DO YOU KNOW YOUR ‘H’ SCORE?
‘H’ stands for Homocysteine, a substance naturally produced by your body. When your H level is too high, this is greater risk factor for heart disease than cholesterol. A high H level is linked to over 100 diseases including Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Cancer, Chronic fatigue, Depression, Diabetes, Heart Attacks, Infertility, Obesity, Rapid ageing, Stokes, Thyroid problems and more. Additionally, your H level has been called the single best indicator from a lab result that predicts whether you are likely to live a long and healthy life. Once you know your H score, you can take steps to reduce your risk of becoming ill and increase your chances of living a long and healthy life. To find out more about why everybody over 50 should do the Homocysteine test, please read on…
What is Homocysteine?
Homocysteine is a natural substance produced by the body when we break down a protein called methionine. Normally, vitamins B12, B6 and folate (B9) help the body recycle or break down homocysteine. If this process isn’t working efficiently, homocysteine can build up in the blood, sometimes to toxic levels. Homocysteine sits at the centre of the body’s methylation cycle, a set of biochemical pathways involved in processes such as DNA production, detoxification and neurotransmitter metabolism.
Genes involved in these pathways include MTHFR, MTR, MTRR and CBS. These help control how homocysteine is broken down or recycled. Nutrient status as above, has a major influence. Therefore, homocysteine is also a useful marker of how efficiently some of the body’s methylation and related metabolic pathways are working.
Testing your H Score
Because homocysteine is such an important marker for heart disease, and indeed so many other diseases, I routinely recommend patients over 50 years of age to get this test done. Unfortunately, you will have to go outside the NHS as homocysteine is not routinely tested by them. The homocysteine problem has been described as the most important medical discovery of the century. Raised homocysteine has now been shown to cause or be associated with just about any medical problem in the dictionary. Patrick Holford and Dr James Braly wrote an excellent book all about it entitled The H Factor - Homocysteine - The Biggest Breakthrough Of The Century published in 2003. The late Dr Patrick Kingsley who wrote another excellent book The New Medicine - A Modern Approach to Clinical Illness (2013) stated that homocysteine is undoubtedly a major cause of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease. He also stated it is a clear indicator of how long a person is likely to live!
There are literally tens of thousands of scientific publications on homocysteine with research spanning cardiovascular, neurological, genetic and nutritional medicine. So why is it so routinely ignored by so many doctors? Perhaps because there is no drug that has yet been formulated to bring down a high homocysteine level. The solution is nutritional with the right amounts and forms of folic acid, vitamins B6, B2 and B12, betaine (trimethylglycine) and zinc, and possibly magnesium. Are any of you old enough to remember the old fashioned doctors who used to give their elderly patients regular vitamin B12 injections? What? Use nutrients? You must be kidding? They’re toxic aren’t they? You should be able to get all your nutrients from a balanced diet alone! I can’t prescribe them on the NHS anyway!
Accessing a Homocysteine Test
Homocysteine is routinely tested in private medical clinics and hospitals and there are several private labs where you can get a reasonably priced homocysteine blood test. I just had a repeat homocysteine test this morning in Plymouth. A fasting homocysteine test sample needs to be centrifuged for the sample to remain stable and accurate en route to the lab.
Values for homocysteine levels may vary from lab to lab. However, I like to see the fasting H score below 6. Between 6 to 8.9 is low risk. 9-12 is moderate risk. 12-15 is high risk. 15-20 is very high risk. Above 20 is extremely high risk. I have seen even higher numbers which suggest a condition known as familial hyperhomocysteinaemia which means a tendency to have abnormally high homocysteine levels that runs in a family, usually because of an inherited genetic problem affecting the pathways that process homocysteine. Having an MTHFR variant does not automatically mean someone has familial hyperhomocysteinaemia. The actual H score, person’s medical situation and nutritional status are more informative than genetic information alone. Family history may also be significant i.e. history of family members who died of cardiovascular disease.
Take Home Message
Why is a raised homocysteine level so dangerous? The answer is that is is an arterial poison that attacks the arteries of your heart and brain predominantly. Once the arteries have been damaged, cholesterol does its best to smooth over the damage like band aid, but the artery can continue to narrow, hence the risk of stoke or heart attack. People with raised homocysteine are also in danger of breaking bones.
What are the symptoms of high homocysteine? There may not be any until you get your first cardiovascular event! That is why it is so important to test, especially as you get older! An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure!
If you would like to know your H score or are worried about your health in general and don’t seem to be getting any answers, please get in touch with the Good Health Clinic on goodhealthclinic@outlook.com to request a free 30 minute Enquiry Call or book an appointment. Please note that an Enquiry call is not a consultation but an exploratory call to see if this is a clinical approach you wish to pursue.To your very good health,
Suzanne Jeffery (Nutritional Medicine Consultant)
M.A.(Oxon), BSc.(NMed), PGCE, GNC, BSEM, MNNA, CNHC
The Good Health Clinic at The Business Centre, 2, Cattedown Road, Plymouth PL4 0EG
Tel no: 07836 552936/ Answer phone: 01752 774755
Disclaimer:
All advice given out by Suzanne Jeffery and the Good Health Clinic is for general guidance and informational purposes only. All advice relating to other health professionals’ advice is for general guidance and information purposes only. Readers are encouraged to confirm the information provided with other sources. Patients and consumers should review the information carefully with their professional health care provider. The information is not intended to replace medical advice offered by other practitioners and physicians. Suzanne Jeffery and the Good Health Clinic will not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, exemplary or other damages arising therefrom.