What Could Be Causing My Joint Pain, Fatigue, and Brain Fog?

I experienced chronic fatigue, brain fog, and on and off joint pain for years.  After bloodwork kept coming back "normal" I thought the fatigue was due to needing more sleep and the brain fog was just because I've always had a bad memory.

It turns out one of the major causes of fatigue, brain fog, and joint pain is due to high levels of sulfur and/or ammonia in the body. Many people like me are prone to high levels of sulfur due to our genetics.  That is why a genetic test is so important to run.  If you have mutations on the CBS enzyme, you are prone to having high levels of sulfur in your body.  As part of the methylation cycle, instead of homocysteine being recycled back into methionine, it's sucked down into transsulfuration, which leads to high sulfur.

Mutations on the MTHFR A1298C enzyme can cause high levels of ammonia in the body.  Sulfur and ammonia go hand in hand because sulfur converts to ammonia in the body.  Both can cause symptoms of fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, vaginal issues, bladder issues, and emotional issues since it depletes our neurotransmitters.

Sulfur is important to the body, but if you're already prone to high levels due to your genetics and you're eating a lot of high sulfur foods and/or not detoxifying the sulfur properly, it can cause symptoms.  It's important to look at your genetics and your homocysteine level which is measured as part of the full panel bloodwork I run with my clients.  Usually if homocysteine is below 6 it indicates that the mutation(s) on your CBS enzyme are active.  When active, steps should be taken to actively reduce the amount of sulfur you're taking in and detoxify the excess.

Just like with an active CBS mutation, the same steps should be taken with an active MTHFR A1298C mutation.  If you have MTHFR A1298C mutations and you have symptoms of fatigue, brain fog, and/or joint pain you can assume the mutations are probably active. 

It's really important to work with a practitioner who knows how to analyze the genetics and bloodwork results and will work with you on all three phases of your detox pathways. If you try and detox the sulfur or ammonia on your own, you could end up causing more harm to your body. Check out my blog post titled Why Detox Cleanses Could Do More Harm Than Good.

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