People who take nutritional supplements to lower their homocysteine levels may be doing so to improve their heart health now, new research suggests it could benefit their mental health as well.
Research reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry suggests that older people who have high levels of the amino acid may be more likely to suffer from depression, the Hindu reports.
Scientists at the Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing studied over 3,700 men aged 70 or older and identified a gene related to an increase in homocysteine that is also connected to higher levels of depression.
WACHA director of research Osvaldo Almeida explained that this is the first study to provide evidence that homocysteine may cause depression.
“Weve now found that the MTHFR gene, which we knew contributed to increasing the basal concentration of homocysteine by 20 percent, also increases the rise of depression by about 20 percent in older people,” he said, according to the news provider.
Studies have linked homocysteine to higher risk of cardiovascular disease, but scientists have not yet identified the particular relationship.