What is homocysteine? Is the increase of homocysteine harmful? How to lower it

       With the improvement of people's health awareness, people are also increasingly concerned about the issue of "blood homocysteine". We will introduce you some relevant knowledge about how to reduce the content of blood homocysteine in the blood.

       What is blood homocysteine?

       Homocysteine is an intermediate metabolite of amino acids in the blood. In terms of production pathway, it is a metabolite of the important amino acid "methionine" that is essential to the human body after demethylation. Under normal circumstances, it will be further rapidly metabolized and transformed in the body. There are two main ways of its transformation, one is demethylation, which is further converted into methionine to provide nutrition for the body, and the other is through the sulfur transfer pathway, It is converted into cysteine, which is an important raw material for synthesizing glutathione, an important antioxidant in the body.

       Therefore, under normal conditions, homocysteine will be further transformed in the human body and maintain a low level, but if its metabolic transformation pathway is blocked, making it accumulate in the blood, the level of homocysteine in the blood will rise. Because the molecular structure of homocysteine contains sulfhydryl, which is a toxic intermediate metabolite, the concentration of this substance in the blood will rise, It will have adverse effects on health in all aspects.

       What harm will the rise of homocysteine do to the body?

       First of all, let's talk about the limit of hyperhomocysteine (short for hyperhomocysteine) μ Mol/L is still more than 15 μ Mol/L is the problem of exceeding the standard. In fact, it is meaningless to tangle with such numerical difference. In the relevant guidelines of our country, in the definition of type H hypertension, homocysteine is more than 10 μ Mol/L is the judgment standard, and in some popular science articles, it is also pointed out that more than 15 is a problem of high blood homocysteine. In fact, no matter which index is used as the judgment standard, the level of blood homocysteine increases by more than 10 μ Mol/L, you should be alert to the possible health hazards.

       The mechanism of health hazards caused by high blood pressure is multifaceted. The blocked production of methionine will affect the synthesis of DNA and RNA, and repair will lead to cell differentiation and abnormal development, as well as the inhibition of gene expression and chromosome inactivation; The blocked sulfur transfer pathway will reduce the synthesis of glutathione and cause oxidative damage to cells; In addition, hyperemia can also stimulate the proliferation of smooth muscle and cause vascular sclerosis; The metabolism of low density lipoprotein cholesterol will also be affected by high blood pressure, resulting in more deposition and oxidation in the blood vessel wall, accelerating the process of atherosclerosis; Homocysteine also inhibits the synthesis of nitric oxide and oxidizes itself into free radicals. It reacts with the synthesized nitric oxide to produce peroxynitrite, which endangers health. The adverse health effects of these aspects are noteworthy.

       In terms of related diseases, the risk of stroke will be further increased in people with elevated blood homocysteine and hypertension. Relevant research shows that the risk of stroke increases by 4.2 times for people with blood equivalent value higher than 10.5mmol/L, while in the Framingham cohort study, the blood equivalent value is higher than 14.24 μ The risk of stroke in mol/L population is 9.25 μ 1.8 times of the mol/L population.

       In addition to increasing the risk of stroke, blood homocysteine is also a neurotoxin that will affect the health of the nervous system. Hyperhomocysteine can promote neurodegeneration by breaking cell DNA, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and vascular dementia. Hyperhomocysteine is one of the related risk factors.

       The increased risk of hyperemia and cardiovascular disease can not be ignored. Hyperemia can damage vascular endothelial health and increase the risk of vascular atherosclerosis from multiple mechanisms. A cooperative research project on homocysteine found that 10% of all coronary artery diseases can be attributed to hyperemia. Another study found that the blood level was higher than 20 μ The 5-year survival rate of patients with coronary heart disease in mol/L is lower than 65%, and if it is reduced to less than 9, the survival rate can be increased to more than 95%.

       In addition to the above health effects, high blood pressure is also closely related to hypertension, chronic kidney disease, bone health, the risk of fetal congenital heart disease during pregnancy, and andrology disease. Therefore, active control of high blood pressure will have great health benefits for all aspects of physical health, especially for middle-aged and elderly people, who have cardiovascular disease risks, We should pay more attention to the screening of blood homocysteine level, and actively control the problem of high blood homocysteine.

       How to reduce blood homocysteine?

       It is a very important problem for friends with high blood level to reduce the elevated blood level. If you want to reduce blood homocysteine, you should focus on the two pathways of blood homocysteine metabolism and transformation. Many friends have heard that if the blood homocysteine is high, folic acid can be supplemented, but in fact, folic acid alone can not effectively reduce the blood homocysteine level of many friends. The reduction of high blood homocysteine is closely related to the following nutrients.

       First of all, it is folic acid. The active metabolite of folic acid in the body, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, is the reaction substrate of homocysteine demethylation. If the body lacks folic acid or the body's folic acid cannot be effectively converted to 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, it will affect the demethylation process of homocysteine and increase the level of homocysteine. Therefore, for friends who do have the problem of folic acid deficiency, folic acid supplementation is indeed an effective means to reduce homocysteine.

       However, it should be noted that some friends have genetic mutations with folate conversion disorder. Even if sufficient folic acid is ingested, there may still be high blood pressure caused by 5-methyltetrahydrofolate deficiency. Therefore, if this is the case, it is more appropriate to supplement folic acid directly with 5-methyltetrahydrofolate with physiological activity.

       Other B vitamins, folic acid is also a member of B vitamins (vitamin B9). In the sulfur-transfer and demethylation pathway of homocysteine, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 are not reaction substrates, but also coenzymes with important catalytic effects. Therefore, in order to reduce the blood homocysteine level in an all-round way, in addition to paying attention to supplement folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12, As well as B vitamins such as vitamin B2 (promoting the production of vitamin B6), we should also pay attention to supplement and intake, which also fully reflects the synergy of B vitamins.

       Natural betaine, which can provide three methyl groups in the human body, is the most efficient methyl donor, and the potency ratio of its methyl group is 12-15 times higher than that of choline. The study found that the effect of betaine supplementation after meal is better than that of folic acid, especially in the case of folic acid deficiency and related gene mutation, betaine supplementation will play a greater role, and in the case of high blood homocysteine caused by lack of betaine or choline, Folic acid supplementation has no effect. Therefore, it is also very important to pay attention to the supplement of natural betaine for reducing the problem of hyperglycemia.

       In short, the content of homocysteine in the blood cannot be effectively reduced by supplementing folic acid. According to the actual situation of the patient, some B vitamins and some natural betaine and related choline can be properly supplemented, which can better reduce the content of homocysteine in the blood.