Western diet may increase risk of "deadly sepsis"

New research conducted at Portland State University suggests that the Western diet could increase the risk of severe sepsis and mortality due to infection.

Hurricane Shutterstock

The Western diet, which is the most prevalent diet in westernized countries, is characterized by the consumption of foods low in fiber and high in fat and sugar. It is well documented that this type of diet can cause significant damage to cardiovascular health, kidney and obesity.

However, it is increasingly evident that the Western diet can also have adverse effects on the immune system, including increasing the risk of severe sepsis.^th most common cause of death in the world.

Sepsis is commonly known as blood poisoning. The disease can occur when the body reacts to an infection too aggressively by attacking its own tissues and organs.

The body goes into overdrive and may cause reactions that cause inflammation, coagulation and organ failure. It is unclear what governs this severe immunologic response or what influences the outcome and severity of sepsis.

In a recent study, Brooke Napier (Portland State University) found that mice fed "Western diet" were more likely to develop sepsis and had poorer results than mice fed a high-fiber diet.

Mice fed this high sugar and fat diet had more intense chronic inflammation, increased sepsis-badociated immunoparalysis, and impaired neutrophil populations in the blood. They also showed an increase in the severity of sepsis and higher mortality rates than mice fed a standard high fiber diet.

The increase in the severity of sepsis and mortality was independent of the microbiome badociated with the diet, suggesting that the diet could "directly regulate the innate immune system." However, the exact mechanism by which this occurs remains unknown.

The immune system of the mice under the Western diet had air and functioned differently […] It seems that the diet manipulates the function of the immune cells so that you are more susceptible to sepsis, then when you get sepsis, you die faster. "

Brooke Napier, author of the study

Napier and his team have also identified molecular markers in Western diet-fed mice that could be used as biomarkers for patients at high risk of developing severe sepsis.

She said treatments could be predicted and specifically tailored to whether or not the patient had some of these "cell populations" in the blood.

If you could introduce a dietary intervention while they were in intensive care to reduce their chances of manipulating their immune system in this way, you could somehow influence the results. "

Brooke Napier, author of the study

Napier also predicts that if it is the fats in the diet that reprogram the immune system, these results could apply not only to the Western diet, but also to other diets high in fat.

Napier and his team will now study whether specific fats in the diet can influence the risk of increased severity of sepsis.