Every 90 seconds in the United States, a life is lost to a heart attack. Every 4 minutes, another is lost to a stroke. These silent killers are claiming both men and women.
Now, new research reveals that something most of us do daily could be fueling this crisis.
High blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, lack of exercise and obesity — these are all key risk factors for heart attack and stroke.
But now, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic have found another risk factor that is just as important: Your gut microbiome.
For the first time, preventative cardiologist Dr. Stanley Hazen, of the Lerner Research Institute and the Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute, and his team found our gut microbiome, or the bacteria that lives in our intestine, turns a nutrient found in red meat into something called TMAO.
“TMAO was a compound that showed up as being elevated and people who are at a future risk over the next three years. And as we worked backward to see where did this compound come from, it was found that it came from digesting animal products,” he explained.
High levels of TMAO predict future risk of heart attack, stroke, chronic kidney disease and death. Now Hazen’s team is working on new medications to reduce TMAO levels.
“We’ve shown that we can actually make the size of the stroke get smaller, and the adverse effects from the stroke get substantially reduced,” he stated.
But until medications are approved, Hazen said he’s practicing new habits at home.
“I have to admit the amount of meat and animal products that we eat has gone way down in our household,” he said.
Hazen firmly believes our diet is just as important as medications and says increased levels of TMAO are not dependent on whether you have other risk factors.
Meaning that people who eat red meat are more at risk of heart attack and stroke even if they don’t smoke, do exercise and are not overweight.