I'm always tweaking my sleep issues and have recently started taking glycine supplements at night. They really seem to help me stay asleep all night. Anyway, just for the heck of it, I googled glycine/B12 deficiency and found a couple scientific papers (most pertaining to chickens) and I found this one cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-867...
It's way over my head but the title leads me to believe glycine has something to do with B12 deficiency. Can one of you who are much smarter than myself explain what it says? Thank you.
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MoKayD
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Yes Glycine and the closely related Serine are very important to B12 via the Folate cycle.
First, some dense biochemistry 😅
"The folate cycle provides one-carbon units for an extensive metabolic network that fuels the methionine cycle, transsulfuration pathway, de novo purine synthesis, thymidine production, serine, glycine, glutathione, and NADPH pools, and thereby regulates cellular redox state, growth, and proliferation"
"While various metabolites can donate methyl groups to THF, serine and glycine are the major sources of 1C units. Serine catabolism initiated by serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) transfers the γ-carbon amino acid side chain to THF, forming glycine and 5,10-methylene-THF (me-THF) "
...
"Glycine generated by this reaction can also be catabolized to me-THF in the mitochondria"
you will see that when the THF form of folate (at the top of the folate cycle) is converted into the next stage : 5,10-CH2-THF (5-10 methylene tetrahydrofolate), it takes a methyl group (CH3) from Serine, which becomes Glycine. So when the folate cycle is impaired, it seems likely that less Glycine would be created by the folate cycle.
In addition , as you have found, there is some evidence it may benefit sleep:
The paper you linked has nothing unusual to say about Glycine but this CLYBL gene is interesting and does prompt thoughts about testing for this as an early indicator of disproportionate risk for B12 deficiency.
I gather that folate being too low OR too high can both cause insomnia. When I said impaired the folate cycle, I meant that if B12 was deficient, the folate cycle would be impaired due to lack of sufficient methylcobalamin. This shouldnt be the case if your deficiency is being adequately treated.
Thank you so much for your help. This is very interesting. When I first started receiving B12 shots I would have insomnia for the first couple of nights after the injection. That stopped after 6 months and now I sleep better the night after I get a shot.
I always sleep better after Hydroxocobalamin injection, it works for max 5 nights, then the sleep is interrupted for 2-3 hrs each night after which I sometimes fall asleep again. I inject once a week, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. 10 days. Depending how busy/ physically I have been.
That sounds like me. I've tried just about everything to get back to sleep after waking up at night. Some things seem to work for a while and then they stop. My list of fixes includes; magnesium/calcium supplements, iron supplements, glycine supplements, bone broth, ginger tea, chamomile tea, listening to books, reading books with a night light, having a light snack, tapping, avoiding blue light before bed, acupressure, etc. I wish I could find something that would work consistently.
Thank you so much for sending me this link. I am extraordinarily gifted when it comes to ruminating. This treatment sounds like exactly what I need. I found a couple of psychiatrists in my area who offer MBTI treatment. I'll be calling them today. Thank you!
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