Patrick J. Lynch [creativecommons license] via Wikimedia CommonsHeart muscle health is protected by two pathways: one mediated by nitric oxide and the other by natriuretic peptide. “The existence of two separate pathways with overlapping but distinct functions is nature’s insurance policy, a fail-safe redundancy to ensure that should one pathway falter, the other one can compensate and maintain heart muscle function,” explained David Kass (Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD) in a press release. But when both pathways fail, heart disease can result.
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