Diabetic Hearts Burn The Fat But Leave The Sugar Behind

Test question… True or False? There is a no difference between diabetic and non diabetic hearts in how they burn energy. Hmm, I am going to bet that at least half of you got this answer correct. If you answered false, you are a big winner!

Diabetic hearts rely almost exclusively on fats for energy while a “normal” heart relies on fats and sugars for food.

Let me break it down for you. Both PPAR-alpha and PPAR-beta/delta are proteins that are found in heart tissue. In the diabetic heart, enhanced activity of PPAR-alpha drives the use of fats as fuel, but the role of PPAR-beta/delta has been unknown, which is unfortunate being that this protein increases cardiac function. In the mice that were engineered to mimic a diabetic heart, increased PRAR-alpha, there was increased fat, decreased sugar for fuel and a higher incidence of cardiac arrest.

Let’s hope that this discovery will aid scientists in further dissecting and discovering a way to increase those good ol’ PPAR-beta/delta proteins among diabetics.