{"id":24139,"date":"2023-07-19T08:07:24","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T08:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solongevity.com\/longevity-news\/stroke-neurodegenerative-diseases-and-bone-fragility-watch-out-for-homocysteine\/"},"modified":"2024-01-05T14:59:34","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T14:59:34","slug":"stroke-neurodegenerative-diseases-and-bone-fragility-watch-out-for-homocysteine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solongevity.com\/en\/longevity-news\/stroke-neurodegenerative-diseases-and-bone-fragility-watch-out-for-homocysteine\/","title":{"rendered":"Stroke, neurodegenerative diseases, and bone fragility: watch out for homocysteine"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does the risk of stroke depend on?<\/h3>\n

Everyone knows that age, high blood pressure, smoking, obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol levels increase the likelihood of stroke, an<\/strong> important cause of disability and the third leading cause of death in Italy. There is, however, another risk factor, well known to specialists but little known to the general public: high blood levels of an amino acid called homocysteine<\/strong>, which also poses a risk for neurodegenerative diseases<\/strong> and bone fragility<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What are homocysteine and hyperhomocysteinemia?<\/h3>\n

Homocysteine is derived from methionine<\/strong>, another amino acid that is taken in through food, and particularly through meat, eggs, milk, and legumes. Normally, in healthy people homocysteine is converted back to methionine or converted to cysteine (a precursor to glutathione<\/strong>) byfolic acid<\/strong> and vitamins B6 and B12<\/strong>. However, in cases of particular diseases, mutation of the MTHFR gene<\/strong>, or unbalanced diets, blood levels of homocysteine can rise above normal values, resulting inhyperhomocysteinemia<\/strong>. This condition can be dangerous because it leads to the thickening of the inner lining of the walls of the arteries<\/strong>, which damages them.<\/p>\n

People with high levels of homocysteine, cholesterol, and triglycerides are 40% more likely to experience a stroke than those with normal values<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What do the studies show?<\/h3>\n

As early as 2013, a study published in Neural Regeneration Research<\/em> showed that those with high levels of homocysteine, cholesterol, and triglycerides were 40 percent more likely to experience a stroke than those with values in the normal range, all other risk factors being equal. Again, a meta-analysis published in Stroke<\/em> in 2020 showed that correcting hyperhomocysteinemia results in a 34 to 70 percent reduction in risk.<\/p>\n

What does the amount of homocysteine in the blood depend on?<\/h3>\n

The amount of homocysteine normally present in the blood depends on several factors:<\/p>\n