Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/470290
WE DIDN'T JUST WRITE THE BOOK ON HOSPICE. WE CREATED THE LIBRARY. Choose the hospice the medical community consistently turns to for end-of-life education. As the region's most experienced and preferred hospice provider, physicians and health care professionals across Northern Ohio rely on us for education, guidance and cutting-edge research in palliative care and end-of-life issues. See why more medical professionals choose the hospice of choice at hospicewr.org/institute. 800.707.8922 | hospicewr.org CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE Linked to GUT BACTERIA BYPRODUCT +++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++ + +++ + +++++++++++++++++++++++++ RECENT RESEARCH C LEVEL AND CLINIC RESEARCHERS have, for the first time, linked trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) — a gut metabolite formed during the digestion of egg-, red meat- or dairy-derived nutrients choline and carnitine — to chronic kidney disease. TMAO has been linked to heart disease already, with blood levels shown to be a powerful tool for predicting future heart attacks, stroke and death. TMAO forms in the gut during digestion of choline and carnitine, nutrients that are abundant in animal products such as red meat and liver. Choline is also abundant in egg yolk and high-fat dairy products. The research team was led by Stanley Hazen, MD, PhD, Chair of the Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine for the Lerner Research Institute and section head of Preventive Cardiology & Rehabilitation in the Miller Family Heart and Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic; and W.H. Wilson Tang, MD, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Miller Family Heart and Vascular Institute and Lerner Research Institute. The study, which was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, was published online on January 29th and in the January 30th print edition of Circulation Research. It has long been known that patients with chronic kidney disease are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease, but the exact mechanisms linking the two diseases are not known. This newly discovered TMAO link offers further insight into the relationship between cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease. This research strongly implies the need to focus preventive efforts on dietary interventions and therapeutic targeting of gut-microbiota-dependent TMAO pathways, potentially to halt development and progression of chronic kidney disease, as well as cardiovascular disease risks.