Research - Vinegar
The role of acetic acid on glucose uptake and blood flow rates in the skeletal muscle in humans with impaired glucose tolerance
P Mitrou1, E Petsiou2, E Papakonstantinou2, E Maratou1, V Lambadiari2, P Dimitriadis3, F Spanoudi2, S A Raptis1,2 and G Dimitriadis2
- 1Hellenic National Center for Research, Prevention and Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus and its Complications (H.N.D.C.), Athens, Greece
- 2Second Department of Internal Medicine and Research Institute, Athens University Medical School, Attikon University Hospital, Haidari, Greece
- 3Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, NTUA, Athens, Greece
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Previous studies support the glucose-lowering effect of vinegar. However, the effect of vinegar on muscle glucose metabolism and endothelial function has not been studied in humans. This open, randomized, crossover, placebo-controlled study aims to investigate the effects of vinegar on muscle glucose metabolism, endothelial function and circulating lipid levels in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) using the arteriovenous difference technique.
Subjects/Methods: Eight subjects with IGT (4 males, age 46±10 years, body mass index 30±5) were randomised to consume 0.50 mmol vinegar (6% acetic acid) or placebo before a mixed meal. Plasma samples were taken for 300 min from the radial artery and the forearm vein for measurements of glucose, insulin, triglycerides, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) and glycerol. Muscle blood flow was measured with strain gauge plethysmography. Glucose flux was calculated as the arteriovenous difference of glucose multiplied by the blood flow rates.
Results: Vinegar compared with placebo: (1) decreased arterial plasma insulin (Poverall<0.001; P75 min=0.014, β=−42), (2) increased forearm blood flow (Poverall<0.001; P240 min=0.011, β=1.53; P300 min=0.023, β=1.37), (3) increased muscle glucose uptake (Poverall<0.001; P60 min=0.029, β=2.78) and (4) decreased arterial plasma triglycerides (Poverall=0.005;P240 min<0.001, β=−344; P300 min<0.001, β=−373), without changing NEFA and glycerol.
Conclusions: In individuals with IGT, vinegar ingestion before a mixed meal results in an enhancement of muscle blood flow, an improvement of glucose uptake by the forearm muscle and a reduction of postprandial hyperinsulinaemia and hypertriglyceridaemia. From this point of view, vinegar may be considered beneficial for improving insulin resistance and metabolic abnormalities in the atherogenic prediabetic state.
Source : European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
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Acetate supplements speed up red blood cell production, anemia research shows
UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers seeking novel treatments for anemia found that giving acetate, the major component of household vinegar, to anemic mice stimulated the formation of new red blood cells. Currently, the hormone erythropoietin is administered to treat anemia, but this treatment carries with it side effects such as hypertension and thrombosis (blood clotting). The new research, which was performed in mice, suggests that acetate supplements could eventually be a suitable supplement or possibly even an alternative to administration of erythropoietin.
"Using rational interventions based on the mechanistic insights gleaned from our current studies, we may be able to treat acutely or chronically anemic patients with acetate supplements and thereby reduce the need for blood transfusions or erythropoietin therapy," said Dr. Joseph Garcia, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern, staff physician-scientist at the VA North Texas Health Care System, and senior author of the study, published in Nature Medicine.
Anemia is the most common blood disorder, affecting some 3.5 million people, including children and women of child-bearing age, as well as many elderly persons. It can have a significant impact on quality of life, leading to fatigue, weakness, and decreased immune function. People who are anemic produce insufficient red blood cells, which deliver oxygen to tissues throughout the body.
UT Southwestern researchers began their studies by identifying a critical pathway that controls the production of red blood cells in conditions of stress, such as low oxygen. Using genetically modified mice, researchers observed that low oxygen, a state known as hypoxia, stimulates the production of acetate.
Acetate, in turn, activates a molecular pathway that ultimately results in the production of red blood cells, or erythropoiesis, by triggering the production of the protein that stimulates this process, called erythropoietin.
"Our study shows that acetate functions as a biochemical 'flare,' linking changes in cell metabolism that occur during hypoxia with the activation of a selective stress signaling pathway," Dr. Garcia said.
Source : Science Daily
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