Dear Health Conscious Reader,
Conventional medicine continues to deny the role of homocysteine. They still say there’s no proven value to lowering your levels if they’re elevated.
It’s surprising because we have so much evidence that high homocysteine levels are associated with higher rates of heart disease.
That’s something they’re resisting even though we know it’s true. But today I want to talk to you about something else… something new that almost no one talks about.
High homocysteine levels could mean the loss of your independence as you age.
The irony is that monitoring homocysteine and keeping it in check is easy to do.
I think of high homocysteine levels as an overwhelming of your antioxidant system.
Normally, antioxidants remove homocysteine. But you can become depleted of antioxidants, either because you’re using them up too fast or you’re not getting enough of them through what you eat.
Then homocysteine builds up, and gets released into your blood. And this is where the trouble can start.
Too much can damage the delicate lining of your blood vessels. And that can lead to heart disease.
And now we have new evidence on homocysteine’s other negative effects. Too much can also make it more difficult to move around.
Three separate studies show elevated homocysteine can weaken your legs, reduce how fast you can walk, and put you at risk for disability as you get older.
• The MacArthur Aging study looked at the relationship between homocysteine levels and almost every kind of movement – balance, speed of walking, lower body strength and coordination, and manual dexterity. Researchers found that increased homocysteine levels make you more likely to be in the group suffering from the biggest decline in physical function.1
• In the Einstein Aging Study, they found that the higher your homocysteine levels are, the faster your ability to move declines.2
• Another study showed that people with high homocysteine levels were more than twice as likely to become disabled as those with the lowest level.3
The trick is to give your body’s antioxidant system the right boost so your homocysteine stays low, and doesn’t build up in your blood where it causes damage.
Luckily, this is fairly easy to do.
A simple blood test will tell you if your levels are high. I like to keep my patients’ levels at 7 or below.
And I have not had a single case of elevated homocysteine that couldn’t be corrected with the right combination of natural supplements. Here’s what I use with my patients. (Amounts are daily.) You can find these at your local health-food store:
• Vitamin B12 – 500 mcg
• Folic acid (B9) – 800 mcg
• Vitamin B6 – 50 mg
• TMG (Trimethylglycine) – 1000 mg
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
1 Kado, D.M., Bucur, A., Selhub, J., et al, “Homocysteine levels and decline in physical function: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging,” Am. J. Med. Nov. 2002;113(7):537-42
2 Rolita, L., Holtzer, R., Wang, C., et al, “Homocysteine and mobility in older adults,” J. Am. Geriatr. Soc. March 2010;58(3):545-50
3 Hsu-Ko, Kuo, “Relationship of Homocysteine Levels to Quadriceps Strength, Gait Speed, and Late-Life Disability in Older Adults,” J. Gerontol. A. Biol. Sci. Med. Sci. April 2007; 62(4): 434-439