In a study from Osaka University, scientists found that one particular supplement called tricaprin may help fix a broken heart.
They found that a dietary supplement can strongly reverse the signs of heart disease in a subset of patients.
Coronary artery disease (CAD), which involves narrowing or even closing of the arteries of the heart and often leads to heart attack, is a major cause of death worldwide.
Despite the existence of treatments such as cholesterol-lowering drugs and drug-eluting stents death from this condition is still common, and some patients appear to be resistant to treatment.
Almost 15 years ago, the team identified a new type of heart disease called triglyceride deposit cardiomyovasculopathy (TGCV).
In this disease, the coronary arteries are occluded by triglyceride deposits generated by the defective intracellular breakdown of triglycerides in vascular smooth muscle cells
This mechanism makes TGCV distinct from classic cholesterol-induced atherosclerosis, and accounts for patients who are resistant to standard remedies for CAD.
The researchers found that this condition is especially prevalent in patients with diabetes and those who have undergone dialysis.
In the study, the team found a remarkable regression of diffuse coronary atherosclerosis in two patients with TGCV.
Both had suffered from refractory chest pain and diabetes until diagnosis with TGCV, and subsequent dietary intake of tricaprin led to symptom relief.
Tricaprin is a commercially available food supplement that promotes lipid breakdown by heart muscle cells.
In addition to relieving these patients’ troublesome and painful symptoms, tricaprin also resulted in remarkable regression of the triglyceride build-up in the blood vessels of the heart.
The team says this is the first report of regression due to increased triglyceride lipolysis within cells, and as such is a conceptually novel treatment for coronary atherosclerosis.
Given that not all patients respond to current treatments for CAD, the findings from this study pave the way toward establishing a multi-faceted approach to CAD treatment.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about drinking coffee to prevent heart disease, and COVID infection and vaccination linked to heart problems.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about new way to slow down heart aging, and results showing common heartburn drugs may lead to gradual yet ‘silent’ kidney damage.
The study was conducted by Ken-ichi Hirano et al and published in European Heart Journal.
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