cycle. Ensuring adequate folate (and B 12 ) helps keep
homocysteine, a toxic amino acid, low. Your homocysteine
level is easily determined by your physician with a simple
blood test, but elevated homocysteine is common, affecting
up to 30 percent of persons over sixty-five worldwide.^1
Having elevated homocysteine has been linked not only
with worse cognitive performance, but with a twofold risk
for developing dementia, heart attack, and stroke. Odds of
brain shrinkage are up to ten times higher in patients with
high homocysteine compared to those with normal levels.^2
Consuming a vitamin B complex including folate, B 12 , and
B 6 can keep levels within the normal, healthy range.
Many people already unknowingly supplement with
folate—this is because it is added to a wide array of foods
including bread and multivitamins in the form of folic acid.
Unfortunately, because of a common genetic mutation
known as MTHFR (short for methylenetetrahydrofolate
reductase), many people do not convert folic acid, which is
synthetic, to active folate, called methylfolate. This can drive
levels of homocysteine up, among other potential problems.
When supplementing with B vitamins, avoid taking
megadoses, which is not necessary and yet common in
supplements. Taking too much folate if you’re deficient in
B 12 can actually accelerate brain aging, whereas having
optimal amounts of both can have the desired, protective
effect. One way to ensure a healthy balance is simply to eat
foods rich in natural sources of folate—vegetables—and
match this consumption with consumption of egg yolks,