Georgia Hunter said...
IMO, the smell you all describe is from an increase in the polyamine putresciene. If you Google putresciene, it will tell you that it is the "smell of death" or smell from a dead animal. While that is true, the smell is actually from the breakdown of fatty acids and the inability of the body to process them. In a living person, the amount of fatty acid degradation is much less and the odor isn't as strong as in a dead animal. Putrescine is actually a valuable protein that is responsible for many biologic functions including transcription and translation of DNA, cellular growth, transport of cations across cellular membranes, and help to regulate potassium ion channels. They can also increase permeability of the blood brain barrier.
So many of us that have issues have an increase in the breakdown of fatty acids. Without getting into the liver disease debate, many of these fatty acids come from our immune system's interaction with the extracellular matrix. Borrelia, as well as many other pathogens, find a niche in the extracellular matrix where they can sometimes remain undetected or unnoticed by our immune system. Exercise will increase the blood flow to this area and allow these pathogens to be noticed and killed. This comes with a price. The price is that we must be capable of removing the cellular debris and replace the damaged extracellular matrix. Some people can not do either of these. Putrescine should rapidly be converted to spermidine but under acidic conditions, this sometimes doesn't happen or happens too slowly.
Cadaverine is a byproduct of lysine metabolism where putresciene is a byproduct of ornithine metabolism. If the ratios of lysine to arginine are skewed, there may be an imbalance in the production of one of these polyamines. This can happen from a protozoal infection which can alter the ornithine pathway and increase ammonia levels as well. All of these functions can lead to an increase in odor as described above.
Very interesting. I'm sure my lysine/arginine ratio is skewed. I had shingles back in April. At that point I stopped drinking bone broth and started taking l-lysine. I still take lysine whenever I feel shingles pain creeping back. I had issues when I took Great Lakes gelatin a few days per Buhner's collagen repair. That actually made me feel like I was having a histamine response or something.
By protozoal infection, are you referring to babesia or something else?
When I complained of feeling too toxic and suspecting ammonia, one practioner initially recommended ornithine supplements. (I never tried it since aI couldn't find it locally.). Later during a phone consult she didn't mention ornithine and instead recommended acetyl-l-carnitine, which I haven't tried yet either.
That said, the limited odor I have smells to me like it's from the curcumin I take. Gee, if I took garlic too, then I'd probably reek!!!