Women and Cardiac Disease:

The Homocystine Connection

The latest comparative figures from the American Heart Association (AHA) indicated a rise in women’s death rates over the last 40-50 years. Why has heart disease or coronary artery disease (CAD) increased so rampantly over the last 50 years? There is no one answer to this question unfortunately. This is a complex and multifaceted issue. One facet is lifestyle, which has become more sedentary on the techno world we live in today. With an increasing demand for our time, and less time to give, we are creating huge amounts of stress in us all, not just women. Diet is another factor. With the increase of processed and fast foods for ease of preparation, we sacrifice the quality and integrity of our nutrition. Diet does have a bearing on where I am going because it relates to just one small, but I feel important, fact to this increase in death in women due to CAD. There is a chemical called homocystine found in our blood, which has been known to increase the risk of CAD, but only recently has it come into the light and being given the respect it is due. I know cholesterol is the real bad guy isn’t it? Well if so why has CAD skyrocketed since the low fat diet and with the extraordinary use of lipid lowering medications? I’m not saying lower fat or lower saturated fat and higher monounsaturated fat in our won't help because they will. What I am saying is lets look at another important cause to this complex and multifaceted disease. Lets take a more encompassing approach that is simple and let’s get back to the basics of living a healthy productive life. Homocystine is a marker in the blood and when increased is known to increase the incidence of CAD. Some thing specifically that increases homocystine in women is birth control pills. There is a chemical reaction or drug nutrient reaction that binds with folic acid thus allowing increased homocystine, in addition to stress, caffeine and other foods that have a diuretic effect on the kidney. These all decrease B-vitamins and lower our resistance to many things specifically homocystine. This is nothing knew and has been known for over 30 years. The way it works is homocystine creates damage to the lining of the arteries and an inflammatory process ensues where the body tries to repair this area and a covering is laid down which happens to be sticky. This allows fats both good and bad, fibrin, platelets etc… to be laid down and is much less dependant on how high your cholesterol level is, within reason.

There is a relatively easy solution for this problem. Folic acid, B6 or Pyridoxal 5’ phosphate and B12 have all been shown to assist in lowering homocystine levels in blood. We must remember that our diet is a great source for getting these products and cannot be over looked. Dark green leafy vegetables are a good source of folic acid foods and meats especially lean red meats are a great source for B12 and both offer other essential vitamins and nutrients. These two food groups taken in proper amounts will go along way in overall health and wellness. As people today have increased digestion issues such as IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), Crohns, GERD (acid reflux), and others, eating becomes a problem for nutrient absorption. Nutritional supplementation is a great augmentation for not only those people, but every one. With today’s stressful life styles we are quickly becoming nutrient deficient in many areas. There is a very specific blood test I use to test nutrient deficiencies within the cellular tissue not just the serum like many test do. It does very little good to know what is floating around in the serum if the tissues cannot absorb a nutrient. So with the proper guidance from a trained professional you can get the correct help you need.

Today we live in an information overloaded time with the internet and marketing thrown at us from every one trying to help some trained, some not. This information is sometimes overwhelming. The old adage “everyone has an opinion” is correct. However when you deal with healthcare professionals specifically trained to analyze and assess these types of conditions and other possible nutrient deficient conditions your chance of getting correct advice increases exponentially.