Steve

I am taking zinc picolinate/gluconate mix. I used to take it with meals (tried to take it far from fiber though). I now take it between meals because I used to find that I would get stomach upset if I took it on an empty stomach but not anymore. Another question is has anybody ever tried the Zinc taste test? I have been taking about 110-120 mg Zinc per day and still cannot pass the test. I am wondering if the test doesn't work that well but from what I read just searching around it is supposed to accurately predict your zinc status pretty well.

Thanks Claire for your help. I retook the Pyroluria test after about a week off the zinc, B6, and the antioxidants and the results were pretty much the same, 15. So I am not sure if the test is really flakey or if I just have some general malabsorption syndrome. I checked for intestinal permeability and also for stomach acid levels and both came back within normal so I am wondering if there is something else that can cause malabsorption. I have been taking about 110 mg of Zinc every day for over a month and have noticed many positive results. even my body temperature has risen to nearer the normal range! Hi Morasp, Wow it sounds like you have been through a lot and have persevered. I love it when I hear people fixing their health through nutrition and not through the latest drug pushed onto them by the pharmaceutical industry. You know about the blood clotting problems I have also experienced the same thing previously. Last time I experienced it was last spring when I was eating a lot of strawberries which I read contain a lot of salicylates and can cause problems for people with detoxification problems.

Hi Claire, I am taking the test again without supplements this next week. I guess the reason that I decided to take it again is that I want a firm understanding of why I seem to be so different from most everybody around me. (Except for my dad which I see as having a lot of similar problems as me.) I am a scientist at heart and like to get to a problem by really understanding what the root cause is. I am about 95% sure that my problem (and my father's) is due to pyroluria. I don't expect the next test readout to show extreme pyroluria when I retake it because it takes a while for effects of antioxidants to wear off but I am guessing it will show a higher reading which will then confirm my suspicions. I do have issues with metals which is why my doc put me on NAC and glutahione (from what I've read though glutathione in pill form is not well absorbed.) I also did a liver detox profile and it showed that I was low in glutathione. I think most of the controversy around ALA stems around the fact that if you take too much of it metals get shuffled around in your body and can end up in tissues and worse spots than where they were initially. While that might be true for people with severe metal problems, my dr didn't think that my metal problems were too severe. So along with the supplements I already mentioned I also take Chlorella and have seen great improvement. I hadn't heard about the Spectracell test i think I will look it up. Glad to hear about your son. How old is he and how long did it take for him to get his levels down to normal? What antioxidants have you been giving him? -Steve

This is the first time testing. I took Zinc before the pyroluria test because I've known I've had problem with Zinc for years. Even after supplementing with zinc I still felt I was zinc deficient. I started taking B6 (p5p) a few weeks before the pyroluria test because that was a deficiency that I didn't realize I had earlier and only started wondering about pyroluria when both of those came back very deficient on my amino acids analysis. Now that I take large doses of antioxidants though my zinc requirements seem to be a lot lower (I don't get white spots on fingernails for starters) which also seems to be consistent with pyroluria. I also felt I did way worse whenever I experimented with omega 3 oils which also seems consistent with pyroluria. I think I will try testing again without zinc/b6 for about a week and see how I retest. I will stay on the antioxidants though. Thanks for your concerns.

It is not clear what test (name of the test) you had that showed 15 as the result. Test to check for pyrroles in the urine

Hi, I have had chronic zinc deficiency for a long time (I could tell because I've always had skin problems and white spots on my nails). I also had severe malabsorption problems and have been helped by taking enzymes with every meal for about 6 months along with probiotics. I think my absorption problems are a lot better now thanks to enzymes, probiotics, lots and lots of fiber. A recent amino acid analysis showed that I was also severely deficient in B6. I then began to suspect pyroluria was the root cause of my problems. But I just got back my results and the result is 15 which is supposedly within the normal range. My question is could the reading be much lower now than just a couple months ago because of the large amounts of antioxidants Ive been taking (I am currently taking 300mg ALA 3x per day, 1g vitamin C 3x per day, 400IU of natural High Gamma vitamin E, selenium 200mcg, amongst other herbal/mineral supplements) and also the Zinc (65mg along with a pretty high protein diet) and 50mg of P5P? My doctor wants me to get off all my supps for about a week and retest but I am hesitant because I have made so much progress. Anybody with experience can offer any advice on whether a reading of 15 could still be pyroluric and that its just controlled now by all the supps I take?