Study: Essential Nutrient Linked to Heart Disease

Is too much of a good thing bad for your health? �According to a study in the newest�New England Journal of Medicine, something vital for your health can harm your health.

FOX News Radio’s Chris Hoenig explains:

Choline is an essential nutrient that keeps your liver from getting too fatty, but too much of it increases your risk for heart disease. �Study co-author Dr. Stanley Hazen at the Cleveland Clinic says that fact, by itself, isn’t a huge surprise.

(Dr. Hazen) “Foods that tend to run high in cholesterol and fat also tend to run high in phosphatidylcholine.”

…Things like egg yolks and fatty meats. �The surprise is the way intestinal bacteria interact with the choline.

(Dr. Hazen) “The gut flora is playing a role in the development of a metabolite in humans that’s linked to heart disease risk.”

This increases the hope of a blood test for heart disease risk that focuses on this metabolite.

Chris Hoenig, FOX News Radio.