaccines, fish consumption (especially tuna), and in-utero from our mothers. 

Where do we get sulphur? 

A lot of the body’s sulphur comes from food. In particular, we are looking for the sulphur-containing amino acids (protein fragments) methionine and cysteine. The best sources of these are grass-fed/organic animal proteins, meaning that vegetarians need to be especially carefully to get sufficient sulphur in their diet. Non-animal sources include legumes (beans and lentils), garlic, onions, and the cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage and Brussel sprouts). 

If you would like to supplement sulphur, the most common sources are MSM (organic sulphur) and Epsom salts, which can be consumed or bathed in. Also, if you’re lucky enough to live near a sulphur spring, they are known to be very healing to all sorts of bodily ailments. 

Co-factors

In order for biochemical reactions to happen in the body, we need enzymes, and enzymes need co-factors to help them work properly. The co-factor to convert these dietary and supplemental sulphur sources into the bioactive sulphur is called molybdenum - not a very common mineral to see in the health shop, so please don’t mistake it for magnesium or manganese…. Good dietary sources of molybdenum are wholegrain, nuts, legumes and green leafy vegetables - another reason for a ‘well-balanced’ diet which doesn’t exclude any major food groups. However, some people don’t absorb these minerals too well from their diet - did I tell you that low sulphation inhibits digestive function?! So, sometimes we need to supplement molybdenum to kick-start the sulphation process before we start absorbing minerals from our rejuvenated diet. 

Other co-factors involved in the whole sulphation system are: B-vitamins (methylation), zinc, magnesium and iron. Again, if there are difficulties in digesting and absorbing these nutrients, supplementation may be important. 

Be aware, if you are tempted to self-supplement, that taking too much of one thing and not enough of another can really upset the delicate balance of your biochemistry, which may cause other health concerns, so for advice on safe and effective supplementation, please consult with a Nutritional Therapist or other health professional who is well versed in supplement use.