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Olive Oil can fix ailing hearts, literally! In a surprising find, researchers established how dietary fat in olive oil restored normal functioning post heart failure.

According to findings published in the journal Circulation, the research team from University of Illinois found that crucial fat metabolism in the heart improved in rats with failed hearts, which led to overall improvement in heart function.

"The findings link reduced intracellular lipid storage dynamics to impaired PPAR-α signaling and contractility in diseased hearts, consistent with a rate-dependent lipolytic activation of PPAR-α. In decompensated hearts, oleate (dietary fat in olive oil) may serve as a beneficial energy substrate versus palmitate by up-regulating triglyceride  dynamics and nuclear receptor signaling," researchers concluded.

Explaining the conclusions in Time, study author E Douglas Lewandowski said, "If we gave hearts that were failing palmitate, they basically looked like failing hearts. Their fat metabolism and storage remained depressed and the hearts weren't producing enzymes that would help metabolize fat. But when they gave the hearts oleate, they vastly improved. The presence of oleate completely restored the fat content in the cell back to normal, Lewandowski says, and the hearts contracted better and showed normalized genes that help in fat metabolism."

According to Tech Times, researchers made observations by following the pathway of fat molecules tagged with markers. They were able to see bio-chemical reactions real time through magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Heart failure affects nearly five million Americans, with another half million cases being detected every year.

"So the fact that we can restore beneficial gene expression, as well as more balanced fat metabolism, plus reduce toxic fat metabolites, just by supplying hearts with oleate - a common dietary fat - is a very exciting finding," Lewandowski said while adding that more research in humans was required before any recommendations can be made for daily consumption of olive oil.