killroy's picture
killroy
  • 374
1994

Heart Disease Linked to L-Carnitine and TMAO... fat and cholesterol only a minor contributer.

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Culprit in Heart Disease Goes Beyond Meat’s Fat
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/study-points-to-new-culprit-in-...

"The researchers had come to believe that what damaged hearts was not just the thick edge of fat on steaks, ... In fact, these scientists suspected that saturated fat and cholesterol made only a minor contribution to the increased amount of heart disease seen in red-meat eaters. The real culprit, they proposed, was a little-studied chemical that is burped out by bacteria in the intestines after people eat red meat. It is quickly converted by the liver into yet another little-studied chemical called TMAO that gets into the blood and increases the risk of heart disease."

david_reynolds's picture

Thank god I am a vegetarian ;)

alloneword's picture

+1 bud. Good to have another veggie in here with me.

Mars's picture

After doing some additional reading and searching it appears that L-Carnitine is still a safe and effective supplement to use.

I use L-Carnitine; actually just had blood work done the other Saturday and things looks pretty good.

In fact it seems L-Carnitine has and is being used to treat some cardiovascular issues including angina, acute myocardial infarction, postmyocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, dyslipidemia, and diabetes.

here is the links for the study and also another describing it's beneficial use.. the media taking things outta context smh

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9406679

http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.3145.html

killroy's picture

I really suggest reading more up on this. L-carnitine in itself isn't the culprit. Its the gut bacteria TMAO that it feeds which screws with the body's ability to excrete excess cholesterol and cause plaque build up in the arteries. TMAO is present in much higher concentrations with meat eaters. That is something blood work may not show nor will blood work display plaque build up.

Also, your pubmed link is over a decade old (1997)... this new finding was just reported on in 2012/2013.

BTW, The 2nd link you posted is an abstract of an article explaining the role of carnitine and TMAO in promoting atherosclerosis, which is the exact same thing reported on in the news article.

The media is not taking anything out of context, they are reporting on the results of this study... with arguably pretty clear findings. Continue to supplement with l-carnitine but its definitely something to think about if you are consuming high amounts of red meat and cholesterol with it...

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Mars's picture

Yes, not dismissing what you said. its also already been known for years that excessive red meat consumption leads to those issues.. its good we now know how that process comes to be and that's all that study is suggesting.. but it doesn't change anything.

I'm on a whole food plant based diet anyways, and if people ate a more balanced and diverse food diet and stayed away from processed foods they wouldn't have as much worry about those kinds of issues.

In any case thanks for sharing that info. And your right I posted the wrong link lol

alloneword's picture

Agreed, when I read this I was like, "Am I supposed to be surprised?"
It feels good not to worry about this kind of shite.

killroy's picture

No doubt brotha!

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