"A new gene therapy has been shown to reverse the effects of heart failure and restore heart function in a large animal model. The treatment increases the heart’s ability to pump blood and significantly improves survival rates. A paper describing the results calls it “an unprecedented recovery of cardiac function.”
One of the many downsides of myocardial infarction (heart attack in layman's terms) is that the loss of oxygen to heart tissue kills those tissues, causing permanent loss of function. Or so it was always assumed. After my 2014 infarction, I found a journal article about a medical research who had one, and found that by regular cardiovascular conditioning (a lot of demanding exercise) he was able to restore some of the "lost" function. My cardiologist was quite impressed, not just by the results but that a patient brought a medical journal article to him as opposed to something they saw on Oprah. (Of course, I am not a typical patient, but you already knew that.)
The scientists are hoping for human clinical trials in the fall. Who knows? This might reach prescription level before I die.
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