A team of medical researchers from the Cleveland Clinic has determined that the best way to fight off harrowing heart diseases is to determine what happens in our intestines while the bacteria break down the food. Tinkering with intestinal flora might reduce the risk of atherosclerosis and other diseases associated with the cardiovascular system.
While experimenting on lab mice, the researchers have discovered that lowering the levels of byproducts in the lower intestines, as the result of the intestinal flora breaking down several key nutrients, can, in turn, decrease the incidence of several heart diseases.
As we ingest several types of food, our so-called gut bacteria, leaps into action, collecting certain key nutrients such as lecithin, choline and carnitine. After gathering up these key ingredients, the gut bacteria uses them in order to synthesize another substance called trimethylamine N-oxide.
The group of medical researchers from Cleveland Clinic have discovered that preventing the intestinal flora from generating those byproducts can significantly decrease the levels of trimethylamine N-oxide in our body, hence decreasing the incidence of heart disease.
Perceived as one of the most perilous diet-induced heart diseases, atherosclerosis accounts for 17979 deaths per year. Atherosclerosis, also known in medical circles as arteriosclerotic vascular disease or simply ASVD, is considered to be a target form of atherosclerosis.
As a result of ASVD, a patient’s artery walls would thicken to the point of where the cumulative effect of foam cells would produce an obstruction. According to several other research studies, in a patient suffering from ASVD doctors have discovered an accumulation of white blood cells accompanying an invasion of intimal muscle cell. Both cell types are capable of forming layers upon layer of fat on the wall of the artery. Thes layers are called fibrofatty plaque.
The fibrofatty plaque can contain functional white cells, as well as remnants from dead cells. In each case, there is a rise in cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
But, the US scientists have found that tinkering with the intestinal flora might reduce the risk of atherosclerosis and other diet-related heart diseases. Doctor Stanley Hazen, one of the doctors participating in this project, declared that the key of reducing death risk associated with heart disease resides in lowering the TMAO levels, by actually drugging the intestinal flora. By inhibiting the intestinal flora’s capability of creating various byproducts, we can actually lower the incidence of heart diseases.
Hazen also declared that tests performed on mice fed with either high choline or high cholesterol foods have shown that once they were injected with 3,3-dimethyl-1-butanol, they would show a significant improvement in terms of atherosclerosis. Moreover, the researchers stated that this process is very similar to what they use in order to keep our cholesterol at bay.