What’s Vitamin B6 and Glutathione got to do with Methylation?

By now you know that excess homocysteine isn’t something you want in either your arteries or your brain. With the help of the right nutrients, homocysteine can be ‘detoxified’ and turned into one of the most important antioxidants of all, namely glutathione. Link to film here

Homocysteine > cysteine > glutathione

Most ‘anti-ageing’ supplements contain either glutathione or its precursor n-acetyl-cysteine or NAC for short. You’ll also find them in the better homocysteine-modulating supplements. Glutathione, or NAC, are absolutely vital for immunity.

These are all what’s called sulphur-containing amino acids, found in onions, garlic and also eggs.

© Patrick Holford & Piatkus

You’ll notice that vitamin B6 is needed to transform homocysteine into the ‘good guy’ glutathione.

There’s another way homocysteine can get transformed, not shown here, which depends on the mineral zinc and trymethyl-glycine or TMG for short, which is another amino acid. You’ll find these two nutrients – zinc and TMG – in most homocysteine lowering formulas.

Seeds and nuts, beans and eggs, as well as fish and meat are excellent sources of zinc. TMG is found in root vegetables and also cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli. By now you’ll be eating lots of these, we hope. Knowing what you now know about glutathione, make sure you have an onion and a clove of garlic a day. Garlic not only helps to lower homocysteine it is good for the cardiovascular system in many ways.

Further info

Why B vitamins and Omega-3 work together

In this domain we are focusing on B vitamins but they are no more or less important than other critical brain-building nutrients such as the omega-3 fats, and especially one kind of omega 3 fat called DHA.

Have a look at the film ‘How to Keep Building Brain Cells’ https://foodforthebrain.org/how-to-keep-building-brain-cells-at-any-age/ and you’ll see how you literally need to bind together omega-3 DHA with phospholipids by methylation, which depends on B vitamins. Even the neurotransmitters that do the ‘talking’ in your brain need methylation, hence B vitamins, to be made.

© Patrick Holford & Piatkus

A clear illustration of this is the research of Professor David Smith and colleagues at the University of Oxford. They gave high dose B vitamins (B12, B6, folic acid) to those with a high homocysteine level and reported 53% less shrinkage over 24 months in and virtually no further memory loss.

But when they reanalysed the participants’ original omega-3 level in their blood, then put them into three groups – those with low, medium and high omega-3 at the start of the study, those with low omega-3 status had no effect from the B vitamins, while those in the high omega-3 group had 73% less brain shrinkage. In fact, they had no more brain shrinkage than is found in people of a similar age with no decline at all in cognitive function. What’s more, in stark contrast, the difference between the placebo group (28%) and the B vitamin group (58%) reverting to zero on the Clinical Dementia Rating was 30%.

In other words, homocysteine-lowering B vitamins don’t work without omega-3s, and the reverse is also true. You need both healthy methylation and sufficient omega-3s and phospholipids found in fish and eggs, which we’ll go into in the BRAIN FAT domain, to build your brain.

The simplest way to achieve this is to eat fish three times a week and supplement omega-3 fish oils. If you’re vegan, you can get supplements of vegan omega-3 DHA with vegan phospholipids.

Further info

Genes or greens?

Many people think diseases such as dementia are ‘in the genes’. Many critical parts of your body’s biochemistry are made of proteins, which are assembled from amino acids in much the way a word is made of letters. Enzymes, for example, that turn one thing into another, are made from protein.

The order in which these amino acids are put together is encoded in our genes. In this ‘Methylation Explained’ film which you saw earlier, the boxes that say ‘MT’, ‘MS’, ‘MTHFR’ are the names of enzymes that turn one thing into another. Each had a ‘gene’ with instructions to make it. But here’s the rub – we don’t all inherit quite the same set of instructions to make these enzymes, making some of us more efficient at making these enzymes that others. These variations in genes are called ‘polymorphisms’.

©Patrick Holford & Piatkus

In the figure above, taken from the film, you can see all the methylation-related enzymes, each of which will have methylation-related genes and variations (polymorphisms) thereof. That’s what gets tested in a DNA test. One, MTHFR gene, for example, has a polymorphism (C677TT) which affects up to roughly 1 in 10 people, possibly reducing their ability to turn food or supplemental folic acid into the active form of this vitamin MTH Folate, resulting in up to 30% less production. This ultimately makes them less good at making SAMe the amino acid that’s the most important methyl donor in the body.

If you happen to inherit such less desirable gene variations, which can be tested for, does it mean you will have worse methylation, reflected by higher homocysteine? The answer is, theoretically, yes. But what if you supplemented enough of the right B vitamins? It looks like you can negate this weakness with the right intake of nutrients. But how much do you need? The answer is whatever brings your homocysteine level down. That is the ‘functional’ test that you are doing the right thing for you. So, ultimately, greens are more important than genes in
determining your risk.

Further info

Best Foods for Folate?

Do you eat a well balanced diet?

Most people will say ‘kind of, yes’…’I try to’…’most days’. Most fail to achieve even the low margins of the ‘recommended daily amounts’ set to prevent ‘overt’ deficiency (obvious or overt malnutrition is diagnosed from characteristic clinical signs). Very few of these have even considered what the brain needs for optimal health. For example, you will have seen that the levels of folate that we recommend for those with high homocysteine is 800mcg, for those with low risk is 400mcg and those with optimal levels is 200mcg, which is the generally the ‘recommended’ level unless you’re pregnant, in which case it goes up to 400mcg.

Folate, also called folic acid, is a B vitamin that comes primarily from fresh fruit and vegetables with greens and beans being particularly high. Think ‘foliage’. It’s quite unstable in food. (Most supplements give a stable form called folic acid, but there’s a few people whom, due to a genetic variation, are less efficient at converting this into the ‘active’ form in the body called MTH Folate. Some supplements designed to lower homocysteine use this more expensive form because it lowers homocysteine more effectively.)

Folate is a vitamin that we should aim to get the bulk of from our diet by eating lots of vegetables and fruit, as well as beans, lentils, nuts and seeds. Take a look at the list below for the best sources:

Good Foods for Folate (in mcg)

Lentils, cooked (1/2 cup)	179
Millet flakes (1 cup)	170
Sunflower seeds (1/2 cup)	164
Chickpeas, cooked (1/2 cup)	141
Kidney beans (1/2 cup)	115
Orange juice, fresh (1 glass)	109
Peanuts, (1/2 cup)	106
Spinach (1/2 cup)	102
Globe artichoke (1 medium)	94
Miso soup (1 cup)	91
Oats (1 cup)	87
Asparagus (1/2 cup)	80
Hazelnuts (1/2 cup)	76
Romaine lettuce (1/2 cup)	68
Broccoli /tender-stem (1/2 cup)	65
Avocados (half)	62
Brussels sprouts (1/2 cup)	60
Beetroot (1/2 cup)	63
Papaya (half)	58
Parsnips (1/2 cup)	45
Oranges (one)	40
Melon (half small)	38
Leeks (1/2 cup)	32
Peas, frozen (1/2 cup)	30

Now ask yourself this question about yesterday. Did you eat something like, or equivalent to any one of these sources?

• A salad with Romaine lettuce, endive, half an avocado and a handful of sunflower seeds, accompanied by a glass of orange juice
• Spinach and lentil or millet bake with a serving each of broccoli and parsnips
• A fruit salad with papaya, kiwi fruit, orange and cantaloupe melon in orange juice, plus a handful of unsalted peanuts
• Or an orange, a large serving of broccoli, spinach, Brussels sprouts and a bowl of miso soup.

How confident are you that you did? Each one contains roughly 400mcg of folate. Well done if you did. If you aren’t that confident you’ll start to realize you really do have to make quite a large portion of your diet vegetable-based, literally half your plate for main meals (which counts for 4 portions) plus 3 other portions of fruit or veg – perhaps berries with your breakfast, an apple for a snack with some seeds, some raw veg, eg a carrot or tender stem heads, dipped in some hummus. To be in the right zone for folate. That’s a total of 7 servings of fruit and veg a day.

This kind of intake significantly reduces your risk of cognitive decline later in life. A study in Finland of 385 people in mid-life compared those with a healthy versus unhealthy diet for future risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia 14 years later. Those who ate the healthiest diet had an 88% decreased risk of developing dementia and a 92% decreased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Further info

Testing and re-testing your Homocysteine level

Knowing your blood (plasma) homocysteine level is as important, if not more so, than knowing your cholesterol level. GPs can commission this test for you but few do. If it were widely tested it need not cost much. This is because it uses standard equipment that any hospital laboratory has already.

There have been almost 27,000 studies published on homocysteine (Hcy) and over 1,000 on its link with dementia and cognitive decline in the past twenty years – so it’s no ‘new kid on the block’. As well as predicting risk for cognitive decline, it also predicts risk for stroke, cardiovascular disease, depression, osteoporosis, school performance and pregnancy problems.

Your Hcy level tends to go up with most factors we associate with poor health – smoking, drinking too much alcohol, not exercising, poor diet – so, to some extent, it’s a great marker for your overall health. Even in cancer patients, if homocysteine is going down they tend to be doing well, and if going up they tend to be doing badly.

All GPs can refer people for homocysteine testing but few do. Also, their guidelines specifiy that this is relevant if you have cardiovascular disease or dementia so they may not test otherwise. Also, it costs the practice and it doesn’t seem possible to offer to pay the cost. if you did score in the red or orange you will have received a letter you can print out or send to your GP to encourage them to test your homocysteine level.

We wish you could walk into a lab in any major city, or send off for a home-test kit, to find out your level. It is especially wise to know your level if you’re over 50. You may find your level is fine – e.g. below 10 and ideally 7 or less. The thing about homocysteine, is that probably a third over 60 and half of those over 70 have a level above 11mcmol/l, which is the level that correlates with accelerated brain shrinkage.

What makes homocysteine is a little tricky compared to some other blood tests is that a) it’s the plasma level, in the clear part of the blood and b) it’s prone to degradation after taking the sample. So it has to be ‘separated’ on taking the sample. Our goal early next year is to make it easy to test, using a home test collection kit,

Private labs that offer private homocysteine testing require referral by a healthcare practitioner. You’ll still need to go to the lab or find a local phlebotomist to take the blood sample. If you live in the UK we hope to have an option for you in early 2023. Please email us at cognitionsupport@foodforthebrain.org saying ‘test my homocysteine’ and we’ll get back to you as soon as there is a viable option.

If you’ve had a homocysteine test, and if was high, it comes down quickly, so testing after 3 or 4 weeks of making changes is viable. Otherwise, it remains reasonably stable such that, if your level is good, you could check it every three or so years.

It is best to a) stop your B vitamin supplements for at least 2 days (48 hours) before testing, b) test on an empty stomach, only having drunk water. Some labs tell you to ‘load up’ with a protein-based meal but this is a ‘challenge’ test which would slightly raise your homocysteine level. It is still valid but most research carries out testing on an empty stomach, so this is preferable.

Further info

Drugs and Drinks You Want to Avoid

Becoming a master of methylation, and lowering your homocysteine (Hcy), isn’t just a function of getting enough nutrients such as B vitamins. We all take in ‘anti-nutrients’ that is substances that knock out nutrients or increase our demand for them.

There are four main ones that are known to raise homocysteine, which means they interfere with methylation. These are:

• Coffee
• The diabetes drug metformin (also called Glucophage)
• The anti-acids known as PPI’s (proton pump inhibitors)
• Hypertensive ‘diuretic’ drugs
• Smoking

[QID NO=32 C=BvitHcy D=7]

[QID NO=77 C=BvitHcy D=7]

[QID NO=52 C=BvitHcy D=7]

[QID NO=68 C=BvitHcy D=7]

[QID NO=33 C=BvitHcy D=7]

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B12 – Are You getting Enough?

If you had to pick one nutrient that has the biggest impact on future risk of cognitive decline and dementia, it’s probably vitamin B12. It is one of the most commonly deficient vitamins, affecting your whole body, from your brain to your bones. The older you are, the more you need, but not necessarily because your brain cells need more as such, but rather because less B12 from food sources gets through into the bloodstream and then into the brain and other organs.

So, on the one hand, we need to have a conversation about the food you eat providing sufficient B12, and, on the other hand, we have to explore why some people don’t absorb enough, and what can be done about this.

The food front is the easy part. As the last email showed you only animal produce provides B12 (meat, fish, eggs and milk). However, there is not always a good correlation between apparent intake from food and blood levels. The B12 in fish and milk seems better absorbed. The easy ‘safety guard’ is to supplement 10mcg a day in an ‘optimum nutrition’ style multivitamin. (The RDA in multis only give 2.5mcg which may not be enough.)

Vegans simply must either supplement or eat foods that are fortified with supplemental B12. There are a lot of myths around certain vegan foods, from blue-green algae to certain fungi providing B12, but there’s a quirk in nature whereby plant derived B12 is subtly different, an analogue of actual B12 needed by humans, and it does work for us.

If you’re vegan do read the Report Vitamin B12 – Why Vegans Need it in your Library.

B12 is vital for keeping your memory sharp

B12 deficiency, probably more to do with limited absorption than diet, is extremely common among people over the age of 60 but it appears that even levels in the low–normal range may be harmful.

In a study of 61- to 87-year-olds, the lower the level, the greater was the brain size shrinkage. Two in five people over age 61 had a level of B12 that was associated with accelerated brain shrinkage and memory decline. None of these subjects were diagnosed as classically B12 deficient. However, the lower their B12 status, the worse were their memory scores. Less B12 means higher homocysteine levels and the higher a person’s homocysteine level the greater their risk for dementia or Alzheimer’s.

However, low B12 status is rarely properly checked for and there are good grounds for making it a routine test, along with homocysteine, for anyone over the age of 60. This is because its ability to be absorbed becomes worse with age. The usual means of checking is to measure one’s plasma B12 levels, but this is a very crude measure and it is becoming clear that having a level in the low end of the so-called ‘normal’ range is associated with worsening memory.

Testing your B12 status

If your doctor tests your B12 status they’ll probably use a serum B12 test. There are two problems with this test. The first is the so-called ‘normal’ level. It used to be that anything above 150 pmol/l was considered adequate but, in Japan they treat a level below 370pmol/l as too low. Below 400pmol/l is associated with worsening cognition, while above 500 is probably optimal.

The second problem is that up to half of the B12 in your bloodstream becomes ‘bound’ and unavailable for absorption into cells. Serum B12 measures the whole lot – both bound and free/functional B12.

A much more accurate test is called MMA (methylmalonic acid), which is a more reliable marker for B12 deficiency and becomes high if you are deficient. This chemical only accumulates if you are deficient in B12, or not using it efficiently. An MMA test is more widely available.

Another alternative, in fact the best of all which only measures the active B12 in your bloodstream, is called HoloTransCobalamin (HoloTC or HTC) which, if low, indicates deficiency. If your B12 level or HoloTC is low (below 300 pmol/l or 40pmol/l) or MMA above 270 nmol/L or if your homocysteine is above 10mcmol/l, then you are endangering your health.

Occasionally we see ‘rogue’ very high serum B12 levels for no clear reason. If this happens to you, ask for a
homocysteine test and/or an MMA or HoloTC test.

If you’re not sure what yours is and want to find out, in the UK there’s an Essential Health Check home test kit you can buy from YorkTest which is extremely good value. It also tests your serum B12, folate and vitamin D. B12 has no danger of toxicity.

B12 and chronic fatigue

A common sign of B12 deficiency, known as pernicious anaemia, is chronic fatigue. Other tell-tale signs are brain fogs, breathlessness (sighing and gulping), brittle nails with ridges, pins and needles, swollen or sore tongue, balance problems and unsteadiness. These can be experienced by young and old since some people have innate difficulty absorbing vitamin B12. If you do have many symptoms make sure you get tested first. There’s some very good information on the Pernicious Anaemia Society website www.pernicious-anaemia-society.org.

How much is enough?

B12 is only found in animal foods, such as meat, fish, eggs and milk. Our advice is to eat more fish and also to supplement at least 10mcg at any age, perhaps up to 50mcg if you are over 50, and 500mcg or more if you have a raised homocysteine level – above 10mmol/l. While none of us ‘need’ 500mcg, these high levels become necessary as absorption of B12 declines. This is to do with a lack of production of intrinsic factor in the stomach. One way to potentially improve B12 absorption is to give a special form of B12, either methylcobalamine or glutathionylcobalamine, which is sometimes used in combination supplements.

The reason for recommending this seemingly very high level, given that the RDA is only 2.5μg, is that only these kind of daily intakes help to correct deficiency. That’s what a group of researchers in Holland found when they investigated how much B12 you need to take in to correct mild B12 deficiency. Only doses of 647 to 1032μg of B12 were associated with correcting deficiency. In their words, ‘the lowest dose of oral B12 required to normalize mild B12 deficiency is more than 250 times greater than the Recommended Daily Amount [2.5μg]’. So much for a ‘well balanced diet’ giving you all the nutrients you need!

Further info

Seven Steps to Keep Your Homocysteine Low

The most powerful and quickest way to restore a normal Hcy score, below 7 mcmol/l, if you’ve tested and found your level is above 10, is to supplement specific homocysteine-lowering nutrients. These include vitamins B6, B12, folic acid, trimethylglycine (TMG) and zinc, as well as glutathione or n-acetyl cysteine (NAC).

Combinations of these nutrients are especially effective because nutrients work together in synergy, not in isolation. One study found homocysteine scores were reduced by 17 per cent on high-dose folic acid alone, 19 per cent on vitamin B12 alone, 57 per cent on folic acid plus B12, and 60 per cent on folic acid, B12 and B6. All this was achieved
in three weeks!

Some companies produce combinations of these nutrients. These are the most cost-effective supplements for restoring a healthy homocysteine level. The inclusion of N-acetyl cysteine (or it’s cousin glutathione) is particularly important in older people when memory protection is the aim. This is because this vital antioxidant helps the methylation B vitamins to protect brain function.

The best results of all occur when you combine supplements with diet and lifestyle changes. Chris K is a case in point. Chris had been feeling very unwell, with constant tiredness, worsening memory and concentration, and little zest for life. He was depressed, had no sex drive and felt brain dead. His homocysteine score was 119! He changed his diet and took homocysteine-lowering nutrients and, within three months, his homocysteine level dropped to 19. After 6 months it had dropped to 11. After a year it had dropped to 9. He cannot believe how well he now feels. His memory and concentration are completely restored. He has boundless energy from 6 am until 10pm. He now exercises for an hour every day and has lost weight. ‘You have saved my life, or at least made it worth living again. I’m a new man and my love life has perked up,’ says Chris.

Read this Report Supplementation to normalise homocysteine levels or turn relevant section into a report in the Library showing the amount of nutrients, and the supplements available depending on your homocysteine level.

If you don’t know your homocysteine level we’ll be letting you know how to test it in a couple of days. But first, we’d like to ‘warm you up’ to make some simple changes that are likely to bring your homocysteine into the normal range. After all, it’s better to test yourself at your best, not your worst.

Here are eight easy changes that will help to lower your homocysteine level:

1. Eat enough fish, eggs, meat, or milk for B12

Eat no more than three servings of lean meat a week; fish (ideally not fried) at least three times a week; six eggs a week; some dairy products, perhaps unsweetened, natural yoghurt, provided you’re not intolerant. All of these are sources of vitamin B12. You don’t need all of these all the time but try to have something every day that gives you vitamin B12. It does store in the body, so if you have a couple of vegan days a week that’s fine too. Fish and eggs are possibly the best food sources so if you’re pescatarian that’s perfect. (If you’re vegan you’ll need to supplement B12. You’ll receive an email about this shortly.) Some people are poor absorbers of vitamin B12. We will go into this in case it might apply to you.

2. Eat your greens and beans

Have at least five, ideally seven, servings of fruit or vegetables a day. This means eating one to two pieces of fruit every single day, and three to four servings of non-starchy vegetables. Vary your selections from day to day. Make sure half of what’s on your plate for each main meal is vegetables. That counts for two servings already.

3. Have a clove of garlic a day

Either eat a clove of garlic a day, or take a garlic supplement every day. You can take garlic oil capsules or powdered garlic supplements. Garlic helps lower homocysteine.

4. Cut back on coffee

Don’t drink more than four cups of coffee in a day. Even two cups raises your homocysteine but 6 or more cups is strongly linked to doubling dementia risk and promoting brain shrinkage. Too much coffee promotes loss of B vitamins. Coffee has some ‘antioxidant/polyphenol’ advantages which might explain why abstainers has a slightly worse risk for dementia than those who have one or two coffees a day. One double expresso counts as two coffees.

5. Limit your alcohol

Limit your alcohol intake to no more than half a pint of beer, or one glass of red wine, in a day. Ideally, limit your intake to two pints of beer or seven small glasses of red wine a week. Once your intake is above this, your risk is increasing.

6. Reduce your stress

If you are under a lot of stress, or find yourself reacting stressfully much of the time, make the decision to reduce your stress load by changing both the circumstances that are giving you stress and your attitude. There are lots of simple solutions, for example: you can practice yoga, meditation and/or exercise (there are lots of free online resources and classes), or see a practitioner of talking therapies if you have some issues to resolve. These steps can make all the difference. We’ll go into this area in much more details in the ‘sleep and calm’ domain.

7. Stop smoking

If you smoke, make the decision to stop and seek help to do it. There is simply no safe level of smoking as far as homocysteine and your health is concerned. Even those who reduce from 20 to 5 a day, which is good, still have raised homocysteine. The sooner you stop the healthier you become and the longer you’ll live. We’ll help you when you focus on the ‘antioxidant’ domain.

8. Avoid medication (if possible) than interferes with B12 absorption

This includes antacid drugs called ‘proton pump inhibitors’ (PPIs) with their drug name often ending in ‘azole’; metformin for diabetes; and diuretic drugs. We are going to tackle this directly in another email. Don’t change your medication without speaking with your doctor first.

9. Supplement a high-strength multivitamin every day

Excellent quality multivitamins and mineral combinations are available in every health food store and some supermarkets. To keep your homocysteine levels in check, you’ll need one that gives at least 20mg of B6, 200mcg of folic acid and 10mcg of B12. Basic ‘RDA’ multivitamins aren’t going to be enough. The officially recommended intake for B12 is only 2.5mcg and 2mg for B6. These have not been calculated considering mental health, dementia prevention and optimising methylation.

This diet, lifestyle and supplement plan has the potential to substantially reduce your homocysteine score in weeks. The goal is to bring your score to below 7. Your homocysteine score is probably the best objective measure of whether you are achieving optimum nutrition for you. We’ll show you how to test it shortly.

Further info

Why normalising homocysteine and supporting methylation is key

Every second there are hundreds of millions of ‘methylation’ reactions occurring in your brain and body which dependent on B vitamins. To name a few:

• Builds brain cells
• Turns genes on and off
• Make neurotransmitters such as adrenalin to activate you and serotonin to keep you happy
• Formation of haem, as in haemoglobin, essential for oxygen transport round the body
• Formation of mucopolysaccharides, essential for joint health
• Detoxifies harmful compounds such as mercury
• Helps make glutathione, the body’s master antioxidant

Think of methylation as the master builder of your brain. To understand this more visually, now watch this film ‘How to Keep Building Brain Cells’ here  showing how methylation helps build brain cells (neurons).

Also watch this short interview with Professor David Smith from the University of Oxford, ‘Why Lowering Homocysteine with B vitamins is Vital for Alzheimer’s Prevention‘ in your Library.

You’ll see why all the B vitamins in the world, driving healthy methylation, will do nothing if you’re omega-3 deficient and, conversely, even if your omega-3 level is high, if you’re not doing methylation properly this vital brain fat won’t build your brain.

Now – you want to make the invisible visible and answer the question ‘am I a good methylator?’ Fortunately it is simple to find out. If you’re not, for whatever reason, your blood level of homocysteine will go up.

Homocysteine is pronounced ‘ho·mo·sis·teen’. In the science world it is abbreviated to Hcy which is what we’ll do from now on.

[QID NO=78 C=BvitHcy D=2]

You want your homocysteine level to be below 10mcmol/l. Above 11.3, there’s clear evidence of increased brain shrinkage. However, geneticists tell us that we protect our genes mostly with a level below 7.5 (1)

Meanwhile, cardiologists report that below 9 means greatest survival rates and lowest risk for both strokes and cardiovascular disease. Our guideline is to have your homocysteine to be around a tenth of your age – if you’re over 50, and certainly not over 10. On average, it does go up with age, but who wants to be average, with average poor health and risk for disease?

In the next email we’ll explain exactly which nutrients are key to keeping your Hcy level optimal and therefore what you need to eat and drink, or not eat and drink, and what to supplement.

Further info

Lowering your B vitamin domain rating starts today

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.

Further info