Homocysteine a major cause of inflammation of your arteries‏

Homocysteine is a by-product of protein metabolism (methionine). Dr. Kilmer McCully, a pathologist and researcher, noted two children (one age 3 and one age 6) who died because of suffering a heart attack. These children had a disease called homocystinuria. They were born with a genetic defect that did not allow them to break down homocysteine into more benign products. Therefore, these children had extremely high homocysteine levels. This led Dr. McCully to postulate that normal people who had moderately elevated levels of homocysteine over a lifetime would possibly be at a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

We now realize that even mildly elevated homocysteine levels cause significant inflammation of our arteries. In fact, nearly 15% of the heart attacks and strokes are are caused by too much homocysteine in your blood. This is truly sad when you realize that the main reason homocysteine levels are high in some individuals is because they have an underlying vitamin B deficiency. By taking folic acid, vitamin B12, and vitamin B6 in supplementation at optimal levels, you can reduce homocysteine levels to a very safe range nearly 70% of the time. For just pennies a day you can eliminate one of the major causes of inflammation of your arteries.

Source: Dr. Strand Health Nuggets (newsletter@Bionutrition.org)