TMAO (Trimethylamine N-oxide)

Optimal Result: 0 - 6.2 uM.

TMAO (trimethylamine-N-oxide) is a metabolite derived from gut bacteria. This test can powerfully predict future risk for heart attack, stroke, and death in people who appear otherwise healthy.

TMAO is a compound produced by the liver after intestinal bacteria digest certain nutrients: L-carnitine (found in red meat) and lecithin (found in egg yolks, meats and full-fat dairy products). Lecithin is also pumped into the intestines as a component of bile, so all individuals, regardless of diet, feed their gut microbes lecithin and have potential for elevated levels of TMAO.

What does it mean if your TMAO (Trimethylamine N-oxide) result is too high?

“The higher someone’s level of TMAO is, the more susceptible that person is to accumulation of cholesterol in the artery wall. This increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke,” reports Stanley Hazen, MD, PhD., Vice Chair of Translational Research at the Lerner Research Institute.

Two of these studies, published in New England Journal of Medicine in 2013, and Nature Medicine in 2013, found that TMAO successfully predicted future cardiac event risk, even in patients not identified through traditional risk factors or other blood tests.

The team found that study participants with the highest levels of TMAO had 2.5 times increased risk for a major cardiovascular event (heart attack, stroke, or death) than those with the lowest levels during three years of follow-up. TMAO still predicted risk even after adjustments were made for risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

To study the role of gut bacteria in forming TMAO, people were asked to eat two hard-boiled eggs (egg yolk is high in lecithin) and a capsule of synthetic heavy isotope-labeled lecithin. Shortly afterwards, their blood levels of TMAO, and to a greater extent isotope-labeled TMAO, increased. However, when the same volunteers were given a brief course of poorly absorbed oral antibiotics to suppress their gut bacteria, no TMAO was observed, indicating gut microbes play a critical role in TMAO production. In another study, the team linked a structurally similar nutrient, L-carnitine (which is abundant in red meat), to TMAO production, and heart attack and stroke risk.

“Dr. Hazen’s work shows that TMAO contributes to CVD in two ways,” continues Dr. Doneen. “First, TMAO circulating in the blood acts as a ‘on’ switch for an inflammatory cascade that damages arteries, making it easier for cholesterol to burrow into the artery wall and form plaque. In addition, high levels of this compound in the blood reduce the body’s ability to get rid of LDL ‘bad’ cholesterol.”

Along with advancing knowledge of how CVD occurs, the team’s discoveries highlight ways the new test may be used to improve prevention of this disease. As they reported in Nature Medicine, “Our studies reveal a new pathway potentially linking dietary red meat ingestion with atherosclerosis pathogenesis. The role of gut microbiota in this pathway suggests new potential therapeutic targets for preventing CVD.”

If a person has high levels of TMAO, it would seem prudent to intensify global prevention efforts by being more aggressive about reducing other risks. This can include weight loss, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol through lifestyle modification, and if necessary, initiation or intensification of lipid-lowering medications. Of course, eating a diet with proven cardiac risk-reducing effects, like the Mediterranean diet, is also something that an elevated TMAO level would suggest as reasonable.

Research suggests that subjects with high TMAO should consider switching to a heart-healthy Mediterranean or plant-based diet, since adherence to the Mediterranean diet has been shown to reduce TMAO levels. Research also suggests that a more diverse diet rich in vegetables can help improve the health of the gut microbiota, as does limiting or avoiding red meat, eggs, and full-fat dairy products.

Discuss the dietary recommendations that are most appropriate for you with your medical provider and ask if probiotic supplements would be helpful to improve gut bacteria biodiversity.

10 000+ happy customers
100% satisfaction
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ customer support

Understand blood, stool, and urine medical results from all your laboratories.

Upload Your Personal Results

Upload Personal Results

For professional account plans go here

for professional account plans go here

Monthly plan

Annual plan

Own it for life

  • Subscription
  • Data entry service included

    Data entry service

    Our exclusive data entry service is a convenient way to get your results into your private dashboard. Simply attach an image or a file of your lab test results, and one of our qualified data entry team members will add the results for you. We support all sorts of files, whether PDFs, JPGs, or Excel. This service is excellent whether you have a lot of reports to upload or are too busy to do the data entry yourself.

  • Instant interpretation
  • Use free data entry form

    Free data entry form

    We strive to make the data entry process easy for you. Whether by offering dozens of templates to choose from that pre-populate the most popular laboratory panels or by giving you instant feedback on the entered values. Our data entry forms are an easy, fast, and convenient way to enter the reports yourself. There is no limit on how many lab reports you can upload.

  • 4000+ biomarkers explained
  • Nutrition recommendations
  • Cancel anytime

Complete

$15 /month

billed every month

  • monthly
  • $15 per report
  • ✓ Instant interpretations
  • ✓ 4000+ biomarkers explained
  • ✓ Nutrition recommendations
  • ✓ Free data entry form
  • ✓ Unlimited data
  • ✓ $15 data entry service
  • ✓ Cancel anytime

Most popular

Data entry included

Advanced

$79 /year

$6.60/month billed annually

  • yearly
  • 5 reports free
  • ✓ Instant interpretations
  • ✓ 4000+ biomarkers explained
  • ✓ Nutrition recommendations
  • ✓ We enter 5 reports for you
  • ✓ Yearly subscription
  • ✓ Cancel anytime

Data entry included

Unlimited

$250 /once

own it for life

  • pay once
  • 10 reports free
  • ✓ Instant interpretations
  • ✓ 4000+ biomarkers explained
  • ✓ Nutrition recommendations
  • ✓ We enter 10 reports for you
  • ✓ No subscription
  • ✓ Dedicated support
  • ✓ Unlimited access

Are You a Health Professional?

Get started with our professional plan

Welcome to Healthmatters Pro.

Save time on interpreting lab results with the largest database of biomarkers online. In-depth research on any test at your fingertips, all stored and tracked in one place. Learn more

Pro Monthly Plus

for health professionals

  • ✓ Track multiple clients results
  • ✓ No setup fees
  • ✓ No hidden costs
  • ✓ Instant interpretations
  • ✓ 4000+ biomarkers explained
  • ✓ Includes data entry service
  • ✓ Personal training and support
  • ✓ Cancel anytime

$75 per month

Use promo code to save 10% off any plan.


We implement proven measures to keep your data safe.

At HealthMatters, we're committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your personal information. We've put industry-leading security standards in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under our control. We use procedural, physical, and electronic security methods designed to prevent unauthorized people from getting access to this information. Our internal code of conduct adds additional privacy protection. All data is backed up multiple times a day and encrypted using SSL certificates. See our Privacy Policy for more details.