Heart Disease
Angina * Coronary * Heart Attack * Stroke
How Vitamins & Nutritional Supplements May Help
 

Nutritional therapies are proving to be far more effective in reducing mortality for heart disease than even the most aggressive drug regimen.  In fact, some of the drugs used to treat heart disease have serious side effects and can actually shorten your life.  In addition, heart disease in women seems to be related to hormonal imbalances and needs to be treated differently than with men.
 

Common Symptoms of Heart Disease
 

High blood pressure, aching feet, legs and muscles, weakness and unsteadiness, chest pains;  signs of heart attack:  excruciating pain, starting in the lower chest, weak and rapid pulse, pale skin, perspiring, dizziness, then unconsciousness.
 

Common Causes of Heart Disease
 

Most heart disease is caused by artheriosclerosis, which is a narrowing of the arteries due to a build-up of plaque along the artery walls.  It is theorized that something damages the walls of the arteries and that the substances the body uses to repair those walls often stick to the walls and if it happens too much, the build up can become dangerous.  Sometimes a piece of that plaque will break off and then block an artery, causing a heart attack.

Some think that the damage can happen with exposure to chemicals – it is well known that heart attack rates go up when pollution rates go up.  There are also more heart attacks in the winter months when people are outside less and their bodies make less vitamin D.

If you look at the real facts, heart attacks are NOT caused by high cholesterol or eating lots of saturated fats, unlike popular media articles still want you to believe.  In fact, at the turn of the century when we were eating a lot more saturated fats like those in cream, butter, eggs , liver, and red meat, heart disease was practically unheard of.  It appears that the real culprits are more likely to be an excess of refined foods, including white sugar and vegetable oils and trans-fatty acids in the diet.  See our page on Saturated Fats.
 

Vitamins, Minerals and Other Nutritional Supplements
 

Some of the vitamins that seem to be helpful for those with heart disease or even just those who want to prevent it include vitamin C, vitamin E, the antioxidant vitamin beta-carotene and one of the B complex vitamins – folic acid*.  The powerful antioxidant CoQ10 is also widely known to be good for the heart and circulation system*.  Carnitine can also be useful*.

Vitamin E, as a fat-soluble antioxidant, seems to help prevent the LDL cholesterol from going rancid and then forming plaque that can clog your arteries.  According to a Harvard study, men who took 100 IUs of a vitamin E nutritional supplement every day for 2 years reduced their heart disease risk by 37%.  Other studies have found similar results.  Even in those who already had blocked arteries and even heart attacks, who took vitamin E, they had a much reduced risk of reforming blockages and having repeat heart attacks.

Vitamin C seems to help prevent heart disease by its ability to regenerate vitamin E, thus helping it to do its job preventing plaque formation.  If this is true then other antioxidants like those in DHLA, green tea, Goji and Mangosteen Juice might also be able to do this as they may also help the body reuse other antioxidants like vitamin E.

The antioxidant vitamin beta-carotene has also been shown in studies to cut your heart disease risk in half, and seemed especially helpful to those who were smokers or had high cholesterol.  According to Dexter Morris, MD and assistant professor at the University of North Carolina's School of Medicine, "the higher your carotenoid levels, the lower your risk of getting a heart attack."  Synthetic supplements, however, did not confer the same benefits.

Some of the “Super Juices” have been used for heart disease, such as Goji, Acai and Mangosteen Juice*.  Both Goji and Mangosteen are high in antioxidants.  Goji is also very high in vitamin C, and Mangosteen contains high levels of Xanthones, antioxidants that have been shown to reduce inflammation.  It has been known for quite some time now that high levels of homocysteine in the blood can damage arterial walls and contribute to plaque build up on the artery walls.  One of the B complex vitamins called folic acid or folate seems to help prevent the buildup of homocysteine, and thus can help prevent heart disease.

Omega 3 fish oils and flax oils can also be helpful in reducing risk of heart problems, as well as hawthorne berries, cayenne powder, garlic and chlorella*.  For men, Siberian ginseng is good, and for women, herbs that help balance the female hormones, such as dong quai, red clover blossoms and red raspberry leaf*.  Other herbs and plants that can be helpful include:  cat's claw, devil's claw, goldenseal, gotu kola, olive leaf, ginkgo biloba and reishi mushroom*.

Recommended Vitamins & Nutritional Supplements*

We don't recommend taking any B vitamins individually, so if you wanted to supplement your folic acid, you would need to take a good natural source B complex:

• B Complex Vitamin
• C Complex Vitamin
• CoQ10
• Vitamin E Complex
• DHLA
• Green Tea
• Mangosteen 100 Juice
• Goji 100 Juice
• Acai 100 Juice
• Carnitine (Quantum CircuZyme)
• High Vitamin Cod Liver Oil, for both vitamins A & D and the omega-3 fatty acids
• Essential Fatty Acid Oil
• Hawthorne Berries
• Chlorella
• Siberian Ginseng
• Quantum Fem Balance
• Nutritional Yeast
• Lecithin
• Reishi Mushroom
   

Food Choices
 

Vitamin E is found in nuts and whole grains, but in our modern life is very difficult to get in the quantity that has shown to prevent heart disease*.  Those nuts and whole grains, along with liver, will help you to meet your vitamin B requirements, however. Spinach and other leafy greens, as well as citrus fruits like oranges have high levels of folic acid and are also good to include in your diet. 

Chlorophyll-rich green foods can be helpful, as well as onions, garlic and sea vegetables like kelp and algae like chlorella.  Cod, herring, mackerel and tuna and other fatty fish are all high in heart healthy omega-3 fatty acids.
 

Other Ideas
 

The old standbys of regular exercise and not smoking have proven to be beneficial in reducing your heart disease risk, in addition to adding some nutrient dense foods, vitamins and nutritional supplements.*

* This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA.  This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. 

Healthy Vitamins & Nutritional Supplements