Those following a healthy plant-based diet who have elevated homocysteine levels despite getting enough vitamin B12 may want to consider taking one gram per day of contaminant-free creatine.
Average blood homocysteine levels in men are approximately 1.5 points higher than in women, which may be one of the reasons why men tend to have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. Women do not need produce as much creatine as men, as they tend to have less muscle mass. That can help explain “the ‘gender gap’ in homocysteine levels.” If you remember my previous video and as seen below and at minute 0:36 The efficacy and safety of creatine for high homocysteine levelsin the process of doing Creatine causes our body to produce homocysteine as a byproduct. Therefore, for people with persistently high homocysteine levels who do not reply In sufficient terms for B vitamins, “creatine supplementation may represent a practical strategy to decrease plasma homocysteine levels,” that is, to reduce the homocysteine level to the normal range.
It seemed that work in rats. And in humans? Well, job in one study, but it didn’t seem work In another he didn’t do it work In another study, homocysteine levels were even lower. driven Up. So this suggestion that taking There has been some doubt as to whether creatine supplements could reduce homocysteine.
However, all of those studies were done with non-vegetarians, so they were already taking creatine supplements every day in the form of muscle meat. That way, the researchers were testing higher supplements versus lower supplements. Those who eat a strictly plant-based diet make all of their creatine from scratch, so they may be more sensitive to an added creatine source. Until now, there were no studies on creatine supplementation in vegans to lower homocysteine.
Researchers took vegans who weren’t supplementing their diets with vitamin B12, so some of their homocysteine levels were sky-high. Some hit 50 when the ideal is more like less than 10, for example. After taking some creatine for a few weeks, all of their homocysteine levels normalized. You can see the before and after in the graph below and at minute 2:04 in my blog post. video.
Now, they No normalize, as it would have been a level less than 10, but presumably that is because they were not taking B12. Give Vegetarians and vegans take vitamin B12 supplements, either dosing them daily or once a week, and their levels normalize within months, as you can see below and at minute 2:20 of my blog. video. However, the fact that you could bring Lowering homocysteine levels with creatine alone, even without B12, suggests, at least to me, that if your homocysteine is elevated (above 10) on a plant-based diet despite taking B12 supplements and eating vegetables and legumes to get enough folate, it might be worth experimenting with supplementing with a gram of creatine a day for a few weeks to see if your homocysteine goes down.
Why only one gram? That’s about the amount that non-vegetarians don’t consume. have to make themselves; it is the amount that erased the vegetarian discrepancies in blood and muscle, as you can see in the graph below and at 3:01 in my videoand how much has it been shown to be safe in the long run.
How safe? is that? we can carry Some solace in the fact that it is “one of the world’s best-selling dietary supplements,” with literally billions of servings takenand the only consistently reported side effect has been weight gain, which is presumed be of fluid retention. The only serious side effects appear being among those with pre-existing kidney disease taking huge doses approaching 20 grams a day. One concern was increase that creatine could potentially form a carcinogen known as N-nitrososarcosine when it comes into contact with the acid bath of the stomach, but, when it was actually put to the test, researchers found This doesn’t seem to be a problem.
Bottom line: Supplemental creatine doses of up to 3 grams per day are unlikely to pose “There is no risk” as long as “high purity creatine” is used. However, as we all know, dietary supplements in the United States are “not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and may contain contaminants or varying amounts of the intended supplement” and may not even contain what is on the label. We are talking about “contaminants… that may be generated during industrial production.” When researchers looked In 33 samples of creatine supplements manufactured in the United States and Europe, they found that all of them contained creatine, which is good, but about half exceeded the maximum level recommended by food safety authorities for at least one contaminant. The researchers recommend that “consumers give preference to products obtained from producers who ensure maximum quality control and certify the maximum amount of contaminants present in their products.” Easier said than done.
Because of the potential risks, I don’t think people should take creatine supplements willy-nilly, but the potential benefits may outweigh the potential risks if, again, you’re eating a healthy plant-based diet and taking vitamin B12, and your homocysteine levels aren’t already below 10. In that case, I would suggest trying a gram of creatine a day to see if it lowers it.
The reason I made this whole video series goes back to “Risks of ischaemic heart disease and stroke in meat eaters, fish eaters and vegetarians during 18 years of follow-up: results from the prospective EPIC-Oxford study” which found that although overall cardiovascular risk is lower in vegetarians and vegans combined, they seemed to have a slightly higher risk of stroke, as you can see in the graph below and at 5:06 in my video.
I went through a list of possible causes, as you can see see At 5:11 and under, I hit an elevated homocysteine level. What’s the solution? A regular, reliable source of vitamin B12. The cheapest and easiest method that I personally use is a 2500 mcg chewable tablet of cyanocobalamin, the most stable source of B12, once a week. (You can actually use 2000 mcg once a week.) And again, a backup plan for those who do that but still have an elevated homocysteine level is an empirical trial of a single gram a day of creatine supplement, which was shown to be effective. improve at least capillary blood flow in those who started with high homocysteine levels.
In summary, plant-based diets appear to be “markedly reduce The risk of multiple life-threatening diseases (heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and many common cancers) is high, but the risk of stroke can represent an ‘Achilles’ heel’. Nevertheless, vegans have the potential to achieve truly exceptional ‘healthy living’ if they address this problem head-on, by restricting salt intake and taking other practical steps that promote stroke. [brain artery] However, these considerations do not justify nutritional nihilism. In general, low-fat vegan diets offer such versatile protection for long-term health that they remain highly recommended. Most likely, the optimal strategy is to adopt such a diet. [plant-based] Diet, along with additional measures: choosing the right foods, physical training, sensible supplementation [of vitamin B12]—which will mitigate the associated risk of stroke.” And try not to huff Whipped cream that charges gas in the canister. Leave the whippets alone.
This concludes my series on stroke risk. If you missed any of the other videos, check out the related posts below.
I assume that almost everyone who takes vitamin B12 will have normal homocysteine levels, so these last two videos are just for the rare people who don’t. However, those who follow a healthy plant-based diet and have elevated homocysteine levels despite taking enough vitamin B12 should consider taking one gram a day of contaminant-free creatine, which should be about a quarter of a teaspoon.
Where can you get contaminant-free creatine? Since regulations are so lax, supplement manufacturers cannot be trusted no matter what they say, so I would recommend going directly to the chemical suppliers who sell it to labs and guarantee a certain purity. Below are some examples (in alphabetical order) of some of the top companies where you can get unadulterated creatine: Alfa Aesar, Fisher Scientist, Sigma-Aldrichand Turks and Caicos Islands of America.
