L-Carnitine, Nutrient In Red Meat, Linked With Heart Disease

L-Carnitine, Nutrient In Red Meat, Linked With Heart Disease. 

L-Carnitine, Nutrient In Red Meat, Linked With Heart Diseaseption

 

The high amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol in red meat have long been blamed for increasing people's risk of heart disease. But now, new research points a finger at another culprit in meat that may be more closely tied to this leading killer.

 A new study reveals that a nutrient called l-carnitine, which is found in red meat and is also popular as a dietary supplement, may also play a role in the development of heart disease. 

In a series of experiments in people and mice, scientists for the first time demonstrated that carnitine from foods as well as from supplements influenced cardiovascular risk. 

 "We now have an understanding of a new nutritional pathway that helps explain the long-standing recognition of a link between red meat and the development of heart disease," said study researcher Dr. Stanley Hazen, section head of preventive cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. The pathway involves the gut bacteria that metabolize carnitine in people who regularly eat meat. Hazen and his research team suspected there must be something else in red meat, besides its cholesterol and saturated fat, that explains its association with heart disease. "This study suggests carnitine may be a piece of this link". 

Source Link: By: Cari Nierenberg, MyHealthNewsDaily Contributor