Research into the gut and the rest of the body has moved quickly, and cardiovascular health is part of that picture. Gut bacteria break down some foods into compounds that end up in the bloodstream, and one of them, TMAO, has been linked to cardiovascular events.
This is genuinely early. The link is real in observational data, but recent work raises the possibility that heart disease drives the marker up rather than the other way round.
The same link, read two ways
Systematic review and meta-analysis
Associated
higher TMAO levels track with more cardiovascular events in pooled observational studies
Mendelian randomisation studies
Not proven
genetic analyses suggest the association may run the other way, or reflect something else entirely
Treat what you read here as promising, not settled.
How to read the claims
- Association is not causation, and here that gap is the whole question
- Most human trials have not shown the outcomes the lab work predicted
- Fibre and whole foods hold up regardless of the mechanism
- Supplements marketed on this science are far ahead of it
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