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TMAO
21 Dec 2020
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In recent years, a new mechanism has been proposed to explain heart disease and cancer: TMAO. Story in brief: (a) carnitine and choline are converted by our gut bacteria into TMAO, and (b) TMAO contributes to heart disease, stroke, cancer and impairs kidney function. Dr Greger's videos below explain these two points in detail.

How to reduce our TMAO levels? Major dietary sources of choline and carnitine are animal products (meat, eggs, dairy). So an effective intervention for reducing TMAO levels is reduction or elimination of these animal products from our diet.

Articles by Dr Greger:

Videos by Dr Greger:

(2013) Carnitine, Choline, Cancer & Cholesterol: The TMAO Connection

(9 mins) Transcript. Fascinating video! Worth watching for a big picture understanding of {choline, carnitine} → gut bacteria → TMAO → {arterial health, cancer}.

(2017) How to Reduce Your TMAO Levels

(7 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger's summary: "Should we be concerned about high-choline plant foods, such as broccoli, producing the same toxic TMAO that results from eating high-choline animal foods, such as eggs?"

(2021) Can Vegan Fecal Transplants Lower TMAO Levels?

(6 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger's summary: "If the microbiome of those eating plant-based diets protects against the toxic effects of TMAO, what about swapping gut flora?"

(2013) Eggs, Choline & Cancer

(4 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger's summary: "Choline may be the reason egg consumption is associated with prostate cancer progression and death."

(2013) Eggs & Choline: Something Fishy

(5 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger's summary: "Too much choline—a compound concentrated in eggs and other animal products—can make bodily secretions smell like rotting fish, and may increase the risk of heart disease, due to conversion in the gut to trimethylamine."

(2017) Microbiome: We Are What They Eat

(6 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger's summary: "What happens to our gut flora when we switch from a more animal-based diet to a more plant-based diet?"

(2017) How to Develop a Healthy Gut Ecosystem

(5 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger's summary: "What we eat determines what kind of bacteria we foster the growth of in our gut, which can increase or decrease our risk of some of our leading killer diseases."

(2021) How Our Gut Bacteria Can Use Eggs to Accelerate Cancer

(6 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger's summary: "The reason egg consumption is associated with elevated cancer risk may be the TMAO, considered the 'smoking gun' of microbiome-disease interactions."

(2016) Egg Industry Response to Choline & TMAO

(6 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger's summary: "How the egg industry funded a study designed to cover up the toxic trimethylamine oxide reaction to egg consumption."

(2017) How to Treat Heart Failure and Kidney Failure with Diet

(6 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger's summary: "One way a diet rich in animal-sourced foods like meat, eggs, and cheese may contribute to heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, and death is through the production of toxin called TMAO."

(2020) What Not to Eat for Stroke Prevention

(5 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger's summary: "What is the relationship between stroke risk and dairy, eggs, meat, and soda?" Excerpts:

[Stroke Risk] The worst foods appear to be meat and soda. Eating, like, a burger for lunch and a pork chop for dinner, two breakfast sausage links, and a typical 20-ounce bottle of soda may increase stroke risk by 60%. Reviewers suggest the meat effect may be the saturated fat or cholesterol, the iron-mediated oxidized fat or the salt, but it could also be the TMAO. The carnitine in meat and the choline in dairy, seafood, and especially eggs is converted by our gut bacteria into trimethylamine, which is oxidized by our liver to TMAO, which may then contribute to heart attacks, stroke, and death.

Additional Articles & Videos

(2022) What Is TMAO? And Why Should You Avoid It? by Ocean Robbins at Food Revolution Network.

(14 mins, 2018) Dr Esselstyn: Eating Fish Gives You Highest Rate Of TMAO. Highest Rates Of TMAO Had Most Severe Cardiovascular
(16 mins, 2019) Mic The Vegan: TMAO — What is it and Why Don't Vegans Make It
© Copyright 2008—2024, Gurmeet Manku.