Will Glycine Supplementation Reduce Homocysteine? 

To figure out how much glycine to supplement with, I used cronometer to determine my average daily glycine intake that corresponded to each homocysteine test, and then investigated the corresponding regression equation. Although the correlation was just outside of statistical significance (r=-0.36, p=0.09), I can still use the corresponding regression as a rough estimate of how much daily glycine to take. That equation is: Homocysteine = -1.36 *average daily glycine intake +15.4 I then aimed for a homocysteine target of 7.5 umol/L, which is close to my levels in youth, and based on the regression equation, I'd need about 6g of glycine/d to get there (assuming that correlation = causation, of course). Based on cronometer's values, my daily average for glycine is ~4g/d, which means that I'd need to supplement with an extra 2g/day. We'll see how well this works (or not) with the next blood test, sometime in January!

Trimethylglycine (betaine) is often recommended for lowering homocysteine. As the majority of SAM (SAMe) methyl donors are used to create creatine and phosphatidylcholine I take both these as part of my homocysteine-lowering regime. As you would know both have additional health benefits, with 5g of creatine daily seemingly a safe and effective dose. While often just B12 and folate are recommended the methylation cycle also depends on sufficient B6 and B2. I take an activated multi-B which contains methylated folate and B12. To lower my SAH, which builds up in conjunction with rising homocysteine, I take forskolin. SAM is converted into SAH after donating a methyl group, and then is converted into homocysteine in a reversible process (excess homocysteine can be converted back into SAH). There needs to be a balance between SAM and SAH for proper methylation to occur, with excess SAH supressing methylation. Raised SAH may be one reason lowering chronically high levels of blood homocysteine doesn't lead to better health outcomes. So far forskolin is the only supplement I've come across that seems to lower SAH levels. Taking SAMe unfortunately dies not fix the SAM/SAH inbalance as the SAM is converted into SAH. I have taken N-acetylcysteine for a while but recently upped my daily dosage to 5g and added 5g of glycine, as this combination has recently been shown to very effectively raise flagging glutathione levels. I've also recently added 200mg of hyaluronic acid and 10g of hydrolysed collagen peptides, as the science indicates both are effective in rebuilding collagen in the body. I'm not so worried about the outside wrinkles, but need to boost the collagen in my joints and arteries. In my case my raised blood homocysteine levels were genetically high and weren't detected until after it had initiated accelerated atherosclerosis, partly through boosting systemic inflammation and direct damage to the arterial endothelial layer. Homocysteine thiolactone also binds to proteins throughout the body rendering them dysfunctional, so I've tried to autophage away as much damaged cells as possible and now am trying to boost angiogenesis through rebuilding lean muscle. I've read the body can grow new arteries around blockages, but other than some injectable peptides I haven't come across any angiogenesis promoting supplements. Let me know if you can think of anything that could help grow new arteries. Now my blood homocysteine level is low any new arteries I grow should be free of the accelerated athrosclerosis. A Facebook page you may be interested in is Homocysteine Research, as its main aim is to share peer-reviewed scientific research papers relevant to homocysteine.

You're one of my favorite "fight against aging" content creators, thanks for sharing with us your journey ! I'm glad that you decided to use Glycine, I've been supplementing it for a long time. It would be quite interesting to see a list of what supplement you use, and I don't mean only pills and powders but also foods. Like always making sure to eat a few nuts everyday. I've been going through your videos for a while but I think having a quick to read list in the video description would be really nice. Thank you !

Great video! I'm looking forward to getting more of my real data so I can begin to move the needle intentionally and be able to see what things move them in the right direction. Thanks for skating your life and journey and how you think about this goal: it is very illuminating... and motivating!

This is a 5* video , well explained and detailed, life saving!!!!……thank you

Thanks! Best video. Everyone should know statistics.

At 59 I had a measurement of 14.5; I added methylated Folate and B-12. My number dropped to 7

I'm looking forward to seeing your results.

Incredible content you create -- well done!! I'm confused with comments on TMG being a circularity to homocysteine but glycine is not -- can you please clarify?

Excellent video. You show so clearly the key pathways. I remember dr Jonathon Wright, ND recommending glycine for better sleep. Probably due to its beneficial effect on methylation and thus the transition into a state of sleep(?). At what low level of homocysteine does ACM begin to rise? Did you do an earlier video on homocysteine?

Wow your channel is full of gem's

Thanks for sharing this video with us! Could the cause of the link in all cause mortality and homocysteine not be lower glutathione levels or another mechanism whereby higher homocysteine levels are just a symptom and lowering homocysteine as such will not help...?

That was really interesting. I’d like to know what diet you were on at the time. I’m wondering if a keto diet solves all the fundamental issues.

You could still be low in vitamin B6 and zinc if you've got pyroles disorder. It will distribute more of that out of the body.

Mortality increases with age. Homocysteine increases with age. ==> Mortality increases with Homocysteine. Causality? Is the mortality cased by age or by Homocysteine? Or both?

I'm 44 and had my HCY tested for the first time in February: 7.2, and I don't take any of the stuff you mentioned, but I do take enough stuff to fill gaps. HOWEVER, I recently realized my collagen supplement (which Ive taken pretty regularly for a few years) has 2.6g of glycine per serving. The caveat is that I only take half a serving per day and, probably doesn't play into it, but also only dose 4 or 5 days a week on average. Do you think thats a contributor (obviously, without knowing anything else I take)? I recently kinda started taking glyNAC (I've been taking NAC for about 18months) before bed (~400mg); I say "kinda" because its a magnesium glycinate, not pure glycine. So, "mag glyNAC." Is that similar?

There is an underproduction of glycine to support collagen. My strategy is to consome collagen and top up with glycine to flush out the homocystine. That begs the question how much glycine? I suspect it may not be much.

I am taking L-Serine along with Glycine and NAC for glutathione synthesis, before bedtime.

Note that after I found out about the downsides of having high homocysteine from your site, i checked mine and it was in fact high - at 15.6. I subesequently started with "Homocysteine Resist" from Life Extension. Following the start of that routine my homocysteine quickly dropped to 9.x and has stayed there. A couple of thoughts about that move versus your idea to start Glycine. 1) Aside from a deficiency in Folate/ B12/ B6 causing high homocysteine, have you considered the opposite, that a surplus of those vitamins might have a drug-like impact lowing HCY more than simply maintaining adequate levels? Note that Life Extensions products provide far in excess of RDA - for example 41000% the RDA of b12 for example. 2) The LE product also has B2, but I didn't see you mention it. Possible that is another required vitamin for keeping HCY low?

I take 2 Magnesium Glycinate caps per day which provides approximately 2Gs of Glycine. So I get 2 supps I want in the same pill. 60 y.o. male with 9.2 of homocysteine on most recent blood test.

serine may also be reducing Homocysteine uptake in addition to influencing the metabolism of it. Glycine was also shown to reduce Homocysteine in this study> "Inhibition of homocysteine-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress and endothelial cell damage by l-serine and glycine" PMID: 27064126

Did you have a chance to look at the recent studies on Glycine and N-Acetylcysteine (GlyNAC)?

L-Glycine vs Glycine (free form) - which do you recommend?

A+

Should I supplement glycine or TMG? How do I calculate how much?

hi there, as always very impressive... question: you stick very much to the RDA... usually you try to get 2..4 times more than recommended. Well, the RDA for vit C is 70 mg, which is way too low, similar for vit D3, ... so here, given that B vitamins are very hard to get overdosed, a selective increase of B6 seems the only logical drain. Th rest of the metabolism is part of a big network, which is probably hard to move regarding its "set points" Which brings me to another point, s.o. else already mentioned. Physiology is about a logistical and informational network, simply increasing all good stuff way above RDA may not have an effect. It is about the state of the whole thingy, and a differential supplementation. That is, the individuality of a particular physiological system is better described by a profile, not by a collection of single items. Such profiles can be evaluated using machine learning. I did that already 16y ago in various medical contexts...

Are you also considering NAC to go with Glycine ?

Great video. 2g of glycine is a very low dose. You may get more benefits (other than lowering homocysteine) from taking a higher dose. By the way, it would be great if you could do a vlog of grocery shopping - so we can see what foods you buy.

Your blood test is really good, if you have added Lp(a) would be complete. Can i add this test in addition?

would higher levels of b12, b6 and b9 increase the rate of conversion to methionine?

What are the role(s) of homocysteine in the body?

What to do if it homocysteine dropped to 3 after taking methylated form of b12? How to increase homocysteine because feel terrible and aged fast.

I wonder if you will/have noticed skin improvements with glycine.

Have you investigated using riboflavin/other B vitamins to reduce homocysteine for people with the MTHFR variant?

lowering methonine could also do the trick

Was there a follow up on this, doc?

Does niacin increase this

Glysophate effects glycine , see Stephanie Senoff . Wheat and oats are highly sprayed at harvest to dry / desicate the plants.

I'm 46 and my husband is 50, both our homocysteine 6.4

Can we reverse methylated DNA with TMG? If TMG helps with Methylation , does it mean it increases biological age?

If I don't forget, I take collagen. Glycin is a big part of it (22%). Do you think, pure glycine is much better?

what is the follow up video after glycine supplementation? did it decrease homocysteine?

Ok, if you are on a budget, and want to reduce Homocysteine but maybe cannot afford a GlyNac (combo) supplement and need to choose between the 2 of them (Glycine OR NAC) : Which one of them is more effective (per mg) in reducing Homocysteine levels ? (specifically in the context of an elderly person - 80+ years old)

Less methionine, which leads to less homocystiene which leads one to the inevitable (whole food, plant based,) and working physically everyday

When the body makes its own creatine it produces homocysteine as a by-product. Have you looked into creatine supplementation to bring down homocysteine? This study might be interesting doi: 10.1111/fcp.12442.

Propionyl-CoA Carboxylase (Biotin) should also be considered.

Fascinating. I really hope glycine is effective in reducing your homocysteine

There are a lot of factors that are related to homocysteine levels. Methylmalonic acid from protein digestion and metabolism, vitamin B12 status, P5P, Riboflavin, Nucleotide status, etc. There are many pathways that break down, and many unconventional nutritional deficits, with aging.

At the 7:50 mark you said you would have a blood test in Jan for glycine, after supplementing, what was the result?

My homocysteine typically ran 12-18. With methyl B vitamins this dropped to 9. With 8 g glycine and 8,000 mg NAC it is now

❤

RDA??? REALLY

Maybe homocysteine increases with age because only the people with elevated homocysteine survive.

Glycine will help but it s not enough ...

A ridiculously large number of things are correlated with time. All of those things are correlated with each other. The Dow Jones average is correlated with time. Cumulative rainfall in the Amazon is correlated with time. Homocysteine levels are correlated with time. All cause mortality is correlated with time. So... Hell with glycine supplementation! Let's reduce rainfall - being careful not to crash the stock market, of course!

too myopic. supplementing with 2g of glycine a day, missing a day and then supplementing with 4g, for 39 days, is not going to "lower homocysteine". glycine is used for so many different things, the 2g you took wouldnt be used on what you think it should be used on, its going to be used for collagen synthesis and neurotransmission

Sorry but I thought Methionine should get converted into Glutathione, the antioxidant, in the liver, so adding in Betaine should be fine.

What the heck?? You did not answer the question!