Active ingredient from red foxglove helps with heart failure, clinical study confirms

Medical Xpress / Hannover Medical School / New England Journal of Medicine ^ | Aug. 29, 2025 | Inka Burow / Udo Bavendiek et al

[ConservativeMind]

Digitalis has been used to treat heart failure for more than 200 years. The drug digitoxin also belongs to this group of active ingredients known as cardiac glycosides.

Although there were indications that digitalis was beneficial in heart failure, it has only now been scientifically proven that digitoxin has a significant positive effect in heart failure due to reduced pumping function and insufficient emptying of the left ventricle—known in medical terms as HFrEF (heart failure with reduced ejection fraction).

For 10 years, researchers thoroughly investigated the safety and efficacy of the active ingredient in a clinical study involving more than 1,200 participants.

The large-scale DIGIT-HF study, involving more than 50 centers in Germany, Austria and Serbia, has now been completed and delivers a clear result: adjunctive therapy with digitoxin reduces mortality and the number of hospitalizations for heart failure in patients with advanced HFrEF.

"In the DIGIT-HF study, we examined patients who had exhausted all conventional treatment options," says Professor Bauersachs. "We were surprised ourselves that we were able to achieve such a significant improvement with the additional digitoxin treatment in these very well-treated study participants."

Digitoxin is excreted via the liver and intestines to a greater extent in patients with impaired kidney function. The already-approved drug is therefore also suitable for use in patients with pre-existing kidney weakness.

"When dosed correctly, digitoxin is a safe treatment for heart failure and is also suitable for controlling heart rate in atrial fibrillation when beta blockers alone are not sufficient," emphasizes Professor Bavendiek.

Whereas 0.1 milligrams of digitoxin were often prescribed in the past, the current recommendations are 0.07 milligrams per day or even less. The DIGIT-HF study showed that this dosage reduced mortality and hospital admissions due to heart failure without any safety issues.

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TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: cardiac; digitoxin; heart

[ConservativeMind]

This drug, digitoxin, used to be available for many years in the US, but now is only available in numerous other countries. In the US it was recently replaced with digoxin. Digoxin is not prescribed to people with kidney issues, while digitoxin appears much safer, especially with a lower dose than was normally given. The lower dose digitoxin appears to work just fine, but this wasn’t known before this study.

Too bad the US got rid of it, but, hey, all you Freepers living outside the US now have a “new” old drug for this form of heart failure (HFrEF).

[ConservativeMind]

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[chajin]

Sounds like something RFKJr could push

[antceecee]

Maybe this could have saved my husband a month ago….

[waterhill]

Foxglove can kill you dead. I would not mess with it.

[Scarlett156]

Not sure why, but reading this makes me want to spend a few minutes lifting weights. Be back later!

[bgill]

Hugs and prayers.

[bgill]

Of course, there is some big pharm all giddy adding a few zeros to the cost of flowers.

[metmom]

Foxglove has been known to help with the heart for YEARS.

Sheesh, scientists these days are such egotists, acting as if THEY just made some amazing discovery.

[sauropod]

Will ask a friend who is into homeopathic medicine about this.

[politicianslie]

For later

[ConservativeMind]

I am sorry for your loss.

May he and you both be with God.

[PrairieLady2]

I will keep you in my prayers. It’s hard to loose a spouse 🫂.

[Faith65]

Thanks
bFL