Get to the Heart of Heart Disease with Aged Garlic

December 31, 2018

ReferencesCleveland ClinicFood RevolutionCleveland ClinicReversal of Clogged ArteriesMol Nutr Food ResearchEuropean Heart JournalNatural Medicine,J Cell Mol MedJ Funct FoodsJ NutritionEuropean Jr Clinical NutritionCleveland Heart LabScience Daily,


This is hot! Published just a few weeks ago in the European Heart Journal out of the Cleveland Clinic is a real breakthrough study. We've known for five years that gut bacteria make TMAO from carnitine, and that is strongly associated with heart disease. Red meat, but not white meat make for more TMAO and less excretion of TMAO. And if you stop eating TMAO, it's level returns to low levels within about a month. What fascinates me is that the connection to heart disease is through the RED MEAT and the TMAO made from it, not from the saturated fat. All the studies that frame saturated fat as the enemy neglect to note that it comes in the company of red meat. Perhaps that needs to be rethought! There may be an association with fat, it just has another wild card to parse out and fully understand. Or, there may not be.

What does TMAO do in heart disease? On reviewing all the literature, a recent survey finds that higher circulating TMAO is associated with a 23% higher risk of "cardiac events" and a 55% higher risk of all‐cause mortality. It's worth knowing, measuring and aiming to reverse. Essentially TMAO appears to be the chemical that drives small dense LDLs into your artery wall, or plays a big role is so doing. (Or that's about the best explanation I can find). It's bad. You want less. 


This is where aged garlic comes in. It works indirectly through gut bacteria to reduce your TMAO. Considering the central role that TMAO plays in heart disease, and how potent the ability of aged garlic is to reduce it, you might want to take another look at this.

The Kyolic Company from Japan is the main supplier of aged garlic, They soak it for 20 months in alcohol to rid it of its "garlic" flavor and get the favorable compounds properly developed. How much does it take? Well, one capsule doesn't do the trick, but two to four are well tolerated and work according to the European J of Clinical Nutrition (for high blood pressure). That's about one clove. 


Can you make your own? Sure. There are lots of videos on Youtube. Got a 20 months' supply? It takes patience. Buy the pill.


www.What will work for me. I'm fascinated. I believe this is real and am delighted the Cleveland Clinic's investment in functional medicine is beginning to pay off. Hereafter I'm adding AGED garlic to my regimen for every heart patient. And in my basement, I have my first jar of aging garlic in alcohol/apple cider vinegar. Two weeks down, 78 to go.


Pop Quiz

  1. What is TMAO?                                                                     Answer: A central player in heart disease. An amino acid you make more of by eating red meat.
  2. How does it make for heart disease?                                    Answer: Not sure but something to do with enabling lipids to get into the artery wall
  3. Where is TMAO made?                                                          Answer: In your gut
  4. What does aged garlic do to TMAO levels.                            Answer: much less, with less heart disease to boot.
  5. Does fresh garlic do the same thing?                                    Answer: Yes, to some degree but at a higher price: more odor.

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