Too Much Sugar Increases Risk of Heart Failure

Too much sugar in the diet can increase the risk of heart failure, according to a new study.

The study was conducted by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) who found that the glucose metabolite glucose 6-phosphate (G6P) a small molecule, can cause stress to the heart and leads to poor pumping which can result in a heart failure. Eating large amounts of sugar or starch can lead to the accumulation of G6P.

Heart failure is a condition in which the heart can't pump enough blood in the body. However, it doesn't mean that the heart stops working. The condition requires medical attention, says the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Heart failure kills about 5 million people in the U.S each year, according to data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 50 percent of all people diagnosed with the condition don't survive for a year.

"Treatment is difficult. Physicians can give diuretics to control the fluid, and beta-blockers and ACE inhibitors to lower the stress on the heart and allow it to pump more economically. But we still have these terrible statistics and no new treatment for the past 20 years," said Heinrich Taegtmeyer, M.D., principal investigator and professor of cardiology at the UTHealth Medical School.

The study was conducted on animal models along with samples of tissues taken from patients suffering from a heart condition that required a surgical intervention.

 "When the heart muscle is already stressed from high blood pressure or other diseases, and then takes in too much glucose, it adds insult to injury," Taegtmeyer said in a news release.

Researchers said that two drugs called rapamycin and metformin were found to be disrupting signaling of G6P. The drugs also improved cardiac power in animal studies.

"These drugs have a potential for treatment and this has now cleared a path to future studies with patients," Taegtmeyer added.

The study is published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.