Heart disease is the leading cause of death around the world. One big reason for this is a condition called atherosclerosis.
This is when fatty materials, called plaques, build up inside your arteries. These plaques can slow down or block blood flow. Sometimes, they can break open and cause heart attacks or strokes.
One of the main causes of this buildup is something called dyslipidemia. This means your blood has too many harmful fats, such as cholesterol and triglycerides. Nearly half of all adults have this issue, which puts them at higher risk for heart problems.
Doctors often treat dyslipidemia with medicines that lower fat levels in the blood. These medicines can help keep the plaques stable so they don’t burst. But they don’t fully remove the plaques from the arteries. Now, two new studies have found something exciting: a mineral called manganese might help clean out these plaques.
Manganese is a nutrient your body needs in very small amounts. It helps build strong bones and supports important enzymes in the body. But scientists have found that manganese might do more. It could lower harmful blood fats and even help clear clogged arteries.
In the study, researchers gave different amounts of manganese to mice that had heart disease. They found that the mice had lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels after getting manganese. Even better, their arteries had fewer plaques.
How does manganese do this? To explain, we need to look at how fats move in the body. Fats travel through the blood using little carriers called lipoproteins. These lipoproteins rely on a system in the body called COPII, which helps package and move fats to different places.
Manganese changes how the COPII system works. It sticks to this system and changes how it behaves. Scientists describe this change as “bell-shaped,” which means that with the right amount of manganese, the blood fat levels drop. This could be very helpful for heart health.
Dr. Xiao Wang, a lead researcher in the study, says this is a hopeful discovery. He believes that in the future, manganese could be used to prevent or treat heart disease. However, the research is still very new. More studies are needed to see if it works safely in humans.
If it does work, manganese might become an easy and low-cost way to fight heart disease. This could help many people around the world.
For now, the best way to protect your heart is to live a healthy lifestyle. Eat a balanced diet, stay active, and check your cholesterol levels. Some studies also suggest that moderate egg eating can be good for your heart. Others show that foods like oranges and black beans can lower the risk of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
This exciting research about manganese was recently published in the journal Life Metabolism.
If you care about heart disease, please read studies about a big cause of heart failure, and common blood test could advance heart failure treatment.
For more health information, please see recent studies about a new way to repair human heart, and results showing drinking coffee may help reduce heart failure risk.
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