How to Reduce Your TMAO Levels

Should we be concerned about high-choline plant foods such as broccoli producing the same toxic TMAO that results from eating high-choline animal foods such as eggs?

That was a fun video to record. Can you hear the frustration in my voice reading paper after paper proposing these ridiculous (but profitable!) answers when the safe, simple, side-effect free solution was staring them in the face the whole time? Makes me think of so many parallels, to the least of which are:

For more on TMAO, the “smoking gun” of diet-microbiome-disease interactions, see:

Thanks for watching. I hope you’ll join in the evidence-based nutrition revolution!
-Michael Greger, MD FACLM

Image credit: Sally Plank via Flickr

[mrsj]

You are making a difference in my life. Your daily dozen guideline is so good. It is a clear, universal aid to maintaining optimum health! And your videos....thank you so much. Life wouldn't be as easy without them. We all need your help and you give it at great cost to yourself. You deserve success, Dr. Greger. Thank you.

[ailst]

Never fails to amaze me with what ideas the pharmaceutical industry comes up to emulate the benefits of a plant based diet!

[MrPerfume]

”The main NEJM study linking TMAO to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease is not as conclusive as many promote. First of all, only those at the upper quartile of TMAO level had a significant increase in cardiovascular disease risk. Lower elevations had no significant correlation.

Second, those with increased TMAO and cardiovascular disease risk also were more likely to have diabetes, hypertension and a prior heart attack; furthermore, they were older, and their inflammation markers, including myeloperoxidase, a measurement of LDL inflammation, were significantly higher. With so many confounding variables, it is impossible to say the TMAO had anything to do with the increased cardiovascular disease risk.”
- Diet Doctor

For those who eat vegan and do not mind eggs, it seems in one study where red meat did increase TMAO, no elevation was found by choline as a precursor.

[gigio]

I love you Dr Greger. My Health has changed dramatically. I was misdiagnosed many times and placed on many types of medications my nephew said enough is enough and we started the whole food plant-based lifestyle three years ago and I feel fabulous and I am so grateful

[dorisart]

I love you Dr G.
Thanks to you I went vegan.
Its been 3 months since my new journey ❤☺😚
Loving your book too.

[VILKYR]

I sat here clapping at the points about gut health like a little kid, and that vegans don't produce any TMAO at all. For the last three years I've researched like a man possessed about gut flora and it's interaction with psoriasis, and how diet and stress affect zonulin, which is the chemical key to leaky gut.
Without a medical degree it's tough to be certain, but I am 90% so in that gut health is the key to not only autoimmune issues, but also is directly connected to psyche issues like depression through the gut-microbiome-brain axis.
Thanks Doc Greger for bringing some of us closer to the reality of the world around us.

[jont]

I'm a TMAU sufferer and I can't eat cabbage based veg or Brussels sprouts due to high Choline levels it is an hereditary condition not a meat and dairy based one. even now as I still have TMAU so if you don't have TMAU you'll never know as the condition is very rare and hiredditary. The test that was given was on non TMAU sufferers, some meats have the same an effect as plant based foods do like potatoes, bananas, Avocados, cruciforous veg as well as beans. The cause in the main for real sufferers is bad bacteria in the gut overtaking the good and the body is unable convert TMA then as you say that is whare the problem develops in the gut . TMAU sufferers do not have a high heart disease rate more than any other and you know this from previous videos of yours which this video would suggest. The best cure for TMAU is Kefir yes milk based grains which fitmented and our bodies naturally works with to produce good fit flora, overtaking the bad bringing the body back in ballance. This produces colonies of good bacteria override the bad and gets rid of the cause at source. So you can say that he's chatting trilythiminuria.

[benclarke]

great video ! thing is here, choline is essential like it rightly said, how do we know plants give us enough ?, it's also a mental nootropic, so i'm thinking of my studies and prolonging mental ability in older people.

[simonduvall]

I love this video. Thank you so much for explaining TMAO Dr. Gregor.

[johzuke]

Haha how can these videos full of science be so much fun to watch and learn from! 😁👌

[BrodeyDoverosx]

Hrmmm, if only there was a clear answer that just really summarizes the health issues and solves all of these

[choose-kindness]

This was both informative and entertaining! Laughed out loud more than once!

[RobertaPeck]

I just had a Viome gut microbe test along with my husband. Whereas his microbes allow him to enjoy beef, egg yolks, and more animal products, my microbes process many animal foods through this TMAO pathway Dr Greger is teaching about. I can enjoy Buffalo and some fish but not all seafood. While my husband was told to avoid arrugula, beet greens, spinage because his microbes poorly process oxalates, these plant foods are to be enjoyed by me.

[georgemarx]

Vegan feces for sale $250 a pound. No shipping you must pick up. ;)

[lindsay]

good sources for my thesis, thank you.

[EmdsdT]

Is there any data showing if steaming hi nitrate greens increases nitric oxide or if raw is better ?

[someonesomewhere]

It would be great if a video could be made about TMAU, or trimethylaminuria.

[terryplayball]

Meats, Eggs & Dairy = MED 💊

It has been in the name all this time..

🤦🏽‍♂️

[nachisuper]

"Fecal transplant from a vegan". I lost it there. I love this channel.

[benji_kay]

I love it when these videos are more funny makes, them feel like an Last Week Tonight episode where the science and comedy mix great together.