It's not what steak lovers want to hear. A new study finds yet another link between red meat and heart disease.
Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic studied the effects of red meat on the cardiovascular system. They found a nutrient in the meat called carnitine triggered a chain of reactions generated by microbes in the gut. This set of reactions, they say, added to the development of heart disease.
'What this does is bring us one step closer to figuring out why and how red meat ingestion is linked to heart disease, but it also brings us another step closer to developing drugs or tools to retard or block the development of heart disease by this pathway,' explained Dr. Stanley Hazen of the Cleveland Clinic.
Researchers say carnitine has previously been linked to hardening of the arteries.
All of this, they say, could explain the increased heart disease risk.
