Eating Red Meat Linked To Sudden Heart Failure, Study Reveals

A new study suggested that an increased level of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) can be directly linked to patients who have exacerbated cases of acute heart failure. TMAO is believed to be a by-product of L- carnitine, which is a compound formed by stomach bacteria in the digestion of red meat.

Experts revealed that there is a high risk of death for those people who have chronic heart failure. However, a recent study in the University of Leicester in the UK, which was published in the journal Heart discovered that TMAO also have a profound effect in patients with acute heart failure, Medical News Today reported.

Professor Toru Suzuki and his team from the University of Leicester's Department of Cardiovascular Sciences and PI released a statement saying that people who are experiencing the worsening of their heart failure symptoms (fatigue, swelling of the feet or leg, and difficulty of breathing) are those people who are often found to have an elevate levels of TMAO. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that this affects 5.1 million people in the United States.

According to medicaldaily.com, the researchers of the study collected and examined plasma samples of 1,000 patients confined in the University Hospitals of Leicester and NHS in patients with acute heart failure. Their aim is to measure the TMAO level using Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry which is a technique that allows samples to be separated from its individual parts.

They then studied each one thoroughly concentrating on, deaths in the hospital, all-cause mortality, and re-hospitalization. The results revealed that those patients with acute heart failure and a high level of TMAO in their blood don't usually have a good health outcome. However, the connection of TMAO with sudden heart failure is yet to be known.

This is the first study to analyze the direct connection of an increased TMAO levels in patients with acute heart disease. "This metabolic pathway provides a possible link between how red meat is associated with heart disease," Suzuki said Aside from diseases of the heart, red meat consumption was also believed to have a connection in the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and colon cancer.

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