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A study shows that carnitine intake in the first postnatal weeks promotes better growth and larger brain size at term equivalent age in very preterm infants. Carnitine intake from breast milk in particular seems to be associated with better growth. Carnitine is a compound similar to amino acids, and its primary function in the body is to transport long-chain fatty acids to the mitochondria for energy production. In addition, earlier studies have suggested that carnitine may also be involved in nervous system development. Carnitine is both obtained from nutrition and produced by the body. In preterm infants, the main sources...

A large proportion of the damaging chemical changes which occur in the body's cells due to diabetes and obesity could be prevented by a naturally occurring molecule, a new study suggests. In type 2 diabetes, when glucose stays in the blood it is not used as fuel for energy and can instead lead to toxic molecules forming. Scientists at Nottingham Trent University investigated how this "metabolic stress," resulting from prolonged exposure to high levels of glucose and fat, damages proteins in the blood and cells and prevents them from working properly. The researchers, writing in the journal Free Radical Biology...

Our guts are awash in bacteria, and now a new study fingers them as culprits in heart disease. A complicated dance between the microbes and a component of red meat could help explain how the food might cause atherosclerosis. The work also has implications for certain energy drinks and energy supplements, which contain the same nutrient that these bacteria like chasing after. Red meat is considered bad news when it comes to heart health, although studies aren't consistent about how much can hurt and whether it always does. Furthermore, it's not clear which components of meat are doing harm. Various...

Gut bacteria may convert a nutrient found in red meat into a compound that can damage the heartThe link between red meat and poor heart health has traditionally been blamed on cholesterol, but new evidence suggests this isn't the whole story. US researchers found that carnitine, a nutrient found in red meat, is converted into a metabolite that promotes cardiovascular disease by gut bacteria. This may mean that the popular practice of taking carnitine supplements to build muscle is unwise.‘The cholesterol and saturated fat content of red meat is not sufficient to account for increased cardiac risk,’ says lead author...