Heart Failure And The Role Of Ketogenic Diet

According to a recent study published in a journal named Nature Metabolism, diets comprised of high fats, especially the ketogenic diet, help to reverse or prevent failure of the heart.

A ketogenic diet makes the performance of cardiac muscles better in the human heart. Researches are still underway to discover more facts about the ketogenic diet and heart failure. Either way, you can consult UAE best hospital for better guidance on this. 

In a mouse condition mode, a diet comprised of low carb and high fat prevented heart failure. People who suffer from heart failure have weak muscles on both the right and left sides of the heart or at one side.

Weak muscles cause impairment that lessens the ability to pump blood around the other organs of the body. The symptoms of weak muscles include breath shortness and fatigue. You may also feel other symptoms.

The leading causes of muscle weakness or oxygen starvation in muscles are diabetes, high blood pressure, and a disease-related to the heart named ‘ischemic heart disease.’ These diseases make your heart muscle weak and cause several problems related to the core.

According to an estimate of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, 5.7 million people suffered from heart failure in the United States. No complete cure is available for it, but you can make your heart health and quality of life better through medications.

A good lifestyle also increases your lifespan. Depending on the conditions, the heart’s healthy muscles are a good source of chemical energy that your body needs. One of these chemicals is named pyruvate, which is produced by the body.

The body produces pyruvate; then sugar glucose breaks down. But heart failure, diabetes, and other conditions lessen muscle flexibility and cause muscle starvation of the fuel, i.e., oxygen. This fuel helps muscles to function normally and effectively for the body organs.

Fuel Shuttle And Working Of Heart

Mitochondria is the power bank or power station of the cells. Researches indicate that a protein transforms pyruvate into mitochondria. This is a transporter protein. The flexibility in this protein decreases during heart failure.

The protein is named as mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC) complex and has two subunits. One is MPC1, and the other is MPC2.

Researchers of Saint Louis University School of Medicine made the team who revealed that these subunits’ production fails, leading to the failure of human hearts.

This School of Medicine is located in St. Louis, MO. Researchers also matched the sample of tissues of people who have undergone heart surgery and who were donors. They concluded that the donor’s hearts were more healthy, but they were not suitable for transplantation.

Moreover, researchers reported that mice don’t have a gene involved in the production of MPC2. That’s the reason why mice continuously develop a stage of heart failure.

The size of mice’s heart becomes abnormal, or you can say hypertrophied, and organs’ ability to pump blood along with the heart declines.  Scientists have also discovered that they can prevent heart failure in animals by feeding them a specific diet for three weeks.

This diet prevents the animal’s heart muscles to damage. Kyle S has told an interesting fact that you can prevent heart failure with the help of a high-fat diet that has fewer carbohydrates and is termed as a ‘ketogenic diet.’ 

McCommis, an assistant professor and Ph.D. scholar at the university, led this research. He is a professor of molecular biology and biochemistry. He added that the fast of 24 hours in ketogenic mice helped in the heart’s readjustment. 

A Converging Evidence

A journal named Nature Metabolism has the findings of this study published in it. Two other studies were conducted by a group of researchers that discussed the same problem.

These studies also reported a specific role of the protein of MPC transporter in heart failure. Two other cardiologists have written an article of comment in the journal that was about three papers.

These cardiologists are Jasmine M.F. Wu and P. Christan Schulze from Germany’s University Hospital Jena. Many questions related to the MPC regulation in a fail and healthy heart are still unanswered.

Current results of researches suggest that ketogenic diets play a specific role in the treatment of heart failure. It’s a nonpharmacologic way of heart treatment that is supportive to treat heart failure.

Cardiologists also said that these findings might lead to the development of new drugs. These drugs will break the fatty acids in the heart muscles that prevent heart failure.

The role of MPC is vital because its improper working can disturb the normal functioning of your heart. So the heart cannot get enough nutrients when MPC acts up, which causes heart failure.

The ketogenic diet and several other factors play an essential role in determining heart health in humans. Remember all those factors that can help your heart to event failure like smoking inhibition, exercising, preventing yourself from taking much stress, etc.

All these are other important factors you can control to make the health of your heart better.