Share:
Spermidin Detected sperm substance protects against potentially fatal heart disease
Austrian researchers have found that spermidine protects the heart. This substance is included among other things in the male seed, but also in foods such as soy or cereal germs. The findings give hope for a possible treatment of diastolic heart failure.
Positive effects of semen substance
Recently, news about a woman from England made headlines, saying she consumes male ejaculate on a daily basis, as it is designed to help prevent infections, among other things. However, a corresponding effect is not confirmed scientifically. However, studies have shown that semen, or its constituents, can have a positive effect on health. Thus, Austrian researchers have now found that spermidine has a cardioprotective effect.
Spermidine, a substance found in male semen, has a heart-protecting effect. These findings give hope for a possible treatment of diastolic heart failure. (Image: Dr_Kateryna / fotolia.com) Spermidine for memory problems
Years ago scientists from Austria reported on an investigation, according to which spermidine works against memory problems. This substance, which is contained in the seminal fluid, but also in various foods - such as wheat germ, soybeans, peas, some cheeses, mushrooms and nuts - but can do even more: spermidine also protects the heart. The report now researchers, who were already involved in the aforementioned investigation.
The scientists of the Karl-Franzens-University Graz and the Medical University of Graz published their results, which they won together with an international team, now in the journal "Nature Medicine".
Heart cells get healthy and powerful
Incorrect diet, lack of exercise and high blood pressure contribute significantly to the fact that people in old age become increasingly susceptible to diseases of the "pump" and blood vessels. However, according to experts, too little is currently known about the basic mechanisms underlying the progressive deterioration of aging hearts.
Autophagy is considered one of the most important processes in the human body to keep heart cells healthy and efficient. Just recently, the Japanese Yoshinori Ohsumi received the Nobel Prize in medicine for the decryption of the mechanism of so-called autophagy, "a fundamental process for breaking down and recycling cell components.".
In this process, body cells decompose their own defective components and utilize them, especially during starvation periods, to generate new building blocks and at the same time use them to generate energy. Without autophagy, the cellular waste would settle and prevent the cell from continuing to function properly.
Researchers at the University of Graz had already discovered years ago that endogenous spermidine can stimulate this cellular cleansing process beyond periods of starvation.
Positive effect on the heart
Under the leadership of Tobias Eisenberg and Frank Madeo of the Institute of Molecular Biosciences of the Karl-Franzens-University Graz, as well as Simon Sedej and Mahmoud Abdellatif of the Clinical Department of Cardiology of the Medical University of Graz "has an international team of 59 researchers from 36 universities and institutes from eight countries demonstrated a positive effect of spermidine on the heart, "it says in a message.
They found that the mean life span of mice is prolonged by spermidine administered in drinking water. "In animal models, spermidine increased cardiac elasticity and diastolic relaxation, while the thickening of the heart walls decreased," the researchers said.
The substance improved cardiac function in older mice and was also effective in rats that had elevated blood pressure due to a high-salt diet. Additional spermidine thus lowered their blood pressure and improved their heart function.
So far no effective treatment
Older people in particular often suffer from a progressive loss of cardiac elasticity, accompanied by thickening of the heart walls. "This so-called diastolic heart failure reduces the quality of life and leads to shortness of breath and loss of performance. When combined with high blood pressure, this form of heart failure, for which no effective treatment exists, is one of the leading causes of death in the Western world, "the statement said.
The new research results now give hope. In the future, the protective effects should also be raised in studies on humans. (Ad)