[Icare dixit]

Anyone know whether they have too much of it (and, maybe, why; "yes and no" is also a useful answer, when it's within normal range)?

Do you know your blood plasma concentration of homocysteine?

Mine is consistently (as far as I know) around 70 micromolar (umol/L).

It could very well be an important cause of (a form of) BP (and other psychoses and dementia). There seems to be more and more (suggestive) evidence.

[pirilin]

Always using foul languaje. No wonder nobody replies.

This is a good question to which I do not know the answer. If I wrote me Doctor, would you except he would have this information? Or would I need to request a special blood draw?

[Icare dixit]

Originally Posted by ElsaMars

This is a good question to which I do not know the answer. If I wrote me Doctor, would you except he would have this information? Or would I need to request a special blood draw?

Probably the latter. They usually don't look at the homocysteine levels.

If your B12 and/or B9/folate intake is too low, it causes a large homocysteine concentration as well, so that has to be ruled out as the cause.

If you don't have enough (methyl)B12, homocysteine levels will be high regardless of your folate intake.

I'd suggest you request a test for homocysteine (together with at least B12 and B9). But maybe they've done so already, so you may want to ask that first, of course.

[Icare dixit]

It's probably best to have your blood drawn twice: once before taking supplements and one after taking them.

The supplements you may then take are B12, methyl-B12 and methylfolate/-THF.

The last two supplements basically bypass two enzymes (which may be less active due to genetic variation), one of which is most likely to be different in some with BP. B12 is used as a substrate, a raw material, used by the enzyme encoded by the gene which is least likely to be different from most.

The second blood test could then be used to see whether one of these two genes may have a different genotype than most people have.

If there's no (significant) difference in your blood plasma homocysteine levels, genetic or enzymatic tests may be necessary.

Apart from brain damage and (hence) psychosis/mania, there's an increased risk of cardiovascular problems, which most/many with BP have.