Red meat and heart dz

Article in NY times today (see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/study-points-to-new-culprit-in-heart-disease.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130408&_r=0).seems that presumptive coronary heart disease culprit of carnitine (in red meat, same Latin route at "carnivore") may be only partially correct. Published in Nature Medicine (see cad red meat TMAO nature medicine 2013 in dropbox). Turns out to (maybe) be more complex:
 
--in regular meat eaters, eating a sirloin leads to an increase in TMAO (trimethylamine-N-oxide), which in lab studies leads to accumulation of cholesterol in macrophages and and also seems to decrease the ability to excrete excess cholesterol (for excruciating detail, see the paper itself), with some previous data that blood TMAO is assoc with CAD, both in humans and mice
--in vegan who had a similar meal of sirloin (presumably with a significant bribe), no increase in TMAO.
-- larger group of vegetarians given carnitine pill had no inc in TMAO.
--so, speculation that it was intestinal bacteria responsible (precursor TMA known to be produced by intestinal bacteria), and that the intestinal flora are different in vegetarians than meat-eaters -- mouse studies show that increasing L-carnitine leads to changes in intestinal bacteria.  beef has highest level of carnitine. Lesser amounts in fish, chicken, and dairy. Also in high-energy drinks for body-builders
--meat-eaters pretreated with antibiotics to sterilize colon did no have TMAO in their blood
--further analysis of 2600 pts, controlling for traditional risk factors, found that TMAO and not carnitine assoc with CAD
 
So, bottom line, might be good idea to pre-treat cows with even more antibiotics.....

Comments

Post a Comment

if you would like to receive the near-daily emails regularly, please email me at gmodest@uphams.org

Popular posts from this blog

HDL a negative risk factor? or cholesterol efflux??

Although the data on HDL being protective of atherosclerotic disease is pretty consistent, there are negative studies, and the data on medications which dramatically improve HDL levels (eg, the cholesteryl ester transfer protein --CETP --inhibitors, such as torcetrapib) are clinically disappointing. there have been several explanations for this. for example, some HDL particles are "pro-inflammatory" and elicit an atherosclerotic response (which may be related to apolipoprotein C-III). a new article in NEJM highlights another angle -- that the issue is not the HDL number, but HDL's functionality in the reverse transport of cholesterol, as measured by the cholesterol efflux capacity (see  lipids HDL efflux capacity vs amt NEJM 2014 in dropbox, or  DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1409065). This article looks at the Dallas Heart Study, where they measured HDL levels, HDL particle concentrations, and cholesterol efflux capacity in 2924 adults free of cardiovascular disease and followed p
Read more

Drug company shenanigans: narcolepsy drug

I have not done a blog for a long time on drug company shenanigans. So it is my great pleasure to bring up a brand-new drug company approach to garner huge amounts of money (see  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/28/business/jazz-narcolepsy-avadel-patents.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare  ).  Based on an article by  Rebecca Robbins of the New York Times, who has written several articles on drug company excesses   As background, this will be my 42 nd  such blog: for the array, see  https://bucommunitymed.wpengine.com/page/4/?s=drug+company+shenanigans   Th e drug company  approach  this time  to extending  their  patents has a few “interesting” angles: -- this is a medication manufactured by Jazz Pharmaceuticals to treat narcolepsy: there are 2 versions: Xyrem and Xywav (Xywav has less sodium, so is marketed to those who should be on a low sodium diet). These meds are basically derivatives of gammahydroxybutyric acid (GHB)      -- the drug actually has a pretty
Read more

UPDATE: ASCVD risk factor critique

  I decided to do an extensive update of my prior ASCVD (atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease) risk analysis and critique of risk calculators, with much more information about the “non-traditional” risk factors. I felt that there should be more data/clarification, since I think we are really undertreating/not preventing the most common cause of death by relying on the ASCVD risk calculators   -- Cardiovascular risk models:      -- many of us rely on the various cardiovascular risk models to determine the appropriate approach to patients, and these are often integrated into the electronic medical records      -- these risk models have several very important limitations:          -- they are typically based on community data, eg from the Framingham study etc. But, in clinical practice, we are dealing with the individual and not the community:              -- there is very clear evidence that there are many individual risk factors that are associated with increased risk of a cardiovascu
Read more