Meat and Homocysteine- Irrelevant or Dangerous?

Do we have to avoid meat if we have high homocysteine levels? Not really.

 

What our body does with homocysteine is more important than our food intake. I thought this was easier to explain in video form, so you can see my 4 minute explanation here:

The bottom line is we need to know our methylation status, make sure we have adequate levels of folate, B12 and B6, and make sure we have adequate choline (found in egg yolks).  If all those are perfect, and we still have elevated homocysteine, then we may want to experiment with a diet low in methionine to see if it makes a difference.

 

As always, however, we have to evaluate our overall health picture and not get too hung up on one blood marker. The more important questions to ask are how does homocysteine affect my overall health, and how will altering my supplements or diet change the big picture?

 

Hopefully this helps! Let me know if you have any comments or questions.

 

Thanks for reading (and watching!)

Bret Scher MD FACC

4 thoughts on “Meat and Homocysteine- Irrelevant or Dangerous?”

  1. Thnx for great presentation. I like that it’s short and to the point.
    My lab values states under 10.4 is range and mine comes back 9.4 . A cardiologist told me once it should be under 8.
    I do have all the MTHFR markers. I use the methyl B’s. Eating more egg yolks sounds like an excellent idea!

  2. Why vegetarian and meat eaters’ diet is discussed here? Dairy products are high in methionine as much as meat.
    Why vegan diet is not discussed instead considered the different variation of amino acids that vegans / meat eaters digest.
    I have an MTHFR mutation and there is lots of evidence that vegan diet lowers the level of homocysteine in the blood within as little as one week. (Patrick Holford)

  3. I’m MTHFR compound heterozygous. I was a long-time vegan who was supplementing with a non-methylated B12 and my homocysteine level was a 12. I switched to a methylated B complex and my homocysteine lowered to between 7 and 8. I ended my vegan diet, added lots of eggs, some meat/fish/poultry, full-fat dairy, and a collagen supplement (for the glycine benefit) and my homocysteine has been at a 5.4 ever since, approximately 4 years.

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Bret Scher, MD FACC

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