4 ms·
Oh boy, this is a favorite topic of mine because I get psychosis over 7000 feet. And it is all about my genetics. I am a lowlander by heritage, a Sami from Fin
by FollowingTheDao 3y ago
Oh boy, this is a favorite topic of mine because I get psychosis over 7000 feet.
And it is all about my genetics. I am a lowlander by heritage, a Sami from Finland, and I carry genetic changes in NOS1AP that lower my ability to make nitric oxide at altitude. But the other factor is polymorphisms in GCH1, a gene linked to altitude adaptation:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5460084/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5460084/
See GCH1 is the enzyme critically needed to make something called tetrahjydrobiopterin (BH4), and BH4 last at the center of the creation of all the catecholamines, like dopamine and serotonin, but also Nitric Oxide.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fig-1-Tetrahydrobiopterin-BH4-is-an-essential-cofactor-all-three-hydroxylases-and_fig1_51019292 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fig-1-Tetrahydrobiopteri...
They make a drug called Kuvan which is a BH4 analogue but they only sell it in the EU because they want those of use with mental illness in the U.S. to suffer.
But zinc will increase the activity of GCH1 and alleviate many of these issues for me.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006291X19321667 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00062...
It has nothing to do with low oxygen, but rather low catecholamines.
- selimthegrim 3y agoOn a related note, how do you feel about the WaPo headliner today about misappropriation of Sami remains for (anthropological, not even medical) "research" https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2023/smithsonian-brains-collection-racial-history-repatriation https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2023/smit...
- FollowingTheDao 3y agoThanks for that. Makes me hate the how much humanity moved away from nature even more than I already did. They took our language and our spirituality so why not take our brains as well. Sometimes I wonder if my mental illness, and my utter disgust of capitalism, is from the legacy of trauma in my lineage. What is even more interesting is that my senior thesis paper was on a man named John Collier who was the head of the Indian Affairs Bureau in the early 1900's and really into eugenics. He wanted to ship Indigenous Americans all over the country so we could all get their genes and be more like them. Funny that wikipedia called him an "advocate"! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Collier_(sociologist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Collier_(sociologist)
- watersb 3y agoWow! Any correlation with blood pressure regulation?
- FollowingTheDao 3y agoOh yes, for sure. Also immune regulation via NOS2.
- rednerrus 3y agoIs this related to being a slow metabolizer of catecholamines?
- FollowingTheDao 3y agoNo. That would actually help.
- rednerrus 3y agoI’m a slow metabolized and it’s not awesome.