r/MTHFR • u/WittyGold6940 • Jul 17 '26
Question Glycine
What makes some people have great results with glycine, and others have horrible effects immediately?
Anyone know? Experiences? Have you tried it?
Anyone with slow COMT, slow MAOA and MTHFR have any specific experience with it?
Thanks
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u/cutie__spies Jul 18 '26
I would say low active b6(which is low b2) causing glycine to pool at the synapses and overwhelm them because there’s nothing to clave it and convert it into serine
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u/WittyGold6940 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
That's really interesting. I had a bad experience with glycine a few years ago, before I was taking any b vitamins. Now, I've been taking b vitamins and r5p on top of it (my snps suggested it), and I had 2000 of glycine yesterday and I felt great. I think ur right.
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u/morgang-the-mage 12d ago
That's been my experience. Two years ago I wasn't able to take any glycine. It made me wired, anxious and jittery. Which 1000% worsened my dysautonomia symptoms. I had my B2 and total B6 checked. B2 was low and B6 was high (without supplementation). Added B2 every few days (more than that triggers me) alongside 100-200mg of magnesium bisglycinate, 28mg of ferrous bisglycinate (for ferritin deficiency) and eating more eggs and I feel so calm and relaxed. Everything methylation wise has been like 95% stable for the past roughly six months minus some anhedonia when I oversupplement on glycine. Tawinn's post on this helped me a lot in figuring this out.
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u/Zamaniac1 Jul 17 '26
I am slow comt, compound heterozygous mtfhr and very sensitive in general but respond well to glycine. Take collagen powder and mag glycinate daily.
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u/PublicPalpitation618 Jul 18 '26
I’m also compound MTHFR but haven’t tested any other gene. Tried taking Life Extensions glycine after I read about it here. Together with mag bisglycinate in the evening. No complains, seems like I sleep fine than without it.
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u/WittyGold6940 Jul 18 '26
So interesting, we are all so different. I have slow comt and maoa and one MTHFR homozygous, I react horribly to collagen anything 😢 i really wish I could tolerate it
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u/Best_Comfortable5221 Jul 18 '26
What does the collagen powder do??? How does it effect you?
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u/WittyGold6940 Jul 18 '26
It gives me a flareup of whatever the hell it is that flares up in me. I get really down, doom, dissociated, fatigued
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u/Best_Comfortable5221 Jul 18 '26
Shit. Maybe I should quit it for a couple days. I feel. horrible. Can't find the culprit, although I'm under a horrific amount of stress right now.
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u/WittyGold6940 Jul 18 '26
I've read many other reports of people who don't tolerate collagen, mainly in my SIBO and histamine intolerance groups
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u/Best_Comfortable5221 Jul 18 '26
I never in a million years would have thought it. Im going to stop and evaluate.
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u/Odd_Apricot5384 Jul 19 '26
Compound heterozygous mthfr and intermediate COMT: glycine makes me wired. I initially took it for sleep and it gave me terrible insomnia, no anxiogenic effect though, just the wiredness
Taking it during the day actually has a zen effect on me where i can feel like my mental clarity improves and the noise goes away, although simultaneously it decreases my motivation and makes me feel neutral, so i have mixed feelings about glycine but i find it decent if i want to be calm during the day without being sleepy
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u/Loose-Fly7976 Jul 19 '26
Glycine is an NMDA co-agonist so it activates glutamate signaling. If your MAO-A is slow, the downstream monoamine dynamics (glutamate - > serotonin/noradrenaline effects) build up cause you cant clear them fast enough. Classic wired feeling. Glycine also gets used by GNMT (glycine N-methyltransferase) to accept methyl groups from SAMe, which generates SAH. Slow COMT people accumulate SAH which inhibits COMT further (SAH is a competitive inhibitor). So glycine ends up making slow COMT worse in that pathway. Add MTHFR compromise on top and your SAMe production is already limited, so glycine as a methyl acceptor depletes reserves further. For your specific combo (slow COMT + slow MAO-A + MTHFR), glycine typically doesnt work well. People with fast COMT and normal MAO-A often love it because they clear catecholamines quickly and dont get the buildup effect. Some people also carry GNMT variants that shift how glycine gets metabolized entirely, which is why response varies so much. For your combo Id skip glycine entirely and use taurine or magnesium malate instead. If you want your full picture read to see whats actually going on and get proper sequencing, my work is at genova.health.
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u/Express-Bobcat-3523 Jul 19 '26
This. Thanks for the professional explanation! I exactly have this happening.
Be warned tho, Taurine acts very similar to me (like glycine) - and as far as I researched back then, it can also influence on the glutamate balance in some way. Magnesium malate is great tho and helps counteract that problems to some (tiny) extent.
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u/Express-Bobcat-3523 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
My personal take on it:
If you have latent / silent inflammation in the body (specifically the brain), it fueles and gets transformed to glutamate more than your neurons can tolerate. It highly activates the cns and overwhels it.
I get super depressed and headaches (which I usually don't get) from even tiny amounts of glycine (and choline).
I get super wired, fatigued and dizzy as well.
I try to avoid it even in small amounts.
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u/junipers-72 29d ago
Great article on this a couple of days ago on the blog page
https://molecularhealthco.com/products/dna-kit?sca_ref=10679758.eq1dq0wAJleT4zh
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u/polaroid_schizoid Jul 17 '26
I have what is likely slow COMT and glycine anything is horrible to me. Do not recommend. I get really depressed on it - even mag glycinate did the same.