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The best of the heart healing supplements
My recent posts focused on the ways in which calcium disodium EDTA is thought to enhance the flow of blood to your heart and other body organs.
But just like you shouldn’t wait till your heart health is far gone to consider EDTA, you should also be aware of the importance of nutrients to protect your heart — sooner than later.
Your body requires these specific nutrients for a healthy functioning heart, and you can begin using them much sooner in the disease process, or to prevent heart disease in the first place. There’s no reason to wait until the disease manifests with something as serious as a heart attack, which is how most people discover there’s a problem.
You’ll find these at your local health food store or online. The peer-reviewed scientific literature gives evidence that these lower heart disease risk…
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Chelation nutrients like EDTA
- Nutrient IP-6: EDTA is not the only chelation method on the market. There’s also a food nutrient called inositol hexaphosphate (IP6, or “phytate”) that helps keep calcium out of the artery walls and in the bones where it should be. A 2006 animal study reported in Frontiers in Bioscience showed a highly significant reduction in the calcium content of aorta and heart tissue when treated with IP-6. Human studies mirror this finding, so supplementing with 1,000 mg IP6 daily is thought to move calcium out of arteries while leaving calcium in bones.
- Malic Acid: Although not as powerful as EDTA, malic acid supplementation has also been found to help remove the toxic metals aluminum, lead, and strontium, and improving blood flow.
Key vitamins
- Vitamin K2: In addition to IP6, vitamin K2 (menaquinone) activates proteins that prevent excess calcium deposition in your blood vessels. There are the two forms of vitamin K2 called MK-7 and MK-4, thought to “shuttle” calcium out of your bloodstream and into your bones. Vitamin K2 at 100-150 mcg daily decreases C-reactive protein (non-specific marker of inflammation), increases arterial elasticity, decreases arterial plaque, decreases coronary heart disease and total mortality. The 7-year prospective Rotterdam Study of 4807 subjects (2004), as well as a later 2009 prospective study of 16,057 women, showed significant reduction in heart attack (at 22-50 mcg daily) and all-cause deaths (at 30-40 mcg daily).
- B vitamins: Niacin (vitamin B3, a.k.a. nicotinic acid) 500 – 1,000 mg is a vasodilator; the extended-release form lowers blood pressure and raises good cholesterol levels.
- Pyridoxine (vitamin B-6) stabilizes nitric oxide (a potent vasodilator) and reduces homocysteine, a known marker of heart disease risk.
- Folic Acid (vitaminB9) along with vitamins B6 and B12 reduce An elevated homocysteine level is a known risk factor for heart disease.
- Vitamin D3: There is a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the general population with a direct correlation to cardiovascular disease. Worse, low vitamin D3 is considered a contributing cause of heart disease deaths. I recommend your levels be 60-80 ng/ml, which usually requires taking 2,000 to 5,000 IU daily by supplementation if your blood levels are low (below 30 ng/ml).
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Key amino acids
- L-Arginine at 6 grams daily triggers the natural arterial secretion of nitric oxide which dramatically relaxes arterial smooth muscle for optimal blood flow and has arterial wall anti-inflammatory effects, which is even more effective in salt-sensitive persons.
- L-carnitine (1 gram twice daily) lowers blood pressure and lowers insulin resistance.
- L-Taurine has pronounced beneficial heart health effects including its blood pressure-lowering effect, best taken at 3 grams twice daily.
- R-(alpha) lipoic acid lowers blood pressure and improves arterial wall dysfunction through beneficial effects on nitric oxide (the vasodilator) and other mechanisms at the optimal dose of 100-200 mg daily.
- Alpha-lipoic acid lowers blood pressure; improves endothelial dysfunction; reduces reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress and has other cardioprotective mechanisms. The optimal dose is 300-600 mg twice daily.
- N-Acetyl-Cysteine promotes the production of glutathione, your body’s most prevalent antioxidant and promoter of ATP energy.
- D-ribose improves angina, heart failure, arrhythmias, weakness, and fatigue at 5 grams 3-4 times daily for those already diagnosed with heart disease.
Herbs and other nutrients
- Garlic is a natural chelator and also an antioxidant. Garlic has the ability to chelate lead and mercury from the body. It is thought to help to lower the sticky cholesterol underlying the atherosclerosis process and help keep your arteries elastic.
- Grape seed extract is another one to know about. It has antioxidant polyphenols and reduces inflammation and oxidative stress markers.
- Polyphenols: Resveratrol, quercetin, flavonoids, red wine (6 oz twice weekly), de-alcoholized red wine, purple grape juice (independent of alcohol content), red grape polyphenolic extract, dark chocolate, and other plant-derived polyphenols have been shown to safely reduce arterial wall inflammation, increase nitric oxide (a vasodilator), and thereby lower both blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. For example, 50 ml of concentrated pomegranate juice daily (contains polyphenols) lowered systolic blood pressure by 12% in a year-long study and also significantly reduced atherosclerosis (as measured by Intima-Media Thickness of the carotid artery) by up to 30%.
- Omega 3 fatty acids (fish or fish oil) at 5 grams daily with EPA/DHA at a ratio of 3:2 lowers endothelial inflammation and at 3 to 4 grams daily it lowers the heart rate by 6 beats/minute and lowers endothelial inflammation.
- Hawthorne berry mildly reduces systemic vascular resistance.
- Aged garlic (Kyolic) is clearly cardioprotective and there are multiple mechanisms for this. Clinical experience shows 600 mg twice daily reduces coronary artery plaque progression in people on statins.
- Berberine: effectively reduced cholesterol levels in hamsters fed a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet in an early study. A 2012 study[52] in humans found that 500 mg three times daily for 12 weeks was more effective in lowering cholesterol than ezetimibe.
- Nattokinase from the Japanese natto bean is a natural clot buster and helps to keep optimal arterial blood flow.
- Potassium: a high potassium diet of 5,000 mg daily is recommended (unless you have kidney failure) for optimal heart health and blood pressure.
Remember that these are just the supplements to choose from. Optimal nutrition and stress reduction are probably even more powerful for preventing heart disease than supplements if directly compared.
To heart health and feeling good,
Michael Cutler, M.D.
Editor’s Note: It’s time you heard the truth about today’s “popular” heart treatments — the truth you won’t find at your doctor’s office. PLUS, discover new natural secrets that don’t require a prescription! Before you submit to any heart treatment, do this ONE thing: Read this FREE report…
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- Presentation by Mark Houston, M.D. (cardiologist) at the American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine fellowship module II.
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- Personal notes taken from the American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine fellowship module II training, 2012.
- Poorolajal J, Zeraati F, Soltanian AR, Sheikh V, Hooshmand E, Maleki A. Oral potassium supplementation for management of essential hypertension: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. PLoS One. 2017 Apr 18;12(4):e0174967. eCollection 2017. PubMed PMID: 28419159; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5395164.
By Dr. Michael Cutler
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