Homocysteine has been a topic of research for many years. Kilmer McCully had discovered this circumstance over 30 years ago. As literature describes, when B6, B12, and Folate are too low, homocysteine elevates and contributes to degeneration and damage of tissue. It is a major part of the bad inflammatory process that affects the lining of blood vessels and as well, damages brain tissue. The following articles describe this.
All persons should be tested for homocysteine levels, and should be taking a good comprehensive multivitamin to be able to decrease levels as low as possible. Everyone has different needs for supplementation, and as well, different abilities to absorb vitamins. Doses may vary from one individual to another. Many patients that I have seen, that are taking nutrients, still may have elevated numbers. Here is where the science plays an important role. If while taking supplements, the level is still elevated, it may be time to change the multivitamin and / or question the digestive process and ability. Although some of the lab reference ranges have "acceptable levels" in the 3.7 to 13 area, I recommend closer to 3 or 4.
As research continues I am sure that homocysteine and the inflammatory process will be linked to all sorts of different medical concerns. To look at my recommendation for a great multivitamin, you can click on www.drcalapai.net and look at Optimal Health Products for "Optimult". I have used this for many years and have observed dramatic reductions in homocysteine in patients taking it. I have never needed to add separate product to help lower it.
Plasma homocysteine as a risk factor for vascular disease. The European Concerted Action Project.
CONTEXT: Elevated plasma homocysteine is a known risk factor for atherosclerotic vascular disease, but the strength of the relationship and the interaction of plasma homocysteine with other risk factors are unclear.
OBJECTIVE: To establish the magnitude of the vascular disease risk associated with an increased plasma homocysteine level and to examine interaction effects between elevated plasma homocysteine level and conventional risk factors.
DESIGN: Case-control study.
SETTING: Nineteen centers in 9 European countries.
PATIENTS: A total of 750 cases of atherosclerotic vascular disease (cardiac, cerebral, and peripheral) and 800 controls of both sexes younger than 60 years.
MEASUREMENTS: Plasma total homocysteine was measured while subjects were fasting and after a standardized methionine-loading test, which involves the administration of 100 mg of methionine per kilogram and stresses the metabolic pathway responsible for the irreversible degradation of homocysteine. Plasma cobalamin, pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, red blood cell folate, serum cholesterol, smoking, and blood pressure were also measured.
RESULTS: The relative risk for vascular disease in the top fifth compared with the bottom four fifths of the control fasting total homocysteine distribution was 2.2 (95% confidence interval, 1.6-2.9). Methionine loading identified an additional 27% of at-risk cases. A dose-response effect was noted between total homocysteine level and risk. The risk was similar to and independent of that of other risk factors, but interaction effects were noted between homocysteine and these risk factors; for both sexes combined, an increased fasting homocysteine level showed a more than multiplicative effect on risk in smokers and in hypertensive subjects. Red blood cell folate, cobalamin, and pyridoxal phosphate, all of which modulate homocysteine metabolism, were inversely related to total homocysteine levels. Compared with nonusers of vitamin supplements, the small number of subjects taking such vitamins appeared to have a substantially lower risk of vascular disease, a proportion of which was attributable to lower plasma homocysteine levels.
CONCLUSIONS: An increased plasma total homocysteine level confers an independent risk of vascular disease similar to that of smoking or hyperlipidemia. It powerfully increases the risk associated with smoking and hypertension. It is time to undertake randomized controlled trials of the effect of vitamins that reduce plasma homocysteine levels on vascular disease risk.
Silent Brain Infarcts and White Matter Lesions Increase Stroke Risk in the General Population.
Background and Purpose— Silent brain infarcts and white matter lesions are associated with an increased risk of subsequent stroke in minor stroke patients. In healthy elderly people, silent brain infarcts and white matter lesions are common, but little is known about their relevance. We examined the risk of stroke associated with these lesions in the general population.
Methods— The Rotterdam Scan Study is a population-based prospective cohort study among 1077 elderly people. The presence of silent brain infarcts and white matter lesions was scored on cerebral MRI scans obtained from 1995 to 1996. Participants were followed for stroke for on average 4.2 years. We estimated the risk of stroke in relation to presence of brain lesions with Cox proportional hazards regression analysis.
Results— Fifty-seven participants (6%) experienced a stroke during follow-up. Participants with silent brain infarcts had a 5 times higher stroke incidence than those without. The presence of silent brain infarcts increased the risk of stroke >3-fold, independently of other stroke risk factors (adjusted hazard ratio 3.9, 95% CI 2.3 to 6.8). People in the upper tertile of the white matter lesion distribution had an increased stroke risk compared with those in the lowest tertile (adjusted hazard ratio for periventricular lesions 4.7, 95% CI 2.0 to 11.2 and for subcortical lesions 3.6, 95% CI 1.4 to 9.2). Silent brain infarcts and severe white matter lesions increased the stroke risk independently of each other.
Conclusion— Elderly people with silent brain infarcts and white matter lesions are at a strongly increased risk of stroke, which could not be explained by the major stroke risk factors
http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/34/5/1126
Homocysteine and cardiovascular disease: evidence on causality from a meta-analysis.
Objective: To assess whether the association of serum homocysteine concentration with ischaemic heart disease, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, and stroke is causal and, if so, to quantify the effect of homocysteine reduction in preventing them.
Design: Meta-analyses of the above three diseases using (a) 72 studies in which the prevalence of a mutation in the MTHFR gene (which increases homocysteine) was determined in cases (n=16 849) and controls, and (b) 20 prospective studies (3820 participants) of serum homocysteine and disease risk.
Main outcome measures: Odds ratios of the three diseases for a 5 µmol/l increase in serum homocysteine concentration.
Results: There were significant associations between homocysteine and the three diseases. The odds ratios for a 5 µmol/l increase in serum homocysteine were, for ischaemic heart disease, 1.42 (95% confidence interval 1.11 to 1.84) in the genetic studies and 1.32 (1.19 to 1.45) in the prospective studies; for deep vein thrombosis with or without pulmonary embolism, 1.60 (1.15 to 2.22) in the genetic studies (there were no prospective studies); and, for stroke, 1.65 (0.66 to 4.13) in the genetic studies and 1.59 (1.29 to 1.96) in the prospective studies.
Conclusions: The genetic studies and the prospective studies do not share the same potential sources of error, but both yield similar highly significant results strong evidence that the association between homocysteine and cardiovascular disease is causal. On this basis, lowering homocysteine concentrations by 3 µmol/l from current levels (achievable by increasing folic acid intake) would reduce the risk of ischaemic heart disease by 16% (11% to 20%), deep vein thrombosis by 25% (8% to 38%), and stroke by 24% (15% to 33%).
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/325/7374/1202?ijkey=K2RdVZfOnp5PY