Plant-Based Diet Reverses Hidden Heart Disease in Hypertensive Rats
New research shows that specific plant-derived nutrients can influence the heart’s smallest vessels in ways that medications alone have not yet achieved. Scientists observed unexpected improvements in microvascular function even when a major risk factor remained in place, suggesting that certain foods may act directly on cellular pathways involved in heart disease.
Researchers discovered that a nutrient-matched, plant-based diet could prevent and reverse a hidden form of heart disease in hypertensive rats.
A new study from researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University reports that a diet centered on fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes may help both prevent and improve heart disease in rats with high blood pressure.
The research, published in the Journal of the American Heart association, explored whether coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) could be lessened in hypertensive rats. CMD is a form of heart disease that develops when very small blood vessels that supply the heart become damaged. The investigators also aimed to better understand the biological processes that contribute to CMD.
Hypertension is known to strongly increase the risk of CMD, which can result in repeated episodes of chest pain, more frequent hospital stays, heart failure, and a higher likelihood of death. CMD also affects women more severely then men, and women face higher hospitalization rates after receiving the diagnosis.
Current treatments for CMD offer limited benefits, and many patients continue to struggle with serious complications. For this reason, new options are urgently needed. This study is among the earliest to examine whether diet could play a role in managing CMD,and the researchers focused on the potential impact of a plant-based eating pattern.
Dietary Intervention Produces Striking Results
“We found that a plant-based diet both prevented the progress of CMD and reversed established CMD in hypertensive rats, which translates well to the clinical setting,” said Rami S.Najjar, corresponding author of the study, a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia state when the study was conducted and now a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University School of Medicine in the division of Cardiology.