In the weeks that follow, starting now, we’re going to guide you in taking simple steps to become a master of ‘methylation’.

In simple terms, methylation is a vital function that is being performed something like a billion times every few seconds to keep your brain and body in balance. It depends on B vitamins and other nutrients, and if you’re not doing it quite right, then your blood level of homocysteine goes up.

What is ‘homocysteine’? It’s a toxic amino acid that only accumulates if you’re not doing methylation properly. It’s not only an indication of faulty methylation, but it also damages arteries and the brain.

So, good methylation means:

1. You can make enough neurotransmitters (think adrenaline and serotonin) to keep you energised and in a good mood.

2. You can ‘dampen’ disease promoting genes down.

Raised homocysteine increases risk for:

• Cognitive decline with age
• Strokes and cardiovascular disease
• Depression and other mental problems
• Infertility and pregnancy complications in women
• Pain and inflammation
• Certain genetic disorders

To demonstrate how important healthy methylation is, one study in Sweden showed that children’s school grades could be predicted by their homocysteine level. On the gene front, there’s nothing you can do about the hand you’ve been dealt, but you can dampen down (downregulate), or ‘upregulate’ genes with healthy methylation. A classic example of this is the ApoE gene. If you inherit variation ‘4’ – ApoE4 – you technically have greater risk of developing dementia later in life, but there’s lots you can do to downregulate this gene.

Your assessment has been made, not only by your dietary intake of certain B vitamins, but also the presence of these diseases or symptoms associated with them. If, however, you have taken a blood (plasma) homocysteine test this adds so much risk to this domain. Whether you have or haven’t been tested, either way, we’d like you to a) do everything you can to support healthy methylation and b) get tested toward the end of this month (we’ll let you know how) to get a real and, we hope considerably improved, ‘B vitamin’ domain rating.

Vitamin B6, folate and B12 are fundamental to doing methylation properly, so we’ll be talking about what to eat and supplement. Sometimes the problem isn’t what you eat, but your ability to absorb vitamin B12.

We notice you take [QID NO=68 C=BvitHcy D=1] [QID NO=53 C=BvitHcy D=1] and [QID NO=77 C=BvitHcy D=1]  which interfere with B12 absorption.

The ideal solution is to solve these health problems so you don’t need these medications. We will explore this and also what else you can do to counter the effects and ensure enough B12 is getting into your bloodstream in order to optimise your brain function.

Too much alcohol, coffee or smoking will also raise both homocysteine and future dementia risk. [QID NO=31 C=BvitHcy D=1] [QID NO=31 C=BvitHcy D=1] [QID NO=32 C=BvitHcy D=1] [QID NO=33 C=BvitHcy D=1].

Reducing your ‘B vitamin’ domain rating not only reduces your future risk for cognitive decline and dementia, but also stroke, heart disease, osteoporosis and probably cancer since many common cancers are associated with faulty methylation.

The great news is that there isn’t too much to change to be doing all the right things for methylation so you don’t have to deprive yourself of anything to any great extent. But still it takes a few weeks to break old habits and set new ones, which is why this month’s changes, one step at a time, require discipline, but then quickly become your new habit.

Your first learning is to fully understand what methylation is, why your homocysteine level is critical to know, and what brings it down. That’s the subject of the next email you’ll receive.