Here's when it makes sense to consider
high-dose riboflavin supplementation for
strange unexplained health problems.
Hi. I'm Dr. Chris Masterjohn of
chrismasterjohnphd.com. And this is
Chris Masterjohn Lite, where the name of the game is
"Details? Shmeetails. Just tell me what works!"
And today we're going talk about
when it makes sense to use high-dose
riboflavin supplements for strange
unexplained health problems. One thing
that we know so far for the track record
for high-dose riboflavin supplements is
that they are very effective for a
significant collection of rare genetic
disorders in energy metabolism. Usually
these are disorders of riboflavin
absorption, transport, activation, or a
defect in some riboflavin-dependent
enzyme. And depending on what the
specific defect is, the signs and
symptoms can be different. So, frequently
it could be the case that the signs and
symptoms focus on fasting intolerance,
bouts of severe hypoglycemia, and
weakness and exercise intolerance. That
might be one set. And then there are
other cases where it's primarily
neurological problems. For example,
problems in controlling the muscles of
the face or even sensorineural hearing loss.
And the research into how the high-dose
riboflavin helps in these situations
has led us down the path to
believe that what the riboflavin is
doing is it's helping proteins fold
correctly that would otherwise be misfolded.
Every protein in your body has to
have some three-dimensional shape in
order to carry out its proper function.
If it doesn't fold into the correct
shape, it's not going to have the right
function. And if riboflavin is helping
the protein fold into the correct shape,
that will restore the function. And most
of the research into this has focused on
how riboflavin will help
riboflavin-dependent proteins fold properly.
But it's also the case that we
found in the last decade that the
folding of far more proteins than that,
the folding of probably hundreds if not
thousands of proteins is
riboflavin-dependent.
We also have the case discussed in the
last episode where for reasons that we
don't completely understand,
400 milligrams a day seems to be the dose of
riboflavin that helps with migraines.
So there's something going on in energy
metabolism in the brain probably
that is causing migraines.
We don't know exactly what it is, but for
some reason, doses of riboflavin that are
far beyond anything you could ever get
from food appear to be what's effective
in treating that. My suspicion is that in
the coming decade, we will see a
broadening of the scope of the utility
of high-dose riboflavin supplementation
to help with many things that right now
don't seem riboflavin-dependent but do
involve some misfolded protein that
happens to fold correctly when high-dose
riboflavin is supplied. That's
as of yet my suspicion, and there is yet
no clear evidence that that's the case
except what I said before, which
is the case of migraines where we're
clearly expanding
outside the confines of
genetic defects in riboflavin-dependent enzymes
when we're talking about using high-dose
riboflavin for migraines. So the way that
I look at it is this. There is no known
harm of taking 400 milligrams per day of
riboflavin, and there probably is no harm.
The only potential harm that I can see
is that if you're getting exposure to a
lot of ultraviolet light, maybe that
light is leading to destructive
byproducts when it destroys riboflavin
at high doses. This is a completely
hypothetical concern. There are many examples
of using very high doses of riboflavin,
in fact even up to 1500 milligrams per
day in some cases, and there's no
demonstrated harm from it. So,
if someone has strange unexplained
health problems, I am NOT saying use this
as a reason to not go see a doctor
because there may be an important cause
for your health problem that medicine
would be able to address. So absolutely
see a doctor. Absolutely tell the doctor
about anything that you might be trying
including high-dose riboflavin supplements.
But if there is something
that you cannot explain that there is no
apparent solution to, it seems to me that
trying 400 milligrams of riboflavin a
day for several weeks or several months
to see if it does something is
something that might pay off. It might not.
But it would probably help us
including eventually helping the
research community just to know if from
anecdotal experience whether high-dose
riboflavin supplements is helping in
certain cases where nothing else seems
to help. Hey, it's a shot in the dark, but
it seems like a shot worth taking in
some cases.
This episode is brought to you by
Vitamins and Minerals 101.
This is my new free 30-day course
providing one lesson a day on each
nutrient delivered straight to your inbox.
It can go to your email or it can go to your
Facebook Messenger. If you get the
Messenger version, it's taught by
Chris MasterBot, my baby bot.
It's more interactive, there are more
emojis, and there are more jokes.
But both email and Facebook Messenger
are incredibly educational. Each lesson
covers why the nutrient is important to
your health, how to know if you have too
little or too much, or the wrong balance
with other nutrients, how to get it from
food, and when you should think about
supplementing. It is not a technical or
advanced course. It is completely minimum
in its technical jargon. And it is
designed for the beginner with no
background in nutrition, and no
background beyond high school in the
basic sciences. Nevertheless many people
who have backgrounds in nutrition are
saying that it is an amazing refresher
course full of nuggets of valuable
information in each lesson. Sign up
completely free by Facebook Messenger or by email at
chrismasterjohnphd.com/101.
This episode is brought to you by
Testing Nutritional Status: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet.
This is my recipe to empower you to banish
any deficiency or nutritional imbalance from your body.
I've been through the pain of my teeth
falling apart, my stomach being in
constant pain, and my OCD going off the
rails during my stint with veganism to
the point where panic attacks were the
norm, and I was afraid to eat any of the
food in my house. I've been through the
path of healing using nutrient-dense
animal foods to nourish all the systems
of my body and become a new person.
But I've also learned that my needs change
over time. The red meat and liver that
were so healing in my recovery from
veganism later started sapping my energy
and brain power only to find out that
I'm genetically predisposed to iron
overload and need to manage it with
blood donations. And I've learned from
friends, colleagues, and clients that
everyone is different. Your needs are not
mine. Mine aren't what they were ten years ago.
Yours won't be what they are now in ten years.
That's why we need a precise
recipe to know exactly what's missing,
exactly what's overloaded, exactly what's
imbalanced, and an action plan to fix
things, and a way to measure our success.
That's what I've done with
Testing Nutritional Status: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet.
Get your copy at chrismasterjohnphd.com/cheatsheet
and use the code LITE20
that's L I T E and the number 20,
LITE20 to get 20% off.
For ad-free versions
of these episodes with transcripts that
you can read and getting early access to
the episodes often weeks or maybe even
months ahead of time, you can sign up for the
CMJ Masterpass
at chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass
and use the code: LITE10
to get 10 percent lifetime discount.
The audio of this episode was enhanced
and post-processed by Bob Davodian
of Taurean Mixing. You can find more of his work at
taureanonlinemixing.com.
All right, I hope you found this useful.
Signing off, this is Chris Masterjohn of
chrismasterjohnphd.com. This has
been Chris Masterjohn Lite.
And I will see you in the next episode.