June 4, 2025 • 19 mins
There is a cheap and easy lab test that can give you a lot of information about your risk for scary things like heart attack, stroke, dementia, brain shrinkage, osteoporosis and more. It could save your life. But most doctors won’t order it unless you ask them to because they don’t know what to do with the results. But you’re about to. Let’s talk about homocysteine.
come to my website: www.healthcouragecollective.com
email me: healthcouragecollective@gmail.com
Are you ready to give your cells their best chance to not have to stop living before they die by allowing them access to physiologic levels of hormones, but aren't sure how to even get started? Join the waitlist for my new beta program here and help me figure out how best to help wonderful women like you get the hormone care they deserve!
Come visit me: www.healthcouragecollective.com
email me: healthcouragecollective@gmail.com
come to my website: www.healthcouragecollective.com
email me: healthcouragecollective@gmail.com
Are you ready to give your cells their best chance to not have to stop living before they die by allowing them access to physiologic levels of hormones, but aren't sure how to even get started? Join the waitlist for my new beta program here and help me figure out how best to help wonderful women like you get the hormone care they deserve!
Come visit me: www.healthcouragecollective.com
email me: healthcouragecollective@gmail.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's a cheap and easy lab test that can give
you a lot of information about your risk for scary
things like heart attack, stroke, dementia, rain, shrinkage, osteoporosis, and more.
It could save your life, but most doctors won't order
it unless you ask them to, because they don't know
what to do with the results. But you're about to.
(00:20):
Let's talk about homocysteine. Ye're listening to the Health Courage
Collective Podcast, Episode two hundred and five, Homocystine a lab
test worth asking for. Welcome to the Health Courage Collective Podcast,
the show for women who are too busy to slog
through hours of generalized and applicable and often contradictory health information,
(00:44):
but too smart to ignore that a few minutes of
focused attention now can prevent years of suffering in the future.
I'm your host, Christina Hackett, a pharmacist who doesn't want
you to live on prescriptions, A certified coach specifically trained
to maximize your potential, and compulsive learner obsessed with preventative,
cutting edge, holistic and integrated medicine. I'm on a mission
(01:06):
to increase your physical and mental resilience so you can
fearlessly look forward to your next forty plus limitless years.
Your time is down. Let's go. Hello, Hello, and welcome
to the podcast. So happy you're here today. How are you?
How's your perfection going? Did you find perfection hiding where
(01:26):
only humble people can find it? I love that definition
of perfection, but even more I think it's the only
real perfection we're ever going to achieve in this life.
Today we're going to talk about a lab test result
that I think it's useful for you to know about.
Even if you're not going to get your blood drawn
in the next few weeks. Having this knowledge in the
back of your mind next time you do will help
(01:48):
you reduce your risk of the two statistically most likely
things to kill you or make you stop living before
you die, cardiovascular disease like a heart attack or stroke,
and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, and most doctors don't understand
its importance and how to use the result to reduce
your health risk. While getting your blood drawn is never
(02:10):
very fun sitting in that one armed chair, getting the
rubber tourniqueit fingy strapped on till a vein gets big
enough to easily spot pumping your fist and if you're
like me, looking away when the needle goes in. Even
though I don't consider myself to be scared of needles
at all, there are several things you and your doctor
want to be checking to make sure your risk of
the chronic diseases of aging that you don't want to
(02:31):
get are low. One of those things is called homocystine.
It's a tricky one, though, because while high homocystine is
most definitely correlated with increased risk of heart attack, stroke,
blood clots, all kinds of dementia, and more, lowering, it
doesn't decrease those things from half weird. I won't bore
(02:52):
you with all the details, but just really quickly. Homocystine
is a kind of amino acid that is not the
kind of amino acid that forms proteins. Proteins are made
up of twenty different amino acid building blocks, and there
are about a thousand other amino acids that don't build proteins,
and homocystine is one of them. Homocystine contains sulfur, and
it's involved in several critical metabolic pathways. I haven't heard
(03:15):
of anyone having too low of homocystine levels, but I
suppose that that's possible. But two high levels of homocystine
is what you want to look for because they're an
indication of an increased risk of over one hundred diseases,
which is crazy. I've always thought of high homocystine as
being an indicator of increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but
(03:35):
it turns out that it's way more than just them.
When the link between high homocystine and cardiovascular disease started
to be appreciated in the nineties, drug companies were all
over trying to make expensive drugs to lower homocystine. You
can do it pretty effectively with vitamins B six and
a little bit B twelve and BE nine. It's well
(03:55):
established that high homocystine is a risk factor for cardiovascular
and other diseases. But then the studies that methodically lowered
homocystine to acceptable levels failed to show an outcome of
reduced cardiovascular mortality. So that's not good. It made the
whole homocystine business weird and confusing. Hey, here's this thing
(04:17):
that shows that you are more likely to drop dead
from a blood clot stroke, heart attack, mental illness, fracture,
kidney disease, or dementia, but lowering it it's not going
to save you. Sorry, that's pretty crappy. The current American
Heart Association guidelines don't recommend checking or trying to treat
homocysteine levels, essentially saying that high homocystine puts you at
(04:39):
higher risk, but there's nothing you can do about it.
I think if you want to lower your risk of
blood clots, stroke, heart attack, mental illness, fracture, kidney disease,
and dementia, you need to know more about what homocysteine
is telling you. Typical homocysteine levels are ten to twelve
micromoles per liter. I think you know by now that
normal is not optimal. Once your little blood tube gets
(05:04):
sent off to the lab in a creepy white van
and you get your results on your online portal or
through your doctor's office, you're diagnosed with hyper homocysteine emia
if your level is over fifteen. Men tend to naturally
have higher levels than women, So while nine to twelve
is considered totally normal, it's not good enough for you.
(05:26):
Women want their level to be six to eight. Nine
or above is a clue that something somewhere isn't working
quite right, increasing your risk of one hundred different diseases.
According to doctor Pamela Wharton Smiths, women with elevated homocysteine
and high blood pressure together are twenty five times more
likely to have a heart attack or stroke. Now twenty
(05:48):
five percent. Twenty five times. That's twenty five hundred percent enormous.
I'm sure you know that you shouldn't smoke, because smokers
are twice as likely to have a heart attacker stroke
two times more likely. The high blood pressure plus high
homocystine is twenty five times more likely. She also says
(06:09):
that high homocystine puts you at an increased risk for
osteoporosis by interfering with collagen cross linking, leading to a
defective bone matrix that isn't strong enough. I had no
idea about that, but I definitely don't want a defective
bone matrix. And there's a lot of new interesting evidence
about how much of an increased risk you're at for
(06:29):
dementia and other mental health issues and like brain shrinkage
if you have high homocystine levels. In episode one hundred
and sixty five, we talked about uric acid, and how
knowing your uric acid level teaches you way more about
your overall health than just your risk for gout. I
think homocystine can be a similar kind of teacher, and
(06:50):
it's more informative as part of a bigger picture of
a whole set of labs. If your homocysteine level is
high and you have high blood pressure or high ep
obi cholesterol boats like we've talked about in episode one
hundred and seventy one, the real deal with cholesterol or
poor Omega three levels, which most people do, or you're
not very sensitive to insulin, it's time to be very
(07:14):
productively concerned because trouble is brewing, and more importantly, there's
something you can do about it. Homocysteine may be a
bad actor on its own, causing oxidative stress and impairing
the production of nitric oxide. We talked all about nitric
oxide back in episode nine. If you want to understand it,
go back and listen to that one. It's an amazing molecule,
(07:35):
and your health gets worse and worse the lower yours gets,
especially the health of your endothelium, which we talked about
in episode one hundred and seventy eight. Healthy endothelium means
low risk of heart attack and stroke and lots of
other problems. There was also a study called the Vida
Cog study, which is a cutesee name Vida and Cog,
(07:55):
showing that if you have high homocysteine and you lower it,
your risk of cognitive decline and brain atrophy is reduced.
It's postulated that homocystine does a couple of bad things
in your brain, adding to the production of tau tangles
and impairing your ability to put omega three lipids where
they should be in your brain, which is an important thing.
(08:16):
The vitacog studies showed that directly lowering homocysteine was most
beneficial in the people with the highest Omega three levels,
So to protect your brain, you need high Omega three levels.
But we already knew that homocystine levels are typically quite
high if you have kidney dysfunction. Kidney dysfunction may or
may not be something that you can do something about,
(08:38):
but if you can, your homocystine levels will probably improve
as your kidney function improves. Another and more common reason
for having high homocystine levels is probably having a genetic
variant of the mthfr enzyme that results in you not
being able to methylate things. Well, if your board stick
(08:59):
with me, this matters. Without boring you to death about
what methylation is or why it matters, just know that
some people have this inherited genetic trait where they can't
move little molecular groups consisting of one carbon and three
hydrogen atoms around efficiently. I'm pretty sure I have this
genetic condition. I remember, way back around maybe nineteen ninety
(09:20):
nine ish, I got an email from my cousin, Teresa,
who lives in Washington, d C. Saying that she had
had a stroke as a healthy young woman who had
just given birth to a healthy little baby girl. So
she went to a specialist who did a test and
told her that she had methyl tetrahydrofolate reductaste deficiency. She
was letting me know because all of the people on
(09:41):
our Nielsen side of the family seemed to die of
blood clot related incidents, and she wanted me to know
about it so that I could protect myself if possible.
My dad had a stroke in two thousand and five,
and his dad died of a stroke in the seventies.
My dad's sister had a pulmonary embolism, and there's some
other blood cl bloody Nielsen family issues along with other
(10:03):
Nielsen family issues. Anyhow, I memorized that term methyl tetrahydrofolate
reductaste deficiency, and I thought I had this rare, obscure
knowledge that made me so super special. Then around twenty
ten is she seems like everyone was talking about MTHFR
and that I was in no way special for having
(10:24):
that genetic issue. You might know about the MTHFR gene,
you might know that you have a problem with yours,
or you might have never heard of It doesn't matter.
MTHFR is an enzyme that everyone has. The gene that
codes for what your MTHFR enzyme is able to do
has two variants that are so evenly spread throughout the
(10:46):
population that the MTHFR expert Chris Master John says that
it's almost like we have five groups of genetic types,
not quite spread out as twenty percent in each of
the five groups, but almost the so called top twenty
percent group that is excellent at methylating usually has very
low homocystin and therefore lower inborn risk for blood clots,
(11:09):
heart attacks, strokes, osteoporosis, dementia, et cetera. And the so
called worst twenty percent group, which is actually more like
ten to fifteen percent of the population, has much higher
homocystine and therefore higher inborn risk for all of those diseases,
which can be scary, and the other sixty percent of
the population are on a spectrum from lowest risk to
(11:32):
highest risk. People with the so called worst case scenario
for the mthfr enzyme, which I think I do, but
I've never been tested for, those people tend to have
the highest homocystine. It's not the only reason to have
high homocystine, but it's a pretty common reason to have
high homocystine and no other obvious risk factors for blood clots,
(11:52):
heart attacks, strokes. We know people with high homocystine are
at an increased risk for one hundred diseases, most noticeably
catastrophic cardiovascular events. We know we can lower your homocysteine
level with lots of vitamin B six, and we know
that doing so doesn't seem to reduce your cardiovascular problems,
(12:13):
to the point where the American Heart Association recommends not
even checking it because it doesn't matter, So what gives here?
Chris master John explains things really well, so I'll put
a link in the show notes to an in depth
explanation of genetic MTHFR problems and what exactly is biochemically
going on if you're interested. But what he points out
(12:35):
is that while vitamin B six can help clear out homocysteine,
it didn't fix the methylation problem at the level of
the MTHFR enzyme. People in the so called worst case
scenario do a poor job of using folate correctly, so
they recycle homosystem back to methiony, mostly using coalin, which
(12:56):
just means that they need to consume more coalin than
the rest of the population to keep things moving. You
can find coaling in eggs and other foods. He also
says that people with the worst homocystine levels and the
so called bad gene variant of MTHFR usually have poor
riboflaveon status. MTHFR is a riboflave independent enzyme, so when
(13:19):
people with MTHFR genetic variant have high homocystine levels, doctors
can come along and see the homocystine levels and say, huh,
you are it at a significantly increased risk for these
super scary cardiovascular events, and then they can get your
homocystine levels to go down by pumping you full of
B six, which isn't dangerous by the way, but it
(13:41):
doesn't seem to reduce your risk for those scary diseases much.
Why not. Doctor Master John says that it's because they
might have fixed your homocystine clearance problem, but they didn't
give you what you needed to help with your mthfr
enzyme problem. I think this is the link between why
homocystem matters so much, but lowering it hasn't seemed to
(14:05):
change cardiovascular outcomes and studies. We need to know about
how well your mthfr enzyme is working. This is so
important because we have this cheap and easy way to
check if you're at an increased risk for very important
things that can make you stop living before you die,
like blood cloths and brain shrinkage, but we don't use
(14:26):
it because we don't know what to do about it.
If you are at an increased risk, if you're in
the lowest twenty percent of the population at being able
to methylate things. You should learn more about the mthfr
polymorphism from Chris Master John. There's a link in the
show notes that you can click on and start learning.
You probably need B six, methyl fol eight, methyl B
(14:50):
twelve riboflavin, and maybe phosphatidyl coaling or to eat more
eggs and meat and stuff. For how scary that. Genetic
condition risks are actually pretty easy to fix with some
safe and super inexpensive vitamins. And you also want good
quality Omega three supplements with DHA and EPA to protect
(15:10):
your brain. But pretty much everyone needs that anyway, but
it's super important if you're homocysteine. Okay, do you feel
way smarter? I hope. So here's what I want you
to take away from this episode. Your homocystine level provides
a valuable information about your risk for one hundred different diseases,
most noticeably blood clots, heart attacks, strokes, dementia, osteoporosis, and
(15:34):
mental health problems. There's a good chance it won't get
tested unless you ask for it. Lifestyle and your daily
autopilot type habits are always queen, but high homocystine is
most often one of the rare risk factors that is
purely based on your genetic luck. Your level can be high,
(15:57):
even if people should be taking notes about how you
live the absolute healthiest life in the world. It's a
risk factor that just a healthy lifestyle isn't going to correct.
But there still is something easy you can do about it.
If your homocystine level is high, it's a very easy
and cheap measurement to add to just a standard blood test.
Doctors have been told that measuring homocysteine levels doesn't matter
(16:19):
because while it shows that you're at an increased risk lowering,
it doesn't decrease that risk. But that's only because we've
been dealing with homocystine wrong. Homocysteine might in itself be
somewhat dangerous, especially to your endothelium, but more importantly, homocystine
is a marker that something isn't working right somewhere else,
(16:43):
and looking around for the reason why is absolutely worth
your time. There's a reasonable chance that that something is
your mthfr enzyme. If you have high homocysteine and you
don't have kidney disease, asked to have your mthfr genes tested.
If you have one of the genetic variants of the
(17:03):
mthfr enzyme that show that you are a poor methyl
later learn more about that condition from doctor Chris Master
John and others, and start taking the easily available, cheap
vitamins that will help that pathway work better. Everyone should
probably get their EPA and DHA levels tested. Those are
your Omega three levels, but especially if you have high homocysteine.
(17:27):
You need high Omega three levels to protect your brain
no matter what, but especially if you have high homocysteine.
Everyone should make sure their blood pressure is in a
healthy range, but especially if you have high homocystine. High
homocystine plus high blood pressure equals twenty five hundred percent
increased risk of heart attack or stroke. Thank you so
much for taking the time to be here and listen today,
(17:49):
especially about something you may not be as excited about
as I am. I do think it will make your
future better. You are now smarter than a lot of
doctors are about homocysteine. Look at you. Next time you're
going to have a routine blood test, ask if they
can check your homocysteine. You can drastically reduce your risk
of super scary cardiovascular events and brain atrophy if yours
(18:12):
comes back high by taking a few pretty easy steps
to dig a little deeper into why your homocysteine is high,
fixing that at the root level might save your life.
Next week, we're going to remind ourselves of a bunch
of ways that we don't want to be normal. Until then,
understand what homocysteine is really telling you and don't be normal.
(18:34):
Thank you so much for tuning into the Health Courage
Collective podcast. I am truly honored that you have paid
me the enormous compliment of your time and attention. I
would be so grateful if you would share this podcast
with someone you know and subscribe so you never miss
an episode. This podcast is for entertainment and information purposes only.
Statements and views on this podcast are not medical advice.
(18:55):
This podcast, including Christina Hackett and producers, disclaim responsibility for
any possible adverse events by use of information contained here in.
If you think you have a medical problem, consult a
licensed position
There's a cheap and easy lab test that can give
you a lot of information about your risk for scary
things like heart attack, stroke, dementia, rain, shrinkage, osteoporosis, and more.
It could save your life, but most doctors won't order
it unless you ask them to, because they don't know
what to do with the results. But you're about to.
(00:20):
Let's talk about homocysteine. Ye're listening to the Health Courage
Collective Podcast, Episode two hundred and five, Homocystine a lab
test worth asking for. Welcome to the Health Courage Collective Podcast,
the show for women who are too busy to slog
through hours of generalized and applicable and often contradictory health information,
(00:44):
but too smart to ignore that a few minutes of
focused attention now can prevent years of suffering in the future.
I'm your host, Christina Hackett, a pharmacist who doesn't want
you to live on prescriptions, A certified coach specifically trained
to maximize your potential, and compulsive learner obsessed with preventative,
cutting edge, holistic and integrated medicine. I'm on a mission
(01:06):
to increase your physical and mental resilience so you can
fearlessly look forward to your next forty plus limitless years.
Your time is down. Let's go. Hello, Hello, and welcome
to the podcast. So happy you're here today. How are you?
How's your perfection going? Did you find perfection hiding where
(01:26):
only humble people can find it? I love that definition
of perfection, but even more I think it's the only
real perfection we're ever going to achieve in this life.
Today we're going to talk about a lab test result
that I think it's useful for you to know about.
Even if you're not going to get your blood drawn
in the next few weeks. Having this knowledge in the
back of your mind next time you do will help
(01:48):
you reduce your risk of the two statistically most likely
things to kill you or make you stop living before
you die, cardiovascular disease like a heart attack or stroke,
and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, and most doctors don't understand
its importance and how to use the result to reduce
your health risk. While getting your blood drawn is never
(02:10):
very fun sitting in that one armed chair, getting the
rubber tourniqueit fingy strapped on till a vein gets big
enough to easily spot pumping your fist and if you're
like me, looking away when the needle goes in. Even
though I don't consider myself to be scared of needles
at all, there are several things you and your doctor
want to be checking to make sure your risk of
the chronic diseases of aging that you don't want to
(02:31):
get are low. One of those things is called homocystine.
It's a tricky one, though, because while high homocystine is
most definitely correlated with increased risk of heart attack, stroke,
blood clots, all kinds of dementia, and more, lowering, it
doesn't decrease those things from half weird. I won't bore
(02:52):
you with all the details, but just really quickly. Homocystine
is a kind of amino acid that is not the
kind of amino acid that forms proteins. Proteins are made
up of twenty different amino acid building blocks, and there
are about a thousand other amino acids that don't build proteins,
and homocystine is one of them. Homocystine contains sulfur, and
it's involved in several critical metabolic pathways. I haven't heard
(03:15):
of anyone having too low of homocystine levels, but I
suppose that that's possible. But two high levels of homocystine
is what you want to look for because they're an
indication of an increased risk of over one hundred diseases,
which is crazy. I've always thought of high homocystine as
being an indicator of increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but
(03:35):
it turns out that it's way more than just them.
When the link between high homocystine and cardiovascular disease started
to be appreciated in the nineties, drug companies were all
over trying to make expensive drugs to lower homocystine. You
can do it pretty effectively with vitamins B six and
a little bit B twelve and BE nine. It's well
(03:55):
established that high homocystine is a risk factor for cardiovascular
and other diseases. But then the studies that methodically lowered
homocystine to acceptable levels failed to show an outcome of
reduced cardiovascular mortality. So that's not good. It made the
whole homocystine business weird and confusing. Hey, here's this thing
(04:17):
that shows that you are more likely to drop dead
from a blood clot stroke, heart attack, mental illness, fracture,
kidney disease, or dementia, but lowering it it's not going
to save you. Sorry, that's pretty crappy. The current American
Heart Association guidelines don't recommend checking or trying to treat
homocysteine levels, essentially saying that high homocystine puts you at
(04:39):
higher risk, but there's nothing you can do about it.
I think if you want to lower your risk of
blood clots, stroke, heart attack, mental illness, fracture, kidney disease,
and dementia, you need to know more about what homocysteine
is telling you. Typical homocysteine levels are ten to twelve
micromoles per liter. I think you know by now that
normal is not optimal. Once your little blood tube gets
(05:04):
sent off to the lab in a creepy white van
and you get your results on your online portal or
through your doctor's office, you're diagnosed with hyper homocysteine emia
if your level is over fifteen. Men tend to naturally
have higher levels than women, So while nine to twelve
is considered totally normal, it's not good enough for you.
(05:26):
Women want their level to be six to eight. Nine
or above is a clue that something somewhere isn't working
quite right, increasing your risk of one hundred different diseases.
According to doctor Pamela Wharton Smiths, women with elevated homocysteine
and high blood pressure together are twenty five times more
likely to have a heart attack or stroke. Now twenty
(05:48):
five percent. Twenty five times. That's twenty five hundred percent enormous.
I'm sure you know that you shouldn't smoke, because smokers
are twice as likely to have a heart attacker stroke
two times more likely. The high blood pressure plus high
homocystine is twenty five times more likely. She also says
(06:09):
that high homocystine puts you at an increased risk for
osteoporosis by interfering with collagen cross linking, leading to a
defective bone matrix that isn't strong enough. I had no
idea about that, but I definitely don't want a defective
bone matrix. And there's a lot of new interesting evidence
about how much of an increased risk you're at for
(06:29):
dementia and other mental health issues and like brain shrinkage
if you have high homocystine levels. In episode one hundred
and sixty five, we talked about uric acid, and how
knowing your uric acid level teaches you way more about
your overall health than just your risk for gout. I
think homocystine can be a similar kind of teacher, and
(06:50):
it's more informative as part of a bigger picture of
a whole set of labs. If your homocysteine level is
high and you have high blood pressure or high ep
obi cholesterol boats like we've talked about in episode one
hundred and seventy one, the real deal with cholesterol or
poor Omega three levels, which most people do, or you're
not very sensitive to insulin, it's time to be very
(07:14):
productively concerned because trouble is brewing, and more importantly, there's
something you can do about it. Homocysteine may be a
bad actor on its own, causing oxidative stress and impairing
the production of nitric oxide. We talked all about nitric
oxide back in episode nine. If you want to understand it,
go back and listen to that one. It's an amazing molecule,
(07:35):
and your health gets worse and worse the lower yours gets,
especially the health of your endothelium, which we talked about
in episode one hundred and seventy eight. Healthy endothelium means
low risk of heart attack and stroke and lots of
other problems. There was also a study called the Vida
Cog study, which is a cutesee name Vida and Cog,
(07:55):
showing that if you have high homocysteine and you lower it,
your risk of cognitive decline and brain atrophy is reduced.
It's postulated that homocystine does a couple of bad things
in your brain, adding to the production of tau tangles
and impairing your ability to put omega three lipids where
they should be in your brain, which is an important thing.
(08:16):
The vitacog studies showed that directly lowering homocysteine was most
beneficial in the people with the highest Omega three levels,
So to protect your brain, you need high Omega three levels.
But we already knew that homocystine levels are typically quite
high if you have kidney dysfunction. Kidney dysfunction may or
may not be something that you can do something about,
(08:38):
but if you can, your homocystine levels will probably improve
as your kidney function improves. Another and more common reason
for having high homocystine levels is probably having a genetic
variant of the mthfr enzyme that results in you not
being able to methylate things. Well, if your board stick
(08:59):
with me, this matters. Without boring you to death about
what methylation is or why it matters, just know that
some people have this inherited genetic trait where they can't
move little molecular groups consisting of one carbon and three
hydrogen atoms around efficiently. I'm pretty sure I have this
genetic condition. I remember, way back around maybe nineteen ninety
(09:20):
nine ish, I got an email from my cousin, Teresa,
who lives in Washington, d C. Saying that she had
had a stroke as a healthy young woman who had
just given birth to a healthy little baby girl. So
she went to a specialist who did a test and
told her that she had methyl tetrahydrofolate reductaste deficiency. She
was letting me know because all of the people on
(09:41):
our Nielsen side of the family seemed to die of
blood clot related incidents, and she wanted me to know
about it so that I could protect myself if possible.
My dad had a stroke in two thousand and five,
and his dad died of a stroke in the seventies.
My dad's sister had a pulmonary embolism, and there's some
other blood cl bloody Nielsen family issues along with other
(10:03):
Nielsen family issues. Anyhow, I memorized that term methyl tetrahydrofolate
reductaste deficiency, and I thought I had this rare, obscure
knowledge that made me so super special. Then around twenty
ten is she seems like everyone was talking about MTHFR
and that I was in no way special for having
(10:24):
that genetic issue. You might know about the MTHFR gene,
you might know that you have a problem with yours,
or you might have never heard of It doesn't matter.
MTHFR is an enzyme that everyone has. The gene that
codes for what your MTHFR enzyme is able to do
has two variants that are so evenly spread throughout the
(10:46):
population that the MTHFR expert Chris Master John says that
it's almost like we have five groups of genetic types,
not quite spread out as twenty percent in each of
the five groups, but almost the so called top twenty
percent group that is excellent at methylating usually has very
low homocystin and therefore lower inborn risk for blood clots,
(11:09):
heart attacks, strokes, osteoporosis, dementia, et cetera. And the so
called worst twenty percent group, which is actually more like
ten to fifteen percent of the population, has much higher
homocystine and therefore higher inborn risk for all of those diseases,
which can be scary, and the other sixty percent of
the population are on a spectrum from lowest risk to
(11:32):
highest risk. People with the so called worst case scenario
for the mthfr enzyme, which I think I do, but
I've never been tested for, those people tend to have
the highest homocystine. It's not the only reason to have
high homocystine, but it's a pretty common reason to have
high homocystine and no other obvious risk factors for blood clots,
(11:52):
heart attacks, strokes. We know people with high homocystine are
at an increased risk for one hundred diseases, most noticeably
catastrophic cardiovascular events. We know we can lower your homocysteine
level with lots of vitamin B six, and we know
that doing so doesn't seem to reduce your cardiovascular problems,
(12:13):
to the point where the American Heart Association recommends not
even checking it because it doesn't matter, So what gives here?
Chris master John explains things really well, so I'll put
a link in the show notes to an in depth
explanation of genetic MTHFR problems and what exactly is biochemically
going on if you're interested. But what he points out
(12:35):
is that while vitamin B six can help clear out homocysteine,
it didn't fix the methylation problem at the level of
the MTHFR enzyme. People in the so called worst case
scenario do a poor job of using folate correctly, so
they recycle homosystem back to methiony, mostly using coalin, which
(12:56):
just means that they need to consume more coalin than
the rest of the population to keep things moving. You
can find coaling in eggs and other foods. He also
says that people with the worst homocystine levels and the
so called bad gene variant of MTHFR usually have poor
riboflaveon status. MTHFR is a riboflave independent enzyme, so when
(13:19):
people with MTHFR genetic variant have high homocystine levels, doctors
can come along and see the homocystine levels and say, huh,
you are it at a significantly increased risk for these
super scary cardiovascular events, and then they can get your
homocystine levels to go down by pumping you full of
B six, which isn't dangerous by the way, but it
(13:41):
doesn't seem to reduce your risk for those scary diseases much.
Why not. Doctor Master John says that it's because they
might have fixed your homocystine clearance problem, but they didn't
give you what you needed to help with your mthfr
enzyme problem. I think this is the link between why
homocystem matters so much, but lowering it hasn't seemed to
(14:05):
change cardiovascular outcomes and studies. We need to know about
how well your mthfr enzyme is working. This is so
important because we have this cheap and easy way to
check if you're at an increased risk for very important
things that can make you stop living before you die,
like blood cloths and brain shrinkage, but we don't use
(14:26):
it because we don't know what to do about it.
If you are at an increased risk, if you're in
the lowest twenty percent of the population at being able
to methylate things. You should learn more about the mthfr
polymorphism from Chris Master John. There's a link in the
show notes that you can click on and start learning.
You probably need B six, methyl fol eight, methyl B
(14:50):
twelve riboflavin, and maybe phosphatidyl coaling or to eat more
eggs and meat and stuff. For how scary that. Genetic
condition risks are actually pretty easy to fix with some
safe and super inexpensive vitamins. And you also want good
quality Omega three supplements with DHA and EPA to protect
(15:10):
your brain. But pretty much everyone needs that anyway, but
it's super important if you're homocysteine. Okay, do you feel
way smarter? I hope. So here's what I want you
to take away from this episode. Your homocystine level provides
a valuable information about your risk for one hundred different diseases,
most noticeably blood clots, heart attacks, strokes, dementia, osteoporosis, and
(15:34):
mental health problems. There's a good chance it won't get
tested unless you ask for it. Lifestyle and your daily
autopilot type habits are always queen, but high homocystine is
most often one of the rare risk factors that is
purely based on your genetic luck. Your level can be high,
(15:57):
even if people should be taking notes about how you
live the absolute healthiest life in the world. It's a
risk factor that just a healthy lifestyle isn't going to correct.
But there still is something easy you can do about it.
If your homocystine level is high, it's a very easy
and cheap measurement to add to just a standard blood test.
Doctors have been told that measuring homocysteine levels doesn't matter
(16:19):
because while it shows that you're at an increased risk lowering,
it doesn't decrease that risk. But that's only because we've
been dealing with homocystine wrong. Homocysteine might in itself be
somewhat dangerous, especially to your endothelium, but more importantly, homocystine
is a marker that something isn't working right somewhere else,
(16:43):
and looking around for the reason why is absolutely worth
your time. There's a reasonable chance that that something is
your mthfr enzyme. If you have high homocysteine and you
don't have kidney disease, asked to have your mthfr genes tested.
If you have one of the genetic variants of the
(17:03):
mthfr enzyme that show that you are a poor methyl
later learn more about that condition from doctor Chris Master
John and others, and start taking the easily available, cheap
vitamins that will help that pathway work better. Everyone should
probably get their EPA and DHA levels tested. Those are
your Omega three levels, but especially if you have high homocysteine.
(17:27):
You need high Omega three levels to protect your brain
no matter what, but especially if you have high homocysteine.
Everyone should make sure their blood pressure is in a
healthy range, but especially if you have high homocystine. High
homocystine plus high blood pressure equals twenty five hundred percent
increased risk of heart attack or stroke. Thank you so
much for taking the time to be here and listen today,
(17:49):
especially about something you may not be as excited about
as I am. I do think it will make your
future better. You are now smarter than a lot of
doctors are about homocysteine. Look at you. Next time you're
going to have a routine blood test, ask if they
can check your homocysteine. You can drastically reduce your risk
of super scary cardiovascular events and brain atrophy if yours
(18:12):
comes back high by taking a few pretty easy steps
to dig a little deeper into why your homocysteine is high,
fixing that at the root level might save your life.
Next week, we're going to remind ourselves of a bunch
of ways that we don't want to be normal. Until then,
understand what homocysteine is really telling you and don't be normal.
(18:34):
Thank you so much for tuning into the Health Courage
Collective podcast. I am truly honored that you have paid
me the enormous compliment of your time and attention. I
would be so grateful if you would share this podcast
with someone you know and subscribe so you never miss
an episode. This podcast is for entertainment and information purposes only.
Statements and views on this podcast are not medical advice.
(18:55):
This podcast, including Christina Hackett and producers, disclaim responsibility for
any possible adverse events by use of information contained here in.
If you think you have a medical problem, consult a
licensed position
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.