What if the cure for a life-threatening heart condition wasn’t a drug or surgery, but a supplement you could find on a store shelf?
Japanese researchers have uncovered that tricaprin, a dietary supplement, triggered a dramatic reversal of heart disease symptoms in two patients with a rare, treatment-resistant condition. After years of chest pain and failed therapies, the patients experienced relief and even regression of artery-clogging fat deposits. The key wasn’t lowering cholesterol, but breaking down triglycerides inside heart cells—a novel and potentially groundbreaking approach to cardiac care.
A Surprising Heart Remedy
As children, many of us were told to take our vitamins to grow up healthy and strong. Now, scientists in Japan suggest that one particular supplement might do much more—it could help heal a damaged heart.
A study featured in the European Heart Journal by researchers at Osaka University has found that a specific dietary supplement may significantly reverse signs of heart disease in certain patients.
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a condition where the arteries supplying blood to the heart become narrowed or blocked, often leading to heart attacks. Although treatments like cholesterol-lowering medications and drug-eluting stents (a newer type of stent that delivers medication directly to the artery walls) are widely used, many patients continue to experience poor outcomes. Some individuals do not respond to these conventional therapies at all.
Discovery of a Rare and Resistant CAD Subtype
“Almost 15 years ago, we identified a new type of CAD called triglyceride deposit cardiomyovasculopathy (TGCV), in which the coronary arteries are occluded by triglyceride deposits generated by defective intracellular breakdown of triglycerides in vascular smooth muscle cells,” says lead author of the study Ken-ichi Hirano. “This mechanism makes TGCV distinct from classic cholesterol-induced atherosclerosis, and accounts for patients who are resistant to standard remedies for CAD.”
The research team developed diagnostic guidelines for TGCV and discovered that it is especially common in people with diabetes mellitus and those undergoing hemodialysis. While diagnosing TGCV became possible, finding a successful treatment remained out of reach—until now.
Remarkable Recovery Through a Simple Supplement
“Now we report a remarkable regression of diffuse coronary atherosclerosis in two patients with TGCV,” states Ken-ichi Hirano. “Both had suffered from refractory chest pain and diabetes until diagnosis with TGCV, and subsequent dietary intake of tricaprin led to symptom relief.”
Tricaprin is a commercially available food supplement that promotes lipid breakdown by heart muscle cells. In addition to relieving these patients’ troublesome and painful symptoms, tricaprin also resulted in remarkable regression of the triglyceride build-up in the blood vessels of the heart.
A Novel Mechanism for Treating Atherosclerosis
“While atherosclerosis regression following decreased serum lipid levels is well-described, this is the first report of regression due to increased triglyceride lipolysis within cells, and as such is a conceptually novel treatment for coronary atherosclerosis,” says Ken-ichi Hirano.
Given that not all patients respond to current treatments for CAD, the findings from this study pave the way toward establishing a multi-faceted approach to CAD treatment. The dramatic results achieved by administering a readily available dietary supplement hold promise for patients who would otherwise continue to suffer the debilitating effects of this disease.
Reference: “Remarkable regression of diffuse coronary atherosclerosis in patients with triglyceride deposit cardiomyovasculopathy” by Ken-ichi Hirano, Masahiro Higashi and Kenichi Nakajima, 30 December 2022, European Heart Journal.
DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehac762
The study was funded by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare of Japan, and Nihon Medi-physics Co., Ltd.
A version of this article was originally published in February 2023.
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17 Comments
To :
The Ministry of Health Labor, and Welfare
of Japan, and Nihon Medi physics Co., Ltd
OSAKA University
Dear Ken-ichi Hirano (SciTech daily)
Thank You for your very informative article as seen above.
As a resident from South Africa, and as a descendant from a family with a long history in heart health, this new finding provides us with a lot of hope.
My Gender – Female
My Age – 51 Years
Personal Health – High Blood Pressure
And associated Cardiac Issues.
Any information on this subject is well received and appreciated.
To all who do the research … 🙏
Warm Regards,
Anita
This is a two-year old recycled article.
Those reading may be interested to learn that this supplement is a naturally occurring fat found in Medium Chain Triglycerides.
In other words, you can get it by consuming coconuts, coconut oil, coconut milk, MCT oil or coconut cream. There’s also small amounts in dairy fat.
Though, to be clear, the article does not seem to mention the amount of tricaprin required to achieve this effect and the closest estimate I could find after reading the break down of the fats in coconut oil was “roughly a few grams per tablespoon”
If you read the actual study, it said case 1 got 1.5g/day and case 2 got 4.5g/day.
It will need to receive more than just two people studied with positive results. Would be interesting to know how many people were tested.
I would like to know about this more
but does it cause cancer and liver damage?
Only in the State of California
Cavadex is an amazing heart healing substance and the government keeps banning it’s entry into the U.S. One of the recent shipments ended up on RFK jr’s desk and he refused to intervene.
Probably means it works but to help the pharmacies they wont promote it.
This is an uniformed statement. I suggest deeper research before making such claims. Cavadex is a commercial offering containing Beta-Cyclodextrim. This is widely available in the US.
Cavadex is not banned in the US. The issue is that the FDA hasn’t approved it as an official drug for heart health. Since it is marketed as a disease treatment, the FDA only seeks to protects us by enforcing higher standards for what can be called an approved treatment for medical conditions. The FDA informed Cholrem, the makers of this brand, if their determination in 2024. It has nothing to do with RFK Jr.
This is no way prevents you or anyone else from buying or taking it like you would with any other supplement.
FYI – I’m no fan of RFK Jr and feel like his minimal data driven approaches to leading so-called healthcare reforms are a bad thing for the US population. But that doesn’t make him culpable in this case.
I would be interested in learning more about this compound and your studies, I will be in Japan later this year and would like to meet and discuss.
Do you feel the same about Dr Oz?
Or the real Orange TACO and TACO Jr.
I would like to know what brand of supliment would contain tricapsin and what should the dosage be for an adult trying to reverse heart disease. Thank you, kim t.
Y’all better quit trusting stuff from these pharmaceutical companies and these vitamin companies. At the end of the day it’s going to cause liver problems kidney problems heart problems. All they want is your money they do not care about what it does to you. We got so much natural stuff in our own yard we don’t need them dandelions will help your heart. There’s so many plants in your yard that will help you. Do your research stop making these people rich and hurting yourself
and what lab do you use to do your research, and what sample sizes and P value do you accept?
The article title got many of us primed to think this applies to general heart disease but this study was not about typical coronary artery disease (CAD) caused by cholesterol buildup. It focused on a rare condition called triglyceride deposit cardiomyovasculopathy (TGCV). In TGCV, the problem isn’t LDL cholesterol—it’s that the cells in the heart and arteries can’t properly break down triglycerides inside them. That buildup leads to artery narrowing in a completely different way than what happens in most people with CAD.
Tricaprin appears to help these TGCV patients by promoting intracellular fat breakdown. That’s a novel and promising approach—for this specific condition.
But for the average person with standard heart disease driven by cholesterol and inflammation, there is currently no evidence that tricaprin would have the same effect. It doesn’t lower LDL cholesterol, and we don’t know if it affects plaque the same way. Could it help a little? Possibly, but there’s no data yet. Could it do nothing? Also possible.
So yes, it’s an exciting discovery for TGCV patients, but it’s premature to think of this as a general heart health supplement or some kind of natural cure for clogged arteries. Hopeful? Maybe. Proven? Definitely not—at least not outside this rare condition.