8 Dietary Changes That Will Help To Lower Homocysteine levels

8 easy dietary changes that will help to lower homocysteine levels

1. Eat less fatty meat, more fish and vegetable protein eat no more than four servings of lean meat a week; fish (not fried) at least three times a week; and if you’re not allergic or intolerant, a serving of a soya-based food, such as tofu, tempeh or soya sausages, plus beans, such as kidney beans, chickpea hummus or baked beans, at least five times a week.

2. Eat your greens have at least five servings of fruit or vegetables a day. This means eating two pieces of fruit every single day, and three servings of vegetables. Vary your selections from day to day. Make sure half of what’s on your plate for each main meal is vegetables.

3. Have a clove of garlic a day either eat a clove of garlic a day, or take a garlic supplement every day. You can take garlic oil capsules or powdered garlic supplements.

4. Cut back on tea and coffee don’t drink more than one cup of caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee or two cups of tea, in a day. Instead choose from the wide variety of herbal teas and grain coffees available.

5. Limit your alcohol limit your alcohol intake to no more than half a pint of beer, or one glass of red wine, in a day. Ideally, limit your intake to two pints of beer or four glasses of wine a week.

6. Reduce your stress if you are under a lot of stress, or find yourself reacting stressfully much of the time, make a decision to reduce your stress load by changing both the circumstances that are giving you stress and your attitude. Simple solutions abound: you can do yoga, meditation and/or exercise, or see a counsellor if you have some issues to resolve. These steps can make all the difference.

7. Stop smoking if you smoke, make a decision to stop, and seek help to do it. There is simply no safe level of smoking as far as homocysteine and your health is concerned.

8. Supplement a high-strength multivitamin every day. Excellent-quality multis are available in the market to keep your homocysteine levels in check, you’ll need one that gives at least 20mg of b6, 200mcg of folic acid and 10mcg of b12. This diet, lifestyle and supplement plan has the potential to halve your homocysteine score in weeks. If it's high, then you may need to supplement additional nutrients, as outlined in the table above. The goal is to bring your score to below 6 or 7 if you are over 50. Your homocysteine score is probably the best objective measure of whether you are achieving optimum nutrition for you.

Summary: keeping your homocysteine levels low

• Test your homocysteine level. 
• If it’s above 6, supplement the levels of homocysteine-lowering nutrients given in the table above. 
• Also take a high-strength multi-vitamin giving at least 20mg of b6, 200mcg of folic acid and 10mcg of b12, even if your h score isn’t above 6. 
• Follow the h factor plan as shown above. 
• Re-test yourself every three months until your homocysteine is below 6.