20140127-NEWS--1-NAT-CCI-CL_--
1/24/2014
3:24 PM
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Vol. 35, No. 4
Entire contents © 2014 by Crain Communications Inc.
$2.00/JANUARY 27 - FEBRUARY 2, 2014
Taking fight vs. disease to heart
If sin tax fails, an even bigger issue looms
Clinic physician is bringing biomarker research to new, and even commercial, level
By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
Stadium and arena improvement costs could be a liability for general funds
By TIMOTHY MAGAW tmagaw@crain.com
It began seven years ago as a quiet fishing expedition into the chemicals found within our blood, but it since has morphed into a major unraveling of mysteries associated with heart disease and has resulted in some of the most talked-about research from the Cleveland Clinic in recent memory. Now, the Clinic and the architect of the research, Dr. Stanley Hazen, are taking the findings mainstream. Dr. Hazen, section head of preventive cardiology and rehabilitation in the Clinic’s heart and vascular institute, and his team of researchers in 2011 announced they had discovered a potential new biomarker for heart disease that could identify people at risk of heart attack, stroke and death even when traditional screening tools fail. The biomarker, a previously unnoticed compound in the blood known as TMAO (for trimethylamine-N-oxide), is produced by the liver after bacteria in the gut digests red meat. TMAO now is believed to be an even stronger predictor of heart disease than cholesterol levels. At the time of the initial research, little had been done to connect what goes in the gut with the nation’s top killer — heart disease.
DR. STANLEY HAZEN Position: Section head of preventive cardiology and rehabilitation in the Cleveland Clinic’s heart and vascular institute KEY NUMBERS ■ 20: Dr. Hazen serves as a reviewer for more than 20 scientific journals ■ 50: He has more than that many patents to his name ■ 200: He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, invited reviews and book chapters Source: Cleveland Clinic; Photo: Marc Golub
It’s likely that Cuyahoga County voters will be asked May 8 to decide whether to extend the taxes on cigarettes, beer and liquor that have been used to pay the cost of building and maintaining the playgrounds of Cleveland’s three major league sports teams over the last 24 years. Sin tax opponents ask a fair question: Why should the county’s smokers and drinkers bear the cost of the region’s major sports facilities rather than the wealthy team owners? But it is not the most relevant question in the debate over extending the tax for another 20 years to pay for capital improvement at Progressive Field and Quicken Loans Arena and to assist the city of Cleveland in paying for improvements at FirstEnergy Stadium. The better question is: If not the sin tax, then what? Without passage of the tax, which could raise as much as $13 million a year for the next 20 years, the city and the county could be forced to cover improvement costs from their general funds. Or, they simply could reject the teams’ requests for the upgrades and risk legal efforts to break their leases and move the teams. See TAX Page 6
See HEART Page 43
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