Many are concerned how their cholesterol levels contributes to heart disease. But don’t stop here. Most people don’t realize that other factors have an equal or even greater influence on the health - not only our hearts, but our arteries and immune system and organs.
Enter homocysteine. This amino acid is about forty times more predictive of a heart attack than your cholesterol. It is also implicated in risk for cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s.
Before you freak-out, please understand homocysteine is not bad in itself and is useful in the body. It is a metabolite of the amino acid methionine, but without optimal amounts of the B vitamins, then too much homocysteine can accumulate in the blood. Methylation is used for many processes in the body, including preventing detrimental changes or mutations to our ever-important DNA. But when homocysteine cannot be detoxified, it builds up in the cells and blocks the methylation reactions. As a result essential functions are obstructed.
Normally homocysteine, with the help of a supply of B vitamins, is converted into a very important antioxidant glutathione, and a methyl donor called SAMe is important for the brain and DNA. If the B vitamins are not at optimal levels, homocysteine cannot be converted; therefore, it rises to dangerous levels. Patrick Holford says the new “buzzword” in medicine is something called methylation. How well the body remains chemically balanced depends greatly on the body’s ability to add or subtract methyl groups.
Homocysteine when combined with methionine can go two ways. The first requires folate, B12, B2 and zinc to form SAMe. In the other homocysteine converts to Glutathione with the help of B6, B2 and zinc. Two very important pathways play a very important role in the health of your body. Holford also reports a review published in the British Medical Journal that states whenever homocysteine levels went up, the risk of heart disease greatly increased. This means that having a higher homocysteine level actually causes heart disease.
Another study published in the New England Journal of Medicine looked at forty-five thousand pairs of twins. Although they are genetically the same, the results showed they have only about 15% chance of developing the same cancer. Holford says this suggests a much bigger relationship between cancer and environment rather than between cancer and genetics by about 85%. Homocysteine causes damage to DNA and cancer is triggered by damaged DNA therefore damaged DNA is more vulnerable to cancer.
Diabetics typically have raised insulin levels and have a harder time maintaining low healthy homocysteine levels. Alzheimer’s risk goes up significantly due to the damage homocysteine does to the brain. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, those with high homocysteine levels - above 14 units - doubled their risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Holford also says that with every 5-unit increase in your homocysteine score you have a 49 percent increase risk of death from all causes, a 50 percent increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease, a 26 percent increased risk of death from cancer and a 104 percent increased risk of death from causes other than cancer or heart disease.
Now that we know how detrimental homocysteine can be at unhealthy levels, let’s look at ways to keep our levels in a healthy range. The best way is through managing diet. Eat less fatty meat and more fish and vegetable protein. Eat your greens! That means three vegetables and two fruits every day. Have a clove of garlic or a garlic supplement every day. Cut back on tea and coffee and limit your alcohol. It is very important to reduce your stress load possibly by practicing yoga and or meditation to help change your attitude or resolve issues you may have that are causing stress.
Supplements can be helpful in controlling and lowering homocysteine levels. Folic Acid, and vitamins B6 and B12, when combined, help to lower levels by 60 percent. Trymethylglycine works best as a methyl donor to homocysteine to detoxify it.
References
Life Extension Foundation, (2003). Homocysteine. In Disease Prevention and Treatment (4th ed.).( pp. 146-150,446-447). Life Extension Media.
Holford, Patrick, (2004). The new optimum nutrition bible. (Rev. ed.). California: Crossing Press.
Haas, E.M. (2006). Staying healthy with nutrition.(Rev. ed.). California: Celestial Arts.
For more information, please contact Debbie Cyrel at www.r2h.biz or 480-318-5291. Debbie Cyrel CNC. Debbie has a bachelors degree in holistic nutrition and sees clients on an individual basis or in groups. View N’Shama member profile: http://www.NSHAMA.COM.
