Dr. A explains how sulfites become toxic when your body can't convert them to harmless sulfates, a process that depends on the mineral molybdenum. Sulfites hide in wine, dried fruit, and processed foods as preservatives, and excess intake can trigger migraines, itching, and neurological symptoms.
What is the difference between a sulfite and a sulfate? And if I have them both in my body, why is one of them a toxin and the other one generally is not a toxin? Hey, I'm Dr. A. On this channel, we break down all things health and healthcare, and we do a lot of question answering. The first thing is sulfite, I-T-E, is a precursor to sulfate, A-T-E. And sulfite, if it gets stuck at the I-T-E form, can be toxic You've heard of people get migraines from sulfites, right? Or itchy hives and stuff from sulfites or other problems from sulfites. If we convert the sulfite, I-T-E, to sulfate, A-T-E, the body can use sulfate, A-T-E, as part of phase 2 detoxification in your liver and other organs. So sulfate, A-T-E, can be used to get rid of toxins. And so it's a helper molecule. It's just a little different than sulfite ITE, but sulfite ITE can't be used that way. And if it builds up, it becomes toxic to your body and either irritating or can cause a disease state such as triggering migraines or other types of headaches. It can trigger agitation, general neurological agitation. It can trigger, as I said, sort of itching, almost like a hive reaction, but not really a hive reaction, more of just itching all over. And it can trigger all sorts of other things, the ITE form. So if I can take the sulfate, the -ate form, and use it for all these good purposes, what is standing between sulfite, -ite, and sulfate, -ate? Obviously there must be something that helps me convert one to the other. The conversion is through an enzyme called sulfite oxidase, which does just what it says, takes sulfite and oxidizes it and turns it into sulfate, which then we use for good purposes. So sulfite oxidase is often known as S-U-O-X or SUOX because it's, that's a short version of sulfite oxidase. Now you have lots and lots of different sulfite oxidase enzyme isomers inside of your body. It's not like there's one enzyme, but sulfite oxidase can become overwhelmed. And so what happens then is if I put more sulfites in than the enzyme can process, I build up sulfite, I-T-E, and I poison myself. So if that's the case, And we've got other videos about helping sulfite oxidase. Sulfite oxidase uses molybdenum, the trace mineral, to help it run. It's very sensitive to heavy metal toxicity. So if you have heavy metals, it'll slow down, stuff like that. So sulfite oxidase is a good target. But what are the ways that I could increase sulfites in my body that I may or may not know about? So there's 2 main ways. The first is internal, meaning we're always making sulfite, I-T-E, When we break down thiols. So when you break down your glutathione residues or other sulfury molecules, you're going to make more sulfite. The next is external, and that's usually where the trouble comes in. So external breaks up into natural sources of external sulfite and additive sources of external sulfite. So if you think about it, the natural sources are going to be lower level. Some people are sensitive to them, some are not, but these can be fermented foods like kimchi or sauerkraut, stuff like that. Beer will have a little bit of natural sulfite in it. Leeks, onions, cabbage, those sorts of foods. Eggs, because they have a lot of sulfur in them, which triggers a lot of sulfite. And then actually black tea can give you a little bit. Now, people often say, well, I've eaten sauerkraut or I drink black tea and that doesn't give me a migraine, but if I drink some red wine that is sulfited, I will get a migraine right away. What's the difference? It's the amount. So if you're getting a natural food-based sulfite, 80 to 90% of the people probably are not going to react to that. Some people will. Okay, you know who you are if you're out there. But it's the additive ones that normally overwhelm the system and back up sulfite oxidase and poison you. So additives would come in things like dried fruits and vegetables, things that are preserved with sulfites. Okay. So lots of dried fruit would be one. Any type of prepared, like commercial potato product is going to have a lot of sulfite added. That'd be like your frozen French fries and all the, all the stuff that people are convenience foods there. A lot of condiments will have sulfite added to them. You kind of have to watch labels for that. Much like the dried fruit foods, pickled foods can have sulfites added. Some don't, some do. You got to watch labels for that. There are forms that of like pickles and other pickled products that you can get a lot of times like at your food co-op or something, and they may say no sulfites added. So that's a nice thing to look for there. Lemon and lime juice, grape juice are often added, have added sulfites. Any processed meat, so salami, bologna, all of your processed type meats, they don't all have sulfites. Some have nitrites and other stuff, but you gotta watch the label. So if you're sulfite sensitive, all these things I'm mentioning may not have it added, but watch the labels because you could be poisoning yourself and not know it. Many vinegars have added sulfites. And then of course the one that gets most people because it can be very high amounts that are added is wine, but especially red wine. Red wine can have higher levels of sulfites. Sometimes in white wine, but they both can have it. There are some countries that don't allow the use of sulfites in wine and some do. So you really have to watch out for that as far as no added sulfites. Now, what would be the difference if the label says no unnatural added sulfites or no added sulfites may contain some natural sulfites? Natural sulfites come from the first list. These are lower level and they're a part of that food. So it might be just part of the process of the sulfite building up because you pickled something like, like sauerkraut or something like that, or it might be the little tiny bits of sulfite naturally occurring in beer. That's different than if I take my wine bottles and I coat the inside of the wine bottle with sulfite as, as a preservative, essentially. So anytime you have additive level added sulfites, if it says added sulfites for any reason, if it says no added sulfites, that's great. There's probably very little in there. If it says added sulfites or sulfites added for stability or something, you're going to have a lot more. So again, we get one source from the inside of our body, and that is the breakdown of all sulfury things in the body. We get a natural external source, which can be part of just the food that grew or is being made or stored. And then we have additive level, which are by far the biggest. People who are sensitive to sulfites are sometimes sensitive to all 3 categories, but most people are the most sensitive to additives. And if they can get those out of their diet, then usually their sulfite sensitivity will go down. All right. I hope that answers the question about sources of sulfites and why we might overwhelm the system that naturally helps us go from sulfite, I-T-E, to sulfate, A-T-E, and get it into the good useful form, which is the sulfate form. Thanks for watching. Thanks to all you subscribers. Please do subscribe if you haven't. Dr. A, I'm going to put up some other videos for you here to watch. Take a look at the main channel. We got hundreds of videos up there too, and I'll see you guys on the next one.
