Gerry, I was wondering if you ever used TMG with your animals for autoimmune disorders? I was reading was that autoimmunity is an effect of methylation. If you increase the methyl groups, the antibodies will drop.

Trimethylglycine (TMG) or betaine glycine or anhydrous betaine - from what I understand, they are all the same.. ?

https://www.raysahelian.com/betaine.html
Dr. Flechas has said that he has used TMG supplementation and kept track of antibodies and they dropped (the subject was iodine, and he was answering the question of whether iodine affects autoimmunity against the thyroid):
pretty good drop.

I am assuming that he is talking about the anti-thyroid antibodies. However, I also wondered if it makes all antibodies drop, or only specific ones?

I can send you the file with the question/answer session with Dr. Flechas if you wish, but it is mostly about iodine..

I'll still have to read up on the topics you mentioned, but yes, betaine, or trimethylglycine, has long been used in animals. In addition to being a methyl donor (which, of itself, has a lot of implications), betaine is also an osmoprotectant -- a property useful for fish and other creatures whose cells are exposed to hostile osmotic environments (too high or too low).

Recently, I came across the USDA document (it's dated 2004):

https://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcom...e/Choline.html

for the choline content of foods, but the table also shows the betaine content. The introductory part is good reading.

https://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcom...ne/Choline.pdf

While betaine and choline are methyl donors, they each have their own unique functions, along with other methyl donors like methionine (an amino acid). I read elsewhere that the commercial source of betaine for animal feeds is beet (maybe the high sugar content requires high osmoprotectant levels). Spinach and wheat bran have a lot, too.

I'll read up on the topic you brought up.

Gerry

actually, my interest was piqued by that one statement by Flechas. I had just read on another forum (not HSI) about selenium being used to "calm" an autoimmune response. but I have not heard of TMG being used for this purpose, and couldn't find much on the net about TMG being used for autoimmune disorders.... maybe I didn't search for the right phrases..

that's why I was wondering if you had ever used it on your animals specifically for autoimmune disorders and if it had helped at all.

Seems that if a person had something like Hashimoto's, this supplement would help protect the thyroid ... or in the case of other autoimmune disorders, this would protect the organ being attacked.

but.. couldn't find much, like I said.

thanks for reading one of the few small articles I could find. Let me know what you think...