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Any form of heart disease may lead to CHF,
which results in a reduced ability to exercise and in severe cases can
impair daily function. CHF is the most common cause of death for people
over age 65.
CHF can be the result of any type of heart disease or condition. Some of
the causes of CHF include smoking, high-fat diet, excess body weight,
alcohol/drug abuse, high sodium intake, flu and pneumonia. Some of the
signs and symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue, exercise
intolerance, rust-colored sputum, distended neck veins, cough—especially
when waking, excessive nighttime urination and/or excessive protein in the
urine, insomnia, nausea, vomiting, anorexia, anxiety and swelling in the
extremities.
Heart Attacks and Alpha Lipoic Acid
The damage to the brain after a heart attack is similar to that after a
stroke. After a heart attack there is a period of ischemia, or oxygen
deprivation, followed by an explosion of free radicals. This explosion
greatly exacerbates the injury. In the experiment, a heart attack was
simulated by perfusing the beating rat hearts with a solution that did not
contain oxygen. After 40 minutes, the solution was changed, this time
using one that contained oxygen. From previous experiments it was known
that a heart denied oxygen under these circumstances would only have a
20-25% of recovery to beat normally, the rest would suffer serious or
fatal damage. When lipoic acid was added to the solution, the results
changed dramatically. Recovery rate rose to nearly 60%. Follow up studies
showed the rats that had been fed lipoic acid had much greater protection
against free radical damage than the untreated animals.
Alpha Lipoic Acid and the Aging Heart
Oxidative stress has been implicated as a causal factor in the aging
process of the heart and other tissues. Cardiac cells isolated from old
rats showed a nearly threefold increase in the rate of oxidant production
compared to young rats. Determination of myocardial antioxidant status
revealed a significant twofold decline in the levels of ascorbic acid as
well as a significant age-related increase in levels of oxidative DNA
damage. To investigate whether dietary supplementation with (R)-alpha-lipoic
acid was effective at reducing oxidative stress, young and old rats were
fed a diet with or without ALA for 2 week.. Cardiac cells from old,
ALA-supplemented rats exhibited a markedly lower rate of oxidant
production that was no longer significantly different from that in cells
from unsupplemented, young rats. Lipoic acid supplementation also restored
myocardial ascorbic acid levels and reduced oxidative DNA damage. Our data
indicate that the aging rat heart is under increased oxidative stress,
which is significantly reduced by lipoic acid supplementation.
Suh JH, Shigeno ET, Morrow JD, Cox B, Rocha AE, Frei B, Hagen TM. -
Linus Pauling Institute, Department of Biochemistry, Oregon State
University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA
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