This Little-Known Risk Factor Can Increase Your Dementia Risk By 31%

We've been looking into dementia a lot lately—specifically, how to spot cognitive decline and what you can do to prevent it in the first place.

Homocysteine is an amino acid that's heavily involved in a biological process called methylation. During methylation, the bioactive form of folate (5-MTHF) donates a methyl group to homocysteine so it can be converted into another amino acid, methionine.

When operating optimally, methylation promotes cardiovascular, neurological, and reproductive health, aids energy production, bolsters detoxification pathways, supports longevity, and more.

The problem is that roughly more than 50% of the U.S. population has a genetic mutation of the MTHFR gene that inhibits the body's ability to activate folate, so it can't optimize methylation.

If bioactive folate isn't available to help convert homocysteine during the methylation cycle (i.e., due to an MTHFR gene variation or other reasons—such as poor diet, hormone imbalances, stress, or exposure to toxins), homocysteine levels can become too high.

Evidence suggests that elevated homocysteine levels are one of the causes of age-related decline and a dementia risk factor—but it's a modifiable risk, meaning our lifestyle habits can optimize our homocysteine levels and subsequently, reduce our dementia risk. 

Scientists from the 2018 review found that elderly adults with cognitive impairment who increased their intake of methylation-critical B vitamins (i.e., folate, B6, and B12) saw a slowed rate of cognitive decline.

mindbodygreen's founder and co-CEO, Jason Wachob, was able to get his own elevated homocysteine levels down to a healthy range with a combination of these nutrients, plus riboflavin (vitamin B2) and betaine.