A new study says sodium nitrate, like you get if you eat plenty of vegetables, reverses features of metabolic syndrome in mice.
Metabolic syndrome is the list of risk factors of metabolic origin that increase likelihood of getting cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
As obesity has increased, and the number of people with metabolic syndrome right along with it, various attempts have been made to identify a common underlying molecular mechanism for metabolic syndrome. One group has pointed to a defect in endogenous synthesis and bioavailability of nitric oxide (NO) and their new study says one contributing issue in metabolic syndrome is a decrease in the amount of nitric oxide from endothelial NO synthase (eNOS).
The researchers took eNOS-deficient mice and supplemented their diet with sodium nitrate they would get from eNOS under normal conditions. The response was increased levels of bioactive nitrogen oxides, reduced visceral fat accumulation and better levels of triglycerides
In rats, their chronic nitrate treatment reduced blood pressure. They say their results show that dietary nitrate fuels a nitrate–nitrite–NO pathway that compensates for deficiencies in endogenous NO generation from eNOS.
What might it mean for people? If it holds up, the sodium nitrate levels required for the changes correlates to a diet rich in vegetables - just like your mother told you to eat. It further means nutrition-based preventive and therapeutic strategies against cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, which means saving a lot of money for health care.
Citation: Mattias Carlströma, Filip J. Larsen, Thomas Nyström, Michael Hezel, Sara Borniquel, Eddie Weitzberg, Jon O. Lundberg, 'Dietary inorganic nitrate reverses features of metabolic syndrome in endothelial nitric oxide synthase-deficient mice', PNAS published online before print September 27, 2010, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1008872107 (open access!)
