In this solo vlog, Dr. David Perlmutter addresses the long‑standing belief that eggs are harmful because of their cholesterol content. He introduces a recent Finnish longitudinal study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that followed 1,302 men for about 21 years, examining egg consumption against the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) and carotid intimal thickening. The study found no increased risk of CAD or arterial thickening with higher egg intake. Perlmutter then discusses the emerging concern about trimethylamine‑N‑oxide (TMAO), a metabolite of choline (abundant in eggs) linked to atherosclerosis, noting that despite eggs raising TMAO levels, the Finnish data still show no added cardiovascular risk. He suggests that other egg components—lutein, zeaxanthin, and phospholipids—provide anti‑inflammatory antioxidant effects, improve LDL and HDL particle size, and lower inflammatory markers, contributing to a favorable cardiovascular profile. Concluding, he recommends eggs as a healthy food, invites viewers to read the study abstract, and ends with a brief walk showing a striking local tree in New Zealand.
Chapters
Hello everyone, I'm Dr. David Perlmutter. Welcome to The Empowering Neurologist. Today I'm speaking to you from the town of Kerikeri, which is in— it's on the North Island of New Zealand, pretty much up the coast, up north on the east side. And I'm getting ready to have breakfast, as fate would have it, and I'm going to be having some eggs. Why would I have eggs? I mean, isn't it true? All these years we were told that eggs were terrible and that they were full of dreaded cholesterol. Well, in point of fact, eggs do contain cholesterol and a fairly large amount of cholesterol. 200 milligrams of cholesterol is about what an egg contains. But I'd like to report to you today a study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a study that was done in Finland and recently published. And it followed a group of 1,302 men. over a period of around 21 years. And what it looked at was basically the number of eggs that they consumed versus their risk for coronary artery disease. I mean, after all, the reason we were told we shouldn't eat eggs is because it was going to narrow our heart arteries. In addition to looking at their risk for developing coronary artery disease, they also looked at what is called carotid intimal thickening, and that's a fancy term that means how thick on a special type of ultrasound imaging did the carotid arteries in the neck get, because there's a correlation between this carotid intimal thickening and coronary artery disease. And what the study showed, that even despite consumption of eggs, there was no increased risk of coronary artery disease, and there was no evidence of increased carotid intimal thickening. In other words, thickening of the carotid arteries based upon the number of eggs that somebody might consume. Now recently there's been a discussion about something called TMAO, trimethylene oxide, and this is a chemical that is a breakdown product of choline. The fact that TMAO causes atherosclerosis in in laboratory animals and in humans higher levels of TMAO being associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease. We do know that eggs are rich in choline and eggs may actually raise the TMAO level in humans. So therefore we could think maybe that's a bad thing, but it turns out that even despite the fact that eggs do contain choline, that there is again no increased risk of coronary artery disease in egg consumption. Possibly because eggs do contain other things like lutein and zeaxanthin and various types of phospholipids that act as anti-inflammatory antioxidants. We do see that in individuals who are involved in eating eggs, there actually is a decrease in various inflammatory markers and in fact better particle size of the LDL or so-called bad cholesterol and HDL good cholesterol, that the particle size is increased and there's more what we call fluffy or buoyant particles, which tends to offset or be a favorable marker in terms of cardiovascular risk. So the answer here is that eggs are a good food to be eating. I plan to have some in just a few minutes. And I'd like you to take a look at this article. You'll see the abstract as a hyperlink as well. And before I close today, I'm going to just— there's something I want to show you guys because I think it's really cool. This is in northern, on the North Island of New Zealand. I want to just take you on a little walk here in this place where we're staying because there's something just really quite remarkable. And I don't mean to get too excited about a tree, but let's just see if I can get you to look at that tree. Take a look at that tree. I don't know the name of that tree, but it is There you go. It is absolutely remarkable in terms of its color, and I will find out certainly later today what the name of that tree is. So thanks for joining me. I'll get back to you soon when I get back, back home, maybe even before, who knows. I'm Dr. David Perlmutter. Thanks for joining us. Bye-bye.
