Older Adults Consuming High-Fat Diet at Risk of Heart Disease, Diabetes

A study published in the FASEB Journal found seniors who eat a high-fat diet rich in Omega-6 fatty acids could be at risk of developing health issues ranging from diabetes to heart failure, reports the Business Standard . A calorie-dense, obesity-generating diet in aging mice was found to disrupt the composition of the gut microbiome, which correlated with development of a systemwide non-resolving inflammation in acute heart failure, with disruptions of the immune cell profile. The diet also caused a sharp increase in bacteria belonging to the genus Allobaculum, phylum Firmicutes, while also enlarging the proportion of neutrophils in the blood of young mice. In aged mice, a similar uptake in the proportion of neutrophils was found for both old mice fed a standard diet and specimens fed the obesity-generating diet. Young mice given the obesity-generating diet could resolve inflammation after a heart attack, even though their gut microflora had already been changed. In aged mice fed the obesity-generating diet, the heart attack induced non-resolving inflammation. Said the University of Alabama's Ganesh Halade, "This study highlights that diet and age are critical factors that have differential impact with age, and it highlights the spleen and heart as an inter-organ communication system with the immune defense system."