The next time you go to your medical doctor, I would like you to request two blood tests that your medical doctor does not normally run.  I insist that you have these tests run because they can tell you a lot about your own health and risk factors for disease– and there is a simple solution to improving your results.  

The first test is for homocysteine levels.  Homocysteine is an amino acid, like the amino acids used by the body to make proteins, but instead of being beneficial, it contributes to poor health. Clinical studies have shown that 42% of patients with stroke had high homocysteine, 30% of those with blocked coronary arteries had hyperhomocysteinenemia, and so did 28% of those with peripheral artery disease.  Another study showed that the higher the homocysteine level, the greater the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events: heart failure, heart rupture, and death due to heart attack.  

It appears that high homocysteine levels cause vascular disease by elevating oxidative stress, changing lipid metabolism, and promoting blood clotting in your blood vessels.    

To lower homocysteine, you need to supplement with folic acid, B12, and B6, all present in an over-the-counter B-Complex supplement.  However, some may find that even with supplementation, their homocysteine levels are resistant to change.  This is because some people carry a gene variant called Methelene-tetra-hydrofolate-reductase (MTHFR) which keeps them from converting the folic acid from supplements into a bioavailable, body-ready active form. In that case, you can just take the bioavailable, or active, form of folic acid, called L- 5-Methylterahydrofolate (5-MTHF) or a patented form, Quatrefolic® and take a B12 supplement that is methylated – take methycobalamin, rather than the synthetic cyanocobalamin.  You will find both of these in an Activated B-Complex.  This is the one I recommend.  

You also want your medical doctor to check you for MTHFR, because perhaps you have this gene variant, or blip, as I like to call it.  If you have this gene blip, you are then unable to convert your B vitamins to the active form and will definitely have trouble with high homocysteine levels leading to vascular disease, but also detoxification, miscarriage, depression, brain fog, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and unspecified peripheral neuropathy.  Since our bodies are so amazing, people with positive MTHFRs can make up for this inability to convert their B vitamins by running other chemical pathways to compensate, but why stress the body out?  It’s a simple supplement that can give you all these benefits plus energy.  One patient of mine, positive for MTHFR, told me that after one month of taking an activated B-Complex she started waking with a clear head.  Prior to waking with a clear head, she had thought everyone had brain fog in the morning.  

So, have your medical doctor check your homocysteine levels and whether or not you are positive for the MTHFR gene blip.  And if, like 85% percent of the population, you are positive for one of the MTHFR gene variants, or 18.5% of the population who carries both variants, go to your local supplement store and ask for a methylated or activated B-Complex.  Better yet, you can order this one that I recommend or contact my office at www.brooklynnaturopathicdoctor.com

Clarke R, Daly L, Robinson K, et al. Hyperhomocysteinemia: an independent risk factor for vascular disease. N Engl J Med. 1991 April 25; 324 (17):1149-55.

MaY, Li L, Geng XB, et al. Correlation between hyperhomocysteinenemia and outcomes of patients with acute myocardial infarction.  Am J Ther. 2014 Nov 17.  

http://www.gbhealthwatch.com/GND-Cardiovascular-Diseases-MTHFR.phpz