Cleveland Clinic and Tufts University issued a report Aug. 9 strengthening the link between eating particular foods, including red meat and certain dairy products, and increased risk for heart failure.
The study, published in the American Heart Association's "Circulation: Heart Failure" is the latest research linking the gut microbiome trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) to increased risk of heart failure, where the heart is no longer able to pump as effectively as it should, according to the American Heart Association. TMAO is a bacterial byproduct created in the digestive tract when the body breaks down certain foods, the National Institutes of Health said.
The condition, which limits the distribution of oxygen and nutrient-rich blood throughout the body, is debilitating and potentially fatal, said Dr. Stanley Hazen, the study's senior author.
“As you get to a more severe end stages of heart failure, it can be quite distressing — difficulty with shortness of breath and continuous fatigue. Ultimately, often people will die of heart failure," said Hazen, who also serves as chair of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences in Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute.
The odds of developing the condition correlate with a particular diet, which can result in more TMAO, Hazen noted.
“People who eat red meat, multiple portions throughout the week, they tend to have higher levels on average than those who follow more of a vegetarian or vegan diet," he said.
The study strengthens the link between eating habits and heart failure due to its size and scope, Hazan said. The research assessed 12,000 patients with no pre-existing heart conditions from a range of demographic and economic backgrounds for 16 years.
Studying patients with a range of backgrounds was an important factor in the study's credibility, Hazen added.
"Since it's a large, cross-sectional swath of different counties, as long as they had no evidence of heart disease or cancer or major clinical diseases at the time of enrollment, and then they're just followed over time, the possibility of inclusion or selection bias is substantially reduced with this kind of study," he explained.
Such research is particularly relevant for Northeast Ohio as many residents die from heart failure than the state or national average, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national average is 193.8 deaths per 100,000 people and the average in Ohio is 214 deaths per 100,000.
In Northeast Ohio, Ashtabula and Wayne counties have the highest mortality rates from heart failure across all population groups, with Ashtabula having nearly 270 deaths per 100,000 people and Wayne having 265 deaths per 100,000, the CDC found. Meanwhile, Black residents in Erie (326 deaths per 100,000), Summit (282 deaths per 100,000) and Wayne (280 deaths per 100,000) counties had even higher mortality rates than the general populace.
Hazan said he and his research team are developing a drug to inhibit the development of TMAO, which he expects to enter human trials within a year.
