Fructose powers a vicious circle -- ScienceDaily

A new paper by Krek and his team member Peter Mirtschink describes a
further, more troubling side effect of fructose. The researchers have
discovered a previously unknown molecular mechanism that points to
fructose as a key driver of uncontrolled growth of the heart muscle, a
condition that can lead to fatal heart failure. Their study was recently
published in Nature.


When a person has high blood pressure, the heart has to grow as it is
harder to pump the blood through the circulatory system. These growing
heart muscle cells require a considerable amount of oxygen. However,
since not enough oxygen is available to adequately supply the increased
growth, the cells switch to an alternative energy supply. Instead of
drawing energy from fatty acids, they rely more on an anaerobic process
called glycolysis -- literally, the 'splitting of sugars'. If the heart
muscle cells can access fructose in addition to glucose, this can set
off a fatal chain reaction.

No comments: