Homocysteine

Homocysteine is an intermediate byproduct that we manufacturer when our bodies metabolize an essential amino acid called methionine which is found in meats, eggs, milk, cheese, canned food, and highly processed foods.  Under ideal conditions, homocysteine is simply converted back into methionine or cysteine, both benign products.  In a poorly nourished body, however, the vitamins B12, B6, and folic acid are not available in the amounts necessary make this conversion and homocysteine levels begin to rise. In addition to the oxidative stress damage homocysteine causes, “it is estimated that by itself, an elevated homocysteine level in the blood is responsible for aproximately 15 percent of all heart attacks and strokes in the world today.” ¹ Ray Strand M.D. writes in his book What Your Doctor Doesn't Know About Nutritional Medicine May Be Killing You. Unlike cholesterol lowering medication which can be expensive, lowering homocysteine is as easy as supplementing your diet with an inexpensive B complex vitamin or eating more foods high in B vitamins such as green leafy vegetables, liver, eggs, and Brewer's yeast. So why don't we hear more about homocysteine from the medical community? Because as Dr. Meir Stamphfer from the Harvard School of Public Health says “there's just not the commercial interest in supporting research...because no one is going to make any money on it.”²