SULFUR AND SULFUR-CONTAINING AMINO ACIDS
by Dr. Lawrence Wilson
© May 2025, LD Wilson Consultants, Inc.
All information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health condition.
Table Of Contents
Qualities Of Sulfur
Cleansing
Building
Flexibility
Food sources
Supplements
Impaired Detoxification
Connective Tissue Problems
VII. IMPORTANT FORMS OF SULFUR IN THE BODY
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Sulfur is one of the most abundant and important minerals in the human body. It is a warm or yang, fiery mineral and a masculine mineral. One name for it is the cleansing power.
However, sulfur is more than a cleansing mineral. It has many other functions in the body.
QUALITIES OF SULFUR
Fiery. This is how sulfur cleanses the body. It helps burn up toxins.
Industrial use. Sulfur is used widely in many industries. For example, it is found in gunpowder because it burns very fast and very hot.
Matches contain sulfur because it ignites easily and burns well.
Acid-forming. Sulfur is an acid-forming mineral. Most of the acid-forming minerals are anabolic and tend to build the tissues.
In contrast, the more alkaline-forming minerals such as calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, zinc and manganese are used more as regulators.
Cleansing. Sulfur is a cleanser of all the tissues and organs of the body.
A builder and flexible connector. Sulfur gives animal tissues their strength, and their resiliency.
1. Sulfur is a cleansing or detoxification mineral. For example, it is critical for liver detoxification. Toxic livers are one of the most common problems today. We cannot overemphasize this.
This problem is almost totally overlooked by the medical and natural healing professions. In part, this is because standard liver function tests can be normal even though the liver is quite compromised.
Another reason for the problem is that the alien group some call the thugs, satans, Rogues or crud have poisoned the planet and all of our food. They also put worms in everyone, some of which are in the liver.
Stress, rapes, beatings and other trauma they cause are all very damaging to the liver. For more details, read the very important article, Liver Detoxification.
2. Sulfur is a building mineral. It is an anabolic mineral that is critical for making our body tissues.
For example, sulfur is found in most proteins in the sulfur-containing amino acids, along with phosphorus and nitrogen. These three elements form a triad of important elements needed as building blocks or structural components of all animal tissues.
Connective tissue is rich in sulfur. This includes hair, skin, nails, tendons, ligaments, arteries, veins and parts of the heart.
Disulfide bonds are a very critical arrangement of sulfur atoms widely used in connective tissue. Sulfur, copper, zinc and molybdenum are all involved in connective tissue.
3. Sulfur is also a flexibility mineral. It is needed in order to have flexible joints, tendons, ligaments, hair and other flexible connective tissues.
4. An escort. Sulfur also serves as an escort to help move certain toxins out of the body.
FOOD SOURCES
The main food sources are:
1. Meats, fish, cheese and whole eggs. The egg yolk contains sulfur. Foods that are yellow in color often contain sulfur.
2. Cooked vegetables. Rich sources are:
A. All onions and garlic.
B. Cruciferous family of vegetables (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts, mainly)
C. Radish family of vegetables. This includes daikon, red radishes, rutabaga, and turnips.
D. Some green vegetables also contain a lot of sulfur.
3. Nuts and seeds. Very good sources are sesame seeds, sesame tahini, and almond butter.
SULFUR SUPPLEMENTS
Black radish. All foods in the radish family are rich in sulfur compounds. We use a supplement called GB-3 that contains black radish.
Taurine supplements. These are rich in sulfur. We use taurine to help move people out of a four lows pattern.
Organic sulfur powder. This is available. Sometimes it is called flowers of sulfur. However, we do not recommend it because it is slightly toxic.
Glandular products. These often contain some sulfur because meats contain important forms of sulfur.
MSM For Joint Problems. This is methylsulfonylmethane. It is a semi-synthetic sulfur compound. It is sold as a remedy for joint and other pain.
We do not recommend MSM. It is extremely yin in macrobiotic terminology. As a result, it will interfere with your overall health and it will slow or stop development. If you follow a development program, you will not need it.
MSM lowers copper and acts as a remedy only. A much better way to get rid of joint pain and other connective tissue symptoms is to remove the irritants and toxic metals that are causing the problem. MSM does not do this very well.
SULFUR AND CHELATION
Some sulfur compounds are chelating agents. This includes common chelating drugs such as EDTA, DMSA, DMPS, and others.
Herbs high in sulfur that are also natural chelating agents include cilantro, chlorella, bugleweed and yellow dock.
We do not recommend chelating drugs or most natural chelating agents. They tend to remove good minerals in addition to removing the toxic ones. This is quite dangerous.
They are not needed if one follows a development program. They also tend to be slightly toxic and have other problems, although they are better than heart bypass surgery. For details, read Chelation Therapy.
IV. SYMPTOMS OF SULFUR DEFICIENCY
This is very common today because many people do not eat enough cooked vegetables. It can be even worse in some vegetarians because certain sulfur compounds are found only in meats and eggs.
Symptoms include inability to detoxify toxic metals and toxic chemicals. This is a subtle symptom, at times, but it means that healing diets and programs don't work as well.
Problems with connective tissue are also a common sign of deficiency. These can include adhesions, joint pain, bursitis, inflammation, artery disease, skin rashes, and other soft tissue problems.
Other deficiency symptoms include parasitic infestation, other infections, and other immune deficiency symptoms.
Sulfur is a critical mineral for development. It is one of the main minerals needed for development. We believe that for rapid development, one needs at least 50 sulfur compounds!
Diet. We find one must receive many of these sulfur compounds from food. Supplements are not as good.
This is a major reason why the development diet is very high in in cooked vegetables. It is also the reason for eating tahini, almond butter, meats, cheese and butter.
Regarding meats, do not eat animal foods more than twice daily, and the portion size needs to be only 4-5 ounces.
NOTE: Not obtaining enough sulfur is an important reason why some of our clients do not develop quickly.
Some hair tissue mineral laboratories measure the sulfur level in the hair. ARL does not measure it at this time (2025). I hope they will in the future.
The level of sulfur in hair is more than 100 times higher than the levels of the other minerals. This is because hair is a connective tissue, and this type of tissue contain a lot of sulfur.
For the ideal hair level, a good range, and toxicity levels for sulfur, read Ideal Mineral Levels In Human Hair.
Importance. The hair tissue sulfur reading is not important for basic interpretation of the hair test. However, it can indicate several things:
Low hair sulfur: This can indicate a sulfur deficiency. Thus it may be associated with detoxification problems, connective tissue problems and other deficiency symptoms.
Four lows. An unusual fact is that low hair tissue sulfur may indicate that a person will need to go into a four lows pattern during a development program in order to complete certain healing.
Low hair sulfur can be part of other imbalances indicating general malnutrition.
Elevated hair sulfur: This can indicate:
1. Sulfur loss. One can lose or excrete a lot of sulfur from the body. This can be due to:
A. Escorting. Sulfur is acting as an escort, helping to move a toxin out of the body. This is similar to one way that the body uses zinc during development programs.
B. A catabolic state. This is possible and not desirable.
2. Contamination of the hair with sulfur, also called exogenous sulfur. A few dandruff shampoos contain sulfur. An elevated hair sulfur reading is occasionally due to contamination from a sulfur-containing shampoo.
VII. FORMS OF SULFUR IN THE BODY
There are many of these. A few of the important ones are discussed below.
SULFUR-CONTAINING AMINO ACIDS
These include the amino acids methionine, cysteine, homocysteine and taurine. Homocysteine and taurine are not involved in proteins, but they are sometimes considered “free amino acids”.
These are among the most important chemicals in the body. The first two of them assist with the flexibility of connective tissue, and they are also absolutely essential for detoxification in the liver and elsewhere.
Taurine is critical as an anti-oxidant, membrane stabilizer, neurotransmitter, needed to form one of the bile acids, and is needed to maintain the fluid balance inside of cells. It is very abundant in the body, and is only found in animal foods such as meats.
Sources. Cysteine and methionine are found in some well-cooked beans and some seeds such as sesame. Taurine is only found in large amounts in meats and eggs.
Isolated supplements. Sulfur-containing amino acids are also sold as isolated supplements such as N-acetyl-cysteine or NAC, methionine, cysteine, and taurine.
Other supplements may also contain these amino acids.
All are very mild and fairly safe chelators. This means they can bind with metals in the body such as copper, lead and a few others.
For more details, read Taurine.
DISULFIDE BONDS IN CONNECTIVE TISSUE
Another very important type of sulfur compounds in the body are called disulfide bonds. These are the basis for connective tissue strength and flexibility.
These bonds can become damaged, often by the presence of an excessive amount of a biounavailable form of copper or iron. These are often in oxide forms.
We call this form of minerals “amigos” because a number of them are often found together in the body. They cause symptoms including inflammation, tendonitis, arthritis, bursitis, muscle and joint stiffness, contractures, spondylitis, adhesions, scars, fibrosis and sclerosis. For more details, read Arthritis Or Joint Pain and Iron, Manganese, and Aluminum - The Amigos.
PERSONALITY OF SULFUR
Sulfury individuals often have a ruddy complexion and are fiery and hot-tempered. Without enough sulfur they “burn out” quickly.
They usually like some red meat and love eating foods like cabbage, which is high in sulfur compounds. They are a less common personality type today.
There can be a similarity with high-copper individuals. The sulfur may control and decrease the copper problem.
HAIR, SKIN AND NAILS ARE HIGH IN SULFUR
These tissues are example of special types of connective tissues that are also very rich in collagen, and keratin, both high in sulfur.
If you are having trouble with these tissues in your body, consider eating more meat, eggs and cooked vegetables in the cabbage and radish family, in particular. For more on this topic, read Hair Loss and Skin Diseases on this website.
FRUIT-EATING AND SULFUR
Eating fruit interferes with sulfur metabolism. Reasons are:
1. Fruit is very low in sulfur.
2. Eating a lot of fruit usually means a person does not consume nearly enough of the high-sulfur vegetables and meats.
3. Eating sweets of any kind tends to interfere with sulfur metabolism.
MEDICAL THERAPIES AND SULFUR METABOLISM
Other methods of therapy may interfere with sulfur metabolism as well, including perhaps some bio-identical hormone therapies and perhaps some medical drug regimens such as some of the antibiotics, which all seem to build up in the liver for some reason.
For more on liver dysfunctions, detoxification and development, read Liver Dysfunctions and Steps To Enhance Liver Detoxification on this site.
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