Beware the Homocysteine 😳
It can cause high blood pressure and is easily controlled (no meds)!
ME: Good morning, honey. I have a new supplement for you!
HAL: Oh, good. (Because he knows better than to resist.) What is it and what’s it for?
ME: TMG to mitigate high homocysteine levels which can cause high blood pressure. I’m trying to keep you alive.
HAL: (hugs me) It’s not going to work.
Sigh. Living with a stoic realist has its ups and downs.
In a nutshell
We all have homocysteine in our blood. In a perfect body with a healthy gut and no mutated genes, homocysteine is broken down into the harmless amino acid methionine.
It’s estimated that 60 to 70% of us have at least one mutated gene and who do you know has a healthy gut?
When you are not breaking down homocysteine efficiently and levels get too high, it irritates the lining of your arteries causing them to become inflamed which causes them to swell and narrow. Meanwhile you are pushing the same amount of blood through your body but now it’s being forced through a narrower pipe which causes blood pressure to rise.
Gotta relax those pipes!
Methylated B vitamins, specifically B6, B12, and folate, help your body breakdown homocysteine. Another supplement that works well is TMG (trimethylglycine). We’re havin’ some.
Resources
For your reading pleasure: Dr Axe on homocysteine
Here are 4 good TTs on this from people I follow:
Performance Medicine - she doesn’t talk about TMG, but she does mention the other B vitamins that play an important role in lowering homocystine
Gary Brecka (while I’m not a huge Brecka fan, he does get a lot of things right.)
It’s a good idea to cover your camera whenever you are on the internet. I use little pieces of post it notes to cover mine.
Where to Buy (no affiliation)
TMG pills | TMG powder Life Extension is a good company (so far, it’s not owned by a megacorp).
We’ll start with the pills, then probably switch to the powder. Hal will be taking 4 grams for 6 weeks (recommended by one of the docs) and pills will be easier for that. Overall, I prefer powder because there are no other additives, just the good stuff. We add a bunch to our daily smoothie.
Homocysteine Resist If you are not already taking the other B vitamins, this is a very good companion supplement (you’ll need the TMG also).
Stay healthy, ya’ll. We need you
xo Sally