Who can take flavonoids with a COMT SNP?

Who can take flavonoids with a COMT SNP?

Quercetin and Luteolin can be hard for people who are COMT positive positive. That's Catechol-O-Methyltransferase, that's an enzyme. 

So, this is the positive and I'll talk about that because they slow down that pathway further and can lead to catecholamine build up which natural mast cells stabilizers don't significantly affect that pathway. 
So the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase enzyme breaks down catecholamines, epinephrine, that kind of stuff, but it also is involved in hormone regulation and detoxification. And so if you carry the sort of form where you have two mutations, two positive mutations you acquired from each parent, you have a slow form of this enzyme. 

And so if it's slow, it's already having trouble metabolizing catecholamines, then you add Quercetin or Luthiolin or Fisetin, there's a few others that are in that category where they're bioflavonoids, that actually slow that enzyme down further and you can actually cause some issues. 

So, what I would say is that I do have patients who have that mutation who do take Quercetin. I might have to adjust the dosage and they may have to be really careful about taking it because the thing about our genetics is that we have a balanced system. 
So, while you might have the COMT that slows down the categories the opposite and there are different forms of COMT that might compensate. So what I do, what I typically do is I like the information. I think it's helpful, but just because of that mutation doesn't mean that you can't use these supplements. 

You just have to keep in mind and you have to maybe do it slower. And again, you have to look at the whole person, not just the genetics. So that's my advice. A lot of the bioflavonoids have that issue, unfortunately. 
The only mast cell supplement that I use that doesn't have effect on the enzyme is something like Diamine Oxidase which is the enzyme that breaks down histamine in the gut, but it's not a mast cell stabilizer.