You can take several tests to gauge your heart health and analyze your risk of cardiovascular disease. But one of the most insightful is a total homocysteine test. Health care providers don't perform this screening regularly, but they may recommend it if you have coronary heart disease or an elevated risk of developing it.
What is homocysteine, and what does this test tell you? In this blog, we'll cover healthy homocysteine levels and give you more insight into why this test matters.
What is Homocysteine?
Homocysteine is a type of amino acid. Your body produces it naturally, and B vitamins can break the amino acid down to create other chemicals your body needs to stay healthy. But, elevated homocysteine levels can be a problem.
When you have higher homocysteine levels, there's an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Homocysteines can damage the lining of your arteries at elevated levels. That can encourage blood clotting, increasing your risk of coronary artery disease, clots, strokes and heart attacks.
There are many reasons why individuals can have high homocysteine levels. Typically, it's a sign of vitamin deficiencies. When you don't get enough vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and folates in your system, your body can't break down the amino acid. Other possible causes are genetic diseases, thyroid problems and kidney disorders. Some medicines may also be the culprit.
Understanding Homocysteine Test Results
Your health care provider can order homocysteine tests to understand your heart disease risks. They'll usually walk you through your results. But if you receive test results digitally from the lab, deciphering them can be confusing.
Test results can vary depending on the lab used. However, most results appear as micromoles per liter (mcmol/L).
Healthy homocysteine levels are under 15 mcmol/L.
Moderately high homocysteine levels are between 15 and 30 mcmol/L. Health care providers consider anything between 30 and 100 mcmol/L as an "intermediate" level. If your results show homocysteine levels greater than 100 mcmol/L, you're in the "severe" category.
Your doctor will use these results to determine the right treatment. That can involve taking vitamin supplements to address deficiencies or ordering additional health screenings to determine the cause of elevated homocysteine levels.
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