Can Eating Fish Cause Heart Disease?

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As people have been reading that fish increases TMAO levels, which are associated with Cardiovascular disease. The short answer to that question is no. Let me be clear. Fish does not cause heart disease. And almost all the studies showing that people who eat fish at least two to three times a week especially, let's be clear, cold water, fatty fish like sardines, wild salmon, sole, mussels, those sources of seafood or fish do not cause heart disease. In fact, actually they prevent you from having a heart attack or stroke. But let's get to the TMAO part of this because that's an important concept that's new and I think is worth addressing. Tmao. Trimethylamine oxide is a compound produced from an amino acid like choline or carnitine, which are predominantly in the highest source of them is in red meat, but they're also in poultry and fish. And trimethylamine oxide, they've done studies and they've shown in people who have super high levels or, you know, the top 20 percentile, has 62% more heart attack, stroke and cardiac death than people who have low levels of tmao. So TMAO actually probably is more important than your cholesterol level and for your risk of cardiovascular disease. But it's much more complicated than that. Just comes from carnitine and choline as amino acids in food. TMAO is produced from these amino acid compounds, but they depend on specific strains of bacteria in your gut. Firmicutes bacteria. Now, an interesting thing is if you eat lots of red meat and you don't eat fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, olive oil, red wine and vinegar, you produce bacteria, firmicutes bacteria that makes lots of tmao, increasing your risk for heart disease. But they've shown that if you follow a Mediterranean diet or a vegan diet and don't eat any meat, poultry or dairy or beef, if you are following that kind of diet, you don't make that kind of bacteria. So even if you took some carnitine or choline as a supplement, you wouldn't make nearly as much TMAO than if you ate a red meat diet and didn't eat the Mediterranean vegetable and olive oil and red wine that go with it. So probably one of the more effective ways of lowering your TMAO levels is either to be vegan, avoiding all animal protein products, or to follow a Mediterranean diet. In a Mediterranean diet, you can have poultry and seafood two to three times a week for each of them. You also eat a lot of vegetable, fruit, beans and nuts, olive oil, red wine, balsamic vinegar. All those things tend to lower TMAO levels and you can. The recent studies are actually testing probiotic supplements in particular to look at could we modify our gut flora, gut microbes, and we probably can. So I think in the near future we'll be looking at specific supplements to lower TMAO levels. They're being tested as I speak, but should you be eating fish? Absolutely. Fish contains long chain omega 3 fats which lower inflammation, decrease arrhythmias, improve your blood sugar levels and improve your cholesterol profile. So it's pretty clear that eating fish, especially cold water fish, is going to have a very nice improvement on your lipid profile and your blood sugar level and help decrease inflammation. All of which leads to lowering your risk for heart disease. I do caution you on eating big mouth more tropical fish, you know, that are high in mercury, things like grouper, tuna, bass, swordfish or shark. I would avoid those. Stick to cold water fish and make sure you follow a Mediterranean diet when you do that. Vegetable, fruit, beans, nuts, olive oil, red wine as all of those things help decrease the bacteria that convert to tmao. I hope that's helpful. I think it's safe to eat fish, especially when you're eating all those other food products. And I wish you the best of health.

This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.

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