
In a recent study published within the journal Nutrients, a team of Italian researchers reviewed clinical and experimental findings from recent studies to grasp the therapeutic contributions of Spirulina, also called blue-green cyanobacteria, in managing heart problems and its risk aspects.
Study: Helpful Effects of Spirulina Supplementation within the Management of Cardiovascular Diseases. Image Credit: baibaz / Shutterstock
Background
Although Spirulina has recently gained popularity as a ‘superfood’ due to its high dietary content, the usage of microalga in weight-reduction plan dates back to the precedent days of the Aztecs in Mexico. Spirulina can be often called blue-green cyanobacteria and are microscopic, photosynthesizing, filamentous microalgae of the genus Arthrospira, with A. plantensis and A. maxima being the 2 species mostly used for his or her therapeutic and dietary value.
They grow within the tropics, in alkaline lakes with high bicarbonate and carbonate salt concentrations, although they’ve been known to survive in extremely cold temperatures. Spirulina is taken into account a ‘superfood’ because 60% to 70% of its dry weight consists of protein, while it is usually abundant in minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, phycocyanin, carotenes, and fatty acids. As a nutraceutical, it has been added to varied kinds of foods, including sports supplements and baby foods, while the pharmaceutical industry has popularized it in the shape of capsules, dehydrated powders, and tablets.
Therapeutic effects of Spirulina
Research indicates that Spirulina exhibits a big selection of therapeutic effects reminiscent of anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antioxidant, hypolipidemic, and neuroprotective properties. The antioxidant properties are attributed mainly to the pigments phycocyanin, β-carotene, diatoxanthin, and diadinoxanthin present in Spirulina.
Given its hypolipidemic and antioxidant properties, supplementation with Spirulina might be useful in lowering the chance of heart problems. Moreover, diabetes, together with dyslipidemia and hypertension, is considered one of the chance aspects for heart problems. Due to this fact, the current review examined how the cumulative health advantages of Spirulina could lower the general risk of heart problems, which continues to be considered one of the main causes of mortality across the globe.
Helpful effects of Spirulina in CVDs.
Spirulina and hypertension
The impact of Spirulina in lowering the chance of hypertension and stroke has been studied extensively in clinical trials, and the findings from these studies have shown that day by day consumption of Spirulina, even added to foods reminiscent of salad dressing, significantly reduced the diastolic and systolic blood pressure.
Consumption of Spirulina in the shape of nutraceutical tablets also showed similar hypotensive results. Moreover, animal studies using hypertensive rat models have shown that the high silicon content of Spirulina might be chargeable for improving the elasticity of the arterial partitions, together with angiotensin-converting enzyme-inhibiting properties that end in hypotensive effects.
Antidiabetic effects of Spirulina
Diabetes mellitus increases the chance of cardiovascular events reminiscent of heart failure, myocardial infarction, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease on account of the micro- and macrovascular consequences of hyperglycemia. Cellular membrane integrity can be impacted by hyperglycemia, causing the peripheral tissues and liver to grow to be insulin-resistant, increasing the generation of reactive oxygen species.
Compared to metformin, which is the usual treatment for hyperglycemia during diabetes, supplementation with Spirulina is believed to not only lower the degrees of circulating glucose but additionally have a positive impact on lipid metabolism, which is linked to diabetes. The hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic properties of Spirulina are believed to have a cumulative effect in decreasing the chance of heart problems.
The review discussed various clinical trials and studies using animal models of diabetes mellitus which have investigated the hypoglycemic properties of Spirulina and compared its efficacy in lowering blood sugar levels with that of metformin.
While the mechanism through which Spirulina impacts blood glucose levels shouldn’t be yet fully understood, the researchers imagine that it might be influencing the secretion of insulin from the β-cells within the islets of Langerhans within the pancreas or further downstream, facilitating the transport of glucose from blood to all of the peripheral tissue.
Hyperlipidemia and Spirulina
Spirulina has also demonstrated hypolipidemic properties by lowering the concentrations of low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides within the plasma while increasing the degrees of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, with the useful effects not being dose-dependent or toxic at high concentrations.
Studies in animal models and chubby or obese human participants have reported significant advantages of Spirulina supplementation in lowering triglyceride levels, either as food additives or as nutraceutical pills or tablets. Spirulina was also found to be useful as an adjunct therapy to metformin in chubby diabetes patients.
Conclusions
Overall, this comprehensive review reported that consumption of Spirulina, either as an additive to regular foods or as a nutraceutical complement, had quite a few potential advantages, reminiscent of hypoglycemic, antioxidant, and hypolipidemic effects. Nonetheless, the dosage and timing of Spirulina supplementation have to be standardized for optimal advantages in lowering the chance of heart problems.
In conclusion, based on these data, more rigorous studies ought to be planned in the longer term aiming to deal with these critical questions, putting the foundations for developing a typical guideline on “how and when” to make use of Spirulina.
Journal reference:
- Prete, V., Abate, A. C., Pietro, D., Lucia, D., Vecchione, C., & Carrizzo, A. (2024). Helpful Effects of Spirulina Supplementation within the Management of Cardiovascular Diseases. Nutrients, 16(5). DOI: 10.3390/nu16050642, https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/5/642