What is Homocysteine?
For health and wellness, people hear about cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar. Homocysteine is a lesser-known marker that also has a profound impact on your long-term health, influencing everything from your heart to your brain.
High levels of homocysteine is a troublemaker that results in various health issues without significant symptoms. You may experience vague, but persistent symptoms such as
- Unexplained fatigue
- Body weakness
- Cognitive difficulties
- Mood changes
- Neurological sensations like strange tingling or numbness in your hands, arms, legs, feet, etc
- Uncomfortable sores on the mouth or tongue
These are signals that your body's biochemical processes are not working properly. Homocysteine is a naturally occurring amino acid that your body produces as it breaks down another amino acid, methionine, which you get from protein-rich foods.
When you have a healthy body, this homocysteine either gets recycled back into useful methionine (a building block for protein) or cysteine (helps with glutathione antioxidant production).
This conversion process is called methylation. It keeps harmful homocysteine levels in check so that it gets converted into useful compounds. When this switch is off, multiple processes like DNA repair, detoxification, neurotransmitter production, inflammation, etc can be impaired.
Without proper methylation, homocysteine break down doesn’t happen effectively, resulting in high homocysteine in the bloodstream. It can affect the delicate lining of your blood vessels. Higher homocysteine levels are linked to various health issues like heart disease, stroke, cognitive decline, dementia, and osteoporosis.
Why Nutrients Are Crucial for Homocysteine Breakdown?
Homocysteine conversion process depends on specific B vitamins and other nutrients that act as cofactors to create methylation pathway enzymes. If you eat a healthy and balanced diet and follow a healthy lifestyle, you may get these B vitamins from your diet. However, your body's absorption and utilization of these vitamins is also important.
When you have MTHFR gene variation, even if you eat a healthy and balanced diet rich in B vitamins, your body may not be able to convert it effectively for use in methylation. This MTHFR gene produces instructions for making enzymes that convert vitamins into their absorbable methylated forms.
Supplements like the Seeking Health Homocysteine Nutrients help your body by providing these methylated vitamins directly. So, your body's enzyme production can happen without hindrance. The formulation contains some vitamins that may directly aid the methylation process by providing methyl groups and also serve as cofactors for enzyme production.
If your healthcare provider suspects that you may have high homocysteine levels, they may order a blood test. It's best to consult a doctor and discuss whether a supplement can help you. They can also guide you regarding dosage and suitability, if you are on other medications or taking other supplements.
