A device called a cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) pacemaker, can switch the heart’s fuel from sugar to fat after only two minutes, a study has found.

Oxford: CTC Pacemaker Could Help Reverse Heart Failure Symptoms by Switching Heart’s Fuel from Sugar to Fat! (21.1.2026)

Professor Neil Herring, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford, said: “The size of the improvement we’ve seen in the hearts in our study in response to CRT is remarkable. The slowing down of electrical signals in the heart, in some people who have heart failure, may mean the signal for the heart to use fat for fuel is lost, and their heart switches to using glucose instead. A pacemaker restores the “use fat for fuel” message through fixing the signalling problem as it regulates the heart. This then helps the heart to start to recover.