Diets high in fat, including the increasingly popular ketogenic diet, may be able to “prevent or reverse” heart failure, according to a new study published in Nature Metabolism.
The study’s authors explained that issues with the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC) complex can stop the heart from getting the nutrients it needs to properly function. When MPC expression decreases, it can cause the heart to fail—but working with mice models led to a discovery.
“Interestingly, this heart failure can be prevented or even reversed by providing a high-fat, low carbohydrate ‘ketogenic’ diet,” lead author Kyle S. McCommis, PhD, an assistant professor at Saint Louis University, said in a prepared statement. “A 24-hour fast in mice, which is also ‘ketogenic,’ also provided significant improvement in heart remodeling.”
High-diet, low-carb diets that can limit ketosis were associated with substantial improvements in mice with decreased cardiac MPC expression. Following such a diet for just three weeks, the authors found, was associated with the “reverse modeling” of failing hearts.
