Moody? Short Fuse? Can’t Tolerate Stress? Is It Pyrroles?

Have you always known you can’t handle stress very well? Or maybe you tend to be a ticking time bomb, when you get mad, geez don’t people know it!

Sometimes this type of behaviour can be diagnosed as anxiety or maybe bipolar. However, it may be a condition that has been gone undiagnosed.

This condition is called pyrrole disorder. It’s usually when something stressful happens in a person’s life that symptoms start to appear.

When a person with pyrroles is stressed, the body will overproduce pyrroles or hydroxyhaemopyrrolin-2-one (HPL). HPL binds to several nutrients, making them unavailable for use by the body. These three nutrients are vitamin B6, magnesium and zinc. Copper levels tend to be high as well when suffering pyrroles.

Vitamin B6, magnesium and zinc are all required for the production of GABA, which is the calming neurotransmitter in the brain. Therefore if you have pyrroles, you possibly it hard to wind down, feel you suffer mood instability, or have anxiety or depression. It is low zinc that puts you at risk of high copper levels. Cooper overload causes the opposite of calm; it can be what makes a person appear to be having a tantrum.

What Are The Symptoms Of Pyrroles?

• Poor stress tolerance
• Apathy, low mood
• Sensitivity to lights, odours and sounds
• Highly irritable
• Short temper
• Mood swings
• Inner tension
• Poor mental focus
• Pain in the spleen area (stitch feeling in the side)
• White spots on fingernails
• Morning nausea
• Little morning appetite
• Poor dream recall
• Skin complaints (dry, dermatitis, keratosis pillaris)
• IBS

Conditions Associated With Pyrroles

• ADD
• ADHD
• Bipolar
• Aggression
• Depression
• Schizophrenia
• Gut Imbalances – without sufficient stomach acids or with SIBO, absorption of nutrients may be poor. You need B6 and Zinc for adequate stomach acids.
• Adrenal Disorders – the inability to handle stress fatigues the body
• Liver and Gallbladder Issues – bile flow is affected with low HCL

In addition, 60% of mental health patients have a methylation disorder (MTHFR & Genes – See previous post on methylation – you may want to have a DNA test)

Managing Pyrroles

Combined with a holistic nutritional approach, correct diagnosis of pyrrole disorder is critical to successful management of the condition. Long term supplementation of both B6 and zinc is likely necessary for ongoing suppression of HPL and to eliminate symptoms.

Symptoms usually improve quickly, within three months.

In assessing if you have pyrrole disorder, a thorough case history is necessary. If pyrrole condition is deemed likely, there is a urine test that tests for levels of pyrroles (1). Measurements of HPL at regular intervals help to determine maintenance dosages of nutrients.

What Can You Do Today

Food is the building blocks of your neurotransmitters, start here. Eating a diet rich in quality protein and healthy fat provides the body with the necessary building blocks. You require amino acids (broken down from protein) for synthesis of brain neurotransmitters and essential fatty acids for healthy cell membranes, which is necessary for healthy nerve function.

In addition to addressing the foundations by getting your diet in check, get in touch for a consultation. Pyrrole disorder is one part of the problem. It can be treated rather fast, however, there usually are other factors involved as explained above. Better to address each part for best results rather than a band-aid fix. Some additional test may be considered with the pyrrole urine test such as DNA testing, organic acids test, blood test and heavy metal testing.

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