BH4 (biopterin) is required in converting tyrosine into thyroid hormone, dopamine and norepinephrine; and for forming serotonin from
tryptophan. If, in the homocysteine-to-methionine step of the methylation cycle, methyl folate cannot give up its methyl to B12, you get what is called a folate trap. Methyl folate accumulates (actually, 5-methyl-hydrofolate), and cannot break down into usable folate (5HTF), needed in creating biopterin. (Scroll up to the diagram at the top of this link).
Again, if BH4 is limited, then so are thyroid hormones, and key antidepressant neurotransmitters.
So you get undermethylation and low thyroid, along with low dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin.
In other words, we have here a subset of histadelics with difficulty transferring methyl from folate to B12, prone to low levels of thyroxine (T4).
Odd, isn't it, when histadelics generally have high metabolism. Perhaps, in some cases, T3 compensates.
For more on the folate trap, look here.
For a wider view of thyroid, histadelia, and bipolar disorder, you may want to see my book, Natural Healing for Bipolar Disorder
available here.
To contact me, click here.
