Sepsis is considered as the leading cause of death in all areas across the U.S. This is a life-threatening situation which arises from a complicated infection.
Sepsis, which people normally call blood poisoning, happens when the immune system of the body starts damaging different tissues and organs. Without this treatment, the blood pressure turns extremely low, a condition called septic shock.
Sepsis is difficult to predict and may get extremely fatal. Therefore, the medical community has always been pushing to understand more about this condition and ways to prevent it.
The Relationship between Diet and Sepsis
As per a recent study, diet can predict the severity of different cases of sepsis. The researchers published their findings from this study in the journal called Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
For further investigation, they fed a few mice with food equivalent to a Western diet i.e. it was high in fat and sugar while extremely low on fiber. A control group was maintained that was given standard food.
The scientists found that the mice consuming the Western diet ultimately developed higher levels of inflammation. This occurred long before the process of sepsis even began.
The findings from this study back up previous studies on this topic that demonstrate how using a Western diet can cause inflammation in different body parts. These include the brain, the cardiovascular system, and the intestines.
More importantly, mice consuming the Western diet developed more severe cases of sepsis and were subjected to a higher risk of mortality.
Applying the Data on Clinical Grounds
Sepsis is considered to be a huge concern in lots of hospitals. Therefore, the findings of this study can be extremely useful.
If you are aware of a diet rich in sugar and fat that associates with an increased risk of sepsis and mortality, it gets easier for you to take care of people in the ICU and make sure that they are getting all the nutrients in the right amounts.
In this study paper, the researchers also came up with certain markers that can predict which type of people are at an increased risk of these immune responses. By detecting the levels of these markers in the blood, you might be able to determine the patients at a higher risk of sepsis and mortality.
Following up on the study, the researchers are planning to go deep into the contents of a western diet. They aspire to identify the type of fats that interact with the immune cells and change their functionality.
The lead scientist of this study says that if the fats in the Western diet are found to be inducing the reprogramming, it will be highly applicable to any high-fat diet such as the ketogenic diet or Atkins diet.
These diet plans are becoming extremely popular and this study may be extremely useful for people who wish to follow them.
Scientists are also well aware of the fact that a Western diet increases the risk of cardiovascular risk and diabetes. It seems like adding sepsis to this list has become important.
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