Energy balance
Caloric restriction (CR) and fasting improve cardiac health and mitigate heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) by inducing autophagy, mitophagy, and reducing systemic inflammation.
For HFpEF patients, caloric restriction and fasting regimens (like intermittent fasting) can improve heart function and reduce inflammation. However, these diets are hard to stick to long-term and may cause side effects like muscle loss in some older adults. Because of these challenges, doctors are exploring medications that mimic these benefits without requiring strict dieting.
CR and fasting can positively impact various aging mechanisms to improve cardiac health in HFpEF and associated risk factors, like aging, obesity, and hypertension... Mechanistically, it is plausible to speculate that CR protects from HFpEF, at least in part, through autophagy induction... CR improved diastolic dysfunction, coinciding with suppressed mTOR and increased ratio of LC3B-II/LC3B-I... Prolonged 25% CR has been also shown to lower the age-related increase in circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines, an effect that correlated with improved diastolic dysfunction in humans.
Why this rating
The paper is a review summarizing preclinical models and some human observational data, lacking large-scale randomized controlled trials for CR in HFpEF.
Source
Caloric restriction and its mimetics in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: mechanisms and therapeutic potential
Alexander Fuerlinger et al. · Cardiovascular Diabetology · 2025
DOI 10.1186/s12933-024-02566-8
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