Excess of Sugar Damages Heart: Study

It is known that excess sugar adds to unwanted calories and at the same time aggravates several health issues. Americans are said to consume their weight in sugar each year. This extra sugar can be very toxic.

A new finding states that excess of sugar set people down a pathway to heart failure.

The study that was conducted by researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), a single small molecule leads to stress on heart that in turn alters the muscle protein and induces poor pump function causing heart failure. The small molecule is glucose 6 phosphate (G6P) that accumulates from eating too much starch and/or sugar.

According to CDC reports, every year nearly 5 million die as a result of heart failure.

"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," Heinrich Taegtmeyer, M.D., D.Phil., principal investigator and professor of cardiology at the UTHealth Medical School said in a press release. "But we still have these terrible statistics and no new treatment for the past 20 years."

According to Face the Facts of USA, on an average Americans consume 100 pounds of sugar and sweeteners each year or up to 30 teaspoons a day, out of which soda and fruit drinks contribute to half.

For this study, the researcher conducted a preclinical trial in animal models. They also conducted tests on tissues that were collected from patients at the Texas Heart Institute. These patients had a piece of heart muscle removed so that they could implant a left ventricle assist device that was made by O.H. "Bud" Frazier, M.D., and his team. They noticed that both helped to discover the damage triggered by G6P.