Red Meat Contributes to Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Due to Gut Bacteria

the Renal and Urology News take:

Bacteria in the gut metabolizes red meat in a way that greatly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), a new study in Cell Metabolism has found.

In a previous study conducted by Stanley Hazen, MD, PhD, of the Cleveland Clinic, he and his fellow researchers found that consumption of red meat promoted atherosclerosis. This is due to gut bacteria converting L-carnitine, a nutrient found in red meat, into trimethylamine.

Dr. Hazen’s team has now found that gamma-butyrobetaine, another metabolite generated through the consumption of red meat, is produced to at an even greater extent due to gut bacteria and contributes to atherosclerosis. Gamma-butrobetaine acts as an intermediary metabolite by microbes at a rate 1000-times greater than the formation of trimethylamine.

These findings suggest new targets for preventing atherosclerosis through the inhibition of these gut microbial pathways or the use of probiotics in shifting gut bacterial composition.

“The present studies may help us to develop an intervention that allows one to ‘have their steak and eat it too’ with less concern for developing heart disease,” Dr. Hazen stated.