Homocysteine May be Frying Your Brain
Homocysteine is an amino acid normally found in your blood when your body breaks down methionine, a building block of various proteins. High levels of homocysteine can damage the lining of blood vessels leading to various forms of cardiovascular disease. This can also adversely affect brain function, leading to brain shrinkage and neurodegeneration even in younger people. High homocysteine levels are also associated with common brain disorders like depression, ADHD, anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome, and various forms of dementia. Toxic levels of homocysteine levels can be lowered using certain B vitamins and trimethylglycine (TMG—betaine).
It’s unlikely your physician has checked your homocysteine level because the condition is treated with inexpensive and safe supplements rather than drugs, so big Pharma doesn’t make any money treating high homocysteine. Supplements can’t be patented like drugs, so there’s very little money to be made promoting and selling supplements, and as you well know, in today’s world money often calls the shots. Drug companies spend massive amounts of money trying to influence what your physician pays attention to, and most physicians and healthcare professionals don’t have the expertise or training to evaluate non-traditional treatments. I recently attended several counseling sessions with my daughter who has mild dyslexia. He is a well-regarded counselor with over 20 years of clinical experience. I discussed homocysteine with him, and he had never heard of the concept. He has now asked his physician to order the test, and his physician wanted to know why he wanted the test. I call that a dumb question! To learn more about this important topic, I suggest visiting my friend Pat Holford’s website where he delves into the topic in detail.
I recently asked AI about normal homocysteine levels and received this response: A normal homocysteine blood level is generally between 5 and 15 μmol/L (micromoles per liter). However, optimal levels are typically considered to be below 12. I hate to say it, but our genius AI scribe got this terribly wrong. For optimal metabolic and brain health, recent studies have suggested that homocysteine should be below 7 μmol/L. My level was once 17, but I lowered it to 7 by following my own advice. I may not be smart, but I’m clearly a smartass! Because vascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease run in my family and I have a wonderful 12-year-old daughter, I can’t afford to go down that path. The good news is that with the information in this blog post, you can do the same.
Certain lifestyle choices can adversely affect homocysteine levels, including cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol use, excessive coffee consumption and certain medications. You already know you shouldn’t be smoking. The so-called experts have suggested that one alcohol beverage a day is good for your brain, but that’s complete bunk. Alcohol is a neurotoxin, so the ideal dose is zero! I drink a zillion cups of coffee daily, and I’m not planning on cutting back. If you take a medication that increases homocysteine or like swilling coffee as I do, the solution is to lower it using B vitamins and TMG.
Now that you’ve convinced your healthcare provider to order a homocysteine level, what do you do with the result if it’s elevated? I recommend taking a combination B vitamin product like Homocysteine Resist from Life Extension. They also sell the form of TMG that I take. There is no one size fits all dose for these supplements. I would start with two capsules of Homocysteine Resist and one capsule of TMG daily, and then gradually increase the dose based on your follow-up homocysteine levels until they are 7 or below. The Oxford VITACOG trial also showed that to get the optimal results from B vitamins and TMG, you also need to have adequate levels of omega-3 in your brain. For that to happen, most people need to take a high-quality omega-3 supplement like OmegaRx from my friend Barry Sears of Zone Diet fame. He also sells a Cellular Inflammation Test Kit to measure you AA/EPA ratio. You want it to be between 1 and 3 for optimal results. If your level is too high, simply increase your dose of omega-3 until it’s in the optimal range.
As you might already know, the most common cause of impaired brain function in today’s world in a form of food-induced brain dysfunction I call Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. CARB syndrome is caused by the long-term adverse effects of ultra-processed food on brain function. My good friend Richard Johson has pointed out that excess fructose is very bad for both metabolic and brain health and it can increase homocysteine levels—a toxic double whammy. Excess fructose above 25 grams daily mostly from added sugars is also one of the prime drivers of CARB syndrome. My CARB syndrome blog outlines the approach to self-diagnosing the condition and arranging for your own treatment.
One of the keys to preventing and reversing CARB syndrome is to take a monoamine precursor supplement like CARB-22, another inexpensive and safe supplement. I take CARB-22 daily to top off my neurotransmitter levels and to stay out of the CARB syndrome world. As is the case with homocysteine, the medical and scientific communities completely missed the CARB syndrome condition. Simultaneously missing the role of homocysteine and CARB syndrome when it comes to brain function sounds like a modern disaster—because it clearly is! You don’t want to get caught up in that mess, so if you want to optimize your brain function, follow the path I have outlined. Doing so is easy to do, safe, and inexpensive. What could be better?