Researchers at Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine in New York have shown in a pig model of heart failure, that after two months on the drug, markers of heart function improved dramatically.

In a placebo-controlled study of 14 pigs with heart failure, cardiac magnetic resonance and 3D-echocardiography were used to observe what was happening in the animals’ hearts. They observed improved heart function in the treated pigs – reductions in pulmonary congestion, stronger contractions, less hypertrophy, and less signs of remodeling.

The researchers noted that the drug addressed symptoms of heart failure in the treated pigs by changing cardiac metabolism. The heart shifted from using glucose, to using fatty acids and ketone bodies. The research reports that switching the heart to using fatty acids and ketones lead to more efficient operation of the heart.

We at regenerative times find this interesting, because this is the same change of metabolism occurs when human beings eat a ketogenic diet. A ketogenic diet consists mainly of fat and protein, with carbohydrates being 5% or less of dietary intake. This leads to a major metabolic shift called ketosis, in which the body operates on fatty acids and ketone bodies instead of glucose as a primary fuel.

A ketogenic diet is known to make type 2 diabetes enter remission. Type 2 diabetes is strongly correlated to a variety of other health ailments, the main ones being peripheral neuropathy, kidney failure, and heart disease.

The drug in the study, Jardiance ( empagliflozin ), works by vastly increasing the rate at which glucose is expelled from the body, but the drug comes with a variety of alarming side effects, including necrotizing fascitis of the genitals.

A ketogenic diet works to produce the same effect by excluding foods that significantly increase blood glucose levels – sugar, rice, wheat, starch, fruit, et cetera. Luckily, no studies to date have reported the disintegration of genitals when using a ketogenic diet to reverse type 2 diabetes or lose weight.

Due to these results, researchers at Mount Sinai have started a clinical trial for heart failure with the drug, but we don’t suggest signing up for this one. Not when an equivalent treatment is available for free.

Thanks to NewsWise for the tip: https://www.newswise.com/articles/mount-sinai-researchers-discover-that-diabetes-drug-may-reverse-heart-failure