Homocysteine decreases cerebral perfusion

[NHE]

I think that any discussion of endothelial health and cerebral perfusion is incomplete without considering homocysteine.

Resting brain perfusion and selected vascular risk factors in healthy elderly subjects.
PLoS One. 2014 May 19;9(5):e97363.

• BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Both cerebral hypoperfusion and vascular risk factors have been implicated in early aging of the brain and the development of neurodegenerative disease. However, the current knowledge of the importance of cardiovascular health on resting brain perfusion is limited. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the relation between brain perfusion variability and risk factors of endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerosis in healthy aged subjects.
  
  METHODS: Thirty-eight healthy subjects aged 50-75 years old were included. Mean global brain perfusion was measured using magnetic resonance phase contrast mapping and regional brain perfusion by use of arterial spin labeling.
  
  RESULTS: Mean global brain perfusion was inversely correlated with caffeine and hematocrit, and positively with end-tidal PCO2. Furthermore, the mean global brain perfusion was inversely correlated with circulating homocysteine, but not with asymmetric dimethylarginine, dyslipidemia or the carotid intima-media thickness. The relative regional brain perfusion was associated with circulating homocysteine, with a relative parietal hypoperfusion and a frontal hyperperfusion. No effect on regional brain perfusion was observed for any of the other risk factors. A multiple regression model including homocysteine, caffeine, hematocrit and end-tidal PCO2, explained nearly half of the observed variability.
  
  CONCLUSION: Both intrinsic and extrinsic factors influenced global cerebral perfusion variation between subjects. Further, the results suggest that the inverse relation between homocysteine and brain perfusion is owing to other mechanisms, than reflected by asymmetric dimethylarginine, and that homocysteine may be a marker of cerebral perfusion in aging brains.

Free full text.

[cheerleader]

Great paper, NHE. I included homocysteine in the Endothelial Health program----it's a real problem.

#7 Low Vitamin B12 levels

Low vitamin B12 creates high levels of homocysteine in the blood (a sulfur containing amino acid) which damages the endothelium. An unbalanced diet, a strict vegetarian diet that excludes all meat, fish, dairy and eggs diet, or a diet overly reliant on processed foods, could all lead to low vitamin B12 levels, potentially damaging the endothelium20.

http://ccsvi.org/index.php/helping-myse ... ial-health

cheer

[Rogan]

Am I reading correctly? Caffeine is bad for perfusion?

Mean global brain perfusion was inversely correlated with caffeine and hematocrit, and positively with end-tidal PCO2.

What is end-tidal PCO2?

Thanks for all the links and info you both provide.

[NHE]

Am I reading correctly? Caffeine is bad for perfusion?

Mean global brain perfusion was inversely correlated with caffeine and hematocrit, and positively with end-tidal PCO2.

What is end-tidal PCO2?

Thanks for all the links and info you both provide.

Caffeine causes vasoconstriction and reduces cerebral perfusion.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19219847 (free full text)

PCO₂ is the partial pressure of CO₂. I imagine that "end-tidal PCO₂" refers to the amount of CO₂ that remains in the lungs at the end of exhalation.

[1eye]

This could be a good result for a lot of afflictions. Cheer, the problem is, we don't all live in Califusa. I think, except in summer when folks are more likely to encounter fresh fruit and vegetables, it is very easy in this modern world to consume a diet which contains no real food at all. When food supplies of large populations are controlled by large corporations, we are all at risk. The most common food additive, salt, is mainly controlled by a tightly-held privately owned corporation which is one of the largest in the world.

In these days when courts are applying civil law which treats corporations as persons, those same entities must be subject to all the force of the criminal code as well, and since a new kind of person is coming into being, perhaps new ways of applying criminal law to these entities will have to be figured out. It would be hard to throw a lot of shareholders in jail.

Perhaps if the punishment is to fit the crime we should sanction those responsible by limiting their diets. There could be hidden benefits.

Anyway I hope you are correct and that many problems may be solved with B12 injections.