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several new studies on various supplements and natural medicine topics,
including heart disease, and their
practical interpretation by Ray Sahelian, M.D.
Heart disease is the
number one killer in the United States. Men are generally more likely to develop heart
disease. An increasing number of women are experiencing heart disease but
they are under-diagnosed. For both sexes, risk of heart disease increases
with age. The risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD) among U.S.
adults has not changed much during the last decade. Many
doctors prescribe statin drugs to reduce cholesterol levels to reduce the
risk for heart disease, but there is no proof that stating drugs will make
these patients live longer. Furthermore, statin drugs are associated with
a number of side effects including muscle aches and memory loss.
Cause of heart disease
A number of factors, individually or in
combination, can lead to heart disease:
Hostility - living one's life with an antagonistic attitude increases the risk for heart disease.
A family history of heart disease. If your dad or mom have heart disease, your risk is higher.
Being overweight certainly raises the risk for heart disease.Poor sleep patterns. Also, people who work a mix of day and night shifts face a greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who work fixed days or nights only
Drinking more than one cup of coffee per day may make heart disease worse. Chronic coffee consumption has a detrimental effect on aortic stiffness and wave reflections, which may increase the risk of cardiovascular or heart disease.Women using low-dose oral contraceptives are at an increased risk for heart disease or stroke while taking the pill. However the risk disappears after discontinuation. Long-term use of birth control pills increases the risk of heart attack or stroke.
Medical conditions such as
hypertension,
high cholesterol, and diabetes are
potent risk factors for heart disease.
Taking antidepressant medications
can increase the risk of death in those with heart disease.
Natural supplements for
heart disease treatment and heart disease prevention
Before you start any supplement program for heart disease prevention or
treatment, please make sure you discuss it with your doctor and you have
full approval along with regular supervision. First, make sure your are eating
healthy foods. Along with smoking cessation and physical activity, diet is
one of the crucial factors in heart health. See
diet for suggestions. Focus on vegetables and fresh vegetable juices, omega-3 fatty acids,
whole grains, fiber, legumes, a little bit of wine, and cold water fish.
Don't take all of the supplements listed below at one time, but rather
begin with one or two and over time add more as you learn how each one
works for you.
Fish oIls or eating cold
water fish reduces the risk for heart rhythm disturbances and reduces
the risk of
heart palpitations,
atrial fibrillation and ventricular
arrhythmia.
Fish oils may reduce the incidence of
sudden cardiac death probably due to an anti-arrhythmic effect. It is not
clear whether taking fish oil capsules or eating more fish reduces the need to take
aspirin, or perhaps the
dose of aspirin can be reduced if fish oils supplements are used. Another
option is krill oil. Fish oils can be taken at one to three capsules a
day. A diet rich in oily fish, which contains omega 3 fatty acids, may be
why middle-aged men in Japan have fewer problems with clogged arteries and
heart disease than white men and men of Japanese descent in the United
States. Fish oil and
DHA supplements are available for sale at
DHA supplement.
Curcumin protects rat myocardium against ischemic insult and the protective
effect could be attributed to its antioxidant properties.
Curcumin
is
derived from turmeric.
Psyllium
is a fiber that can reduce cholesterol levels. Use half or one teaspoon of
Psyllium powder in a glass of water
twice daily with food.
Flax fiber is another good option, so is
Glucomannan fiber.
CoQ10 may be helpful
in heart disease,
especially in combination with vitamin E. I would recommend limiting the
dosage of CoQ10 to 30 mg daily or 50 mg three or four times a week. You
can find
CoQ10-30mg
supplement here.
Vitamin E works
better with CoQ10 to reduce
inflammation in heart disease. Limit
vitamin E
to maximum 30 to 200 units a few times a week. Use a natural vitamin E
complex rather than synthetic vitamin E.
B Complex vitamins reduces levels of
homocysteine.
Keep the vitamin B dosages low, perhaps one or two times the RDA. Taking higher
amounts may not necessary be a healthy approach.
Vitamin C could be
helpful, limit dosage to 100 to 500 mg a day.
Terminalia Arjuna, an Indian medicinal plant,
has been reported to have beneficial effects in patients with ischemic
heart disease in a number of small studies. Arjuna has been tested
in angina.
Magnesium
is a mineral that could help some individuals.
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Improves will power and choice of food selection
You can find a FREE bottle of Diet Rx here and see a list of hundreds of high quality natural
supplement products
Aspirin for heart disease
Aspirin therapy has proven useful in preventing heart attacks, but even
very low doses of the drug taken regularly pose a bleeding risk, while moderate
or high doses cause stomach ulcer and stroke. The study encompassed data from 31
clinical trials, which involved a total of 192,036 patients. Patients were
divided into three groups depending on their daily aspirin dose: low (less than
100 mg), moderate (100 to 200 mg), and high (greater than 200 mg). The rate of
fatal or life-threatening bleeding problems in the low-, moderate-, and
high-dose groups was 0.27, 0.46, and 1.59 percent, respectively.
Dr. Sahelian says: A baby aspirin 81 mg three times a week
appears to be safe.
Diet and heart disease
Researchers
found that among nearly 43,000 middle-aged and older men, those who ate the most
whole grains -- such as oatmeal, brown rice and some breakfast cereals -- were
less likely than men with the lowest consumption to develop coronary heart
disease over 14 years. When the investigators looked at two of the major
components of whole grains, bran emerged as the lead player. Men who added the
most bran to their diet were 30 percent less likely to develop heart disease
than their peers who ate no added bran. Whole grains have three basic
components: the outer layer of bran, the inner germ and the starchy layer known
as the endosperm. In highly processed grain products, such as white bread, the
bran and germ are removed before milling -- which also takes away the fiber,
vitamins and other nutrients found in those constituents. Diets rich in whole
grain foods such as cooked oatmeal, whole barley, bulgur, popcorn, and breakfast
cereals and breads made from whole grains, have been linked to better weight
management and a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Virtually the entire risk of heart disease and heart attack can be predicted and the impact of factors causing attacks is the same whether you live in a rich country or a poor one. Results of a study of more than 29,000 people in 52 countries, released at a meeting of the European Cardiology Society, showed that two factors alone -- an abnormal ratio of bad to good cholesterol and smoking -- were responsible for two thirds of the global risk of heart attack. Other risk factors were high blood pressure, diabetes, abdominal obesity, stress, a lack of daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, and lack of daily exercise.
Q. I have read in a magazine article that
almonds are a good choice
to reduce the risk for heart disease, is this true?
A. Almonds and most nuts have a good range of healthy fatty acids
and, in moderation, are a good addition to one's diet. As much as possible eat
raw nuts since the fatty acid profile of nuts is altered when cooked.
Coffee and heart disease
Consuming moderate-to-high amounts of coffee is associated with increased levels
of several inflammatory markers, a finding that could help explain previous
reports linking the beverage to heart disease. Ongoing, low-level inflammation
is thought to be an underlying factor in the development of heart disease. The
latest findings, which appear in the October 2000 issue of the American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition, are based on a study of about 3000 subjects with no
history of cardiovascular disease. Compared with subjects who did not drink
coffee, those who consumed more than about 1 cup of the beverage per day had
significantly higher levels of all the inflammatory markers tested.
Smoking and heart disease
In chronic smokers who stop
smoking, there is a rapid increase in the number of circulating cells that aid
in the repair of the lining of blood vessels. Even short-term cessation of
smoking may be an effective means to reduce cardiovascular risk.
Passive smoking may be much more dangerous than
had been thought. This is likely to boost demand for a ban on smoking in public
places. Scientists in Britain studied exposure to passive smoke by measuring cotinine, a breakdown product of
tobacco smoke, in the blood of non-smokers. People who were non-smokers but had
relatively high levels of cotinine had a heart disease risk of about 50 percent
higher than those people who were exposed to low levels. Passive smoking has
adverse effects that may have been underestimated in the past.
Stress test and heart disease
Stress tests aimed at detecting blocked
arteries in patients may miss more than half the cases of early heart disease.
Stress and heart disease
Men with stressful jobs may already be at risk of early
artery disease by their early 30s. Researchers in Finland found that among the
more than 1,000 young adults they studied, men who reported high levels of job
strain were more likely than their peers to show signs of early artery
narrowing. The same was not true of young women, however. A number of studies
have found a link between job strain and heart disease, but it's not clear that
work demands are the cause of the higher risk.
The new findings, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, 2005, point
to a possible connection between job strain and the beginnings of
atherosclerosis, the build-up of plaque in the arteries that eventually impairs
blood flow and can lead to heart disease, a heart attack or stroke.
Reduce hostility
A hostile temperament may shorten the lives of
middle-aged adults with heart disease. In a study of more than 1,300 men and
women with diseased heart arteries, researchers found that younger patients with
an antagonistic personality had a higher risk of dying over the next 14 years
than did their more mellow peers. However, when it came to older patients --
those 61 years of age or older -- there was no clear effect of hostility on the
risk of death. A possible explanation is that heart disease patients who are
particularly vulnerable to the effects of their own hostility, which include
blood pressure spikes and stress hormone surges, often don't make it to old age.
Exercise and heart disease
Long term mild to moderate exercise reduces the risk for heart disease.
However, a sudden surge of physical activity or bout of extreme emotional distress
can precipitate a heart attack in people at risk. Investigators from the
University College London, UK, found consistent evidence from previous studies
that when normally inactive people engage in a burst of physical activity, or
when people are emotionally stressed, angry or excited, they are more likely to
experience a
myocardial infarction.
Heart disease symptom
Some of the common symptoms of heart disease include
shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitations, dizziness or
lightheadedness, swelling in legs, and fatigue. An uncommon heart disease
symptom is abdominal pain or abdominal pulsation. Some people experience
heart disease symptoms in the form of anxiety, appetite loss, cough,
cyanosis (bluish skin discoloration), dizziness, and fast heart beat. Rare
symptoms of heart disease include fever, numbness and tingling, and
vertigo.
Heart disease and antidepressant drugs
Patients with coronary artery disease may be at increased risk of
death while using antidepressant drugs. Researchers monitored depressive
symptoms and antidepressant use among 921 patients ages 29 to 90 years who
were hospitalized for coronary angiography, a procedure used to diagnose
heart disease. All of the patients had a history of or current coronary
artery disease. Antidepressants were being used by 19 percent of subjects.
Two thirds of the antidepressants were selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors, such as Prozac. During an average of three years of follow-up,
21 percent of the patients taking antidepressants died, compared with 12
percent of those not on antidepressants. After adjusting for demographic
factors, cardiac risk factors, scores on the Beck Depression Inventory
test, and the presence of other illness, antidepressant use was an
independent risk factor for mortality, increasing the risk by 62 percent.
Heart disease and
surgery
Patients scheduled for heart surgery might want to ask their
surgeon not to use a clotting drug called Trasylol (aprotinin). The use of
the drug appears to increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and kidney
failure. Clotting drugs like Trasylol are given to some patients during
heart surgery to reduce bleeding.
Association of heart disease and
gallstones
Patients with coronary heart disease appear to be at
increased risk of developing
gallstones.
Obesity is a risk factor for gallstones and coronary heart disease. To
investigate the possible association between these two diseases, researchers,
based at Medica Sur Clinic and Foundation in Mexico City, studied 119 patients
with gallstones visible on ultrasound and 354 controls without evidence of
gallstones. The prevalence of coronary heart disease was close to 16 percent in
subjects with gallstones, significantly higher than that of controls at 4.5
percent.
Women and heart disease
Older women who eat a relatively large amount of protein from red meat or
dairy products may have an elevated risk of dying from heart disease. The
findings call into question the long-term safety of
high-protein diets -- at least the ones that don't distinguish the protein in
steak and cream from that in tofu and nuts. Investigators found that among
more than 29,000 postmenopausal women, those who reported the highest intake of
protein from red meat and dairy products had a roughly 40 percent higher risk of
dying from heart disease over the next 15 years compared with women with the
lowest intake of these foods. Exercise treadmill testing is not a very accurate
method of detecting clogged coronary arteries in women.
Heart disease and obesity
The circumference of your waist correlates more closely
with several known risk factors for heart disease than does your body mass index
(BMI) -- the measure of weight in relation to height.
Additional risk factors for heart
disease
Periodontal bacteria linked to heart disease: People
who test positive for bacteria that cause periodontal disease also have
increased thickness of the carotid artery, which suggests there is a direct
relationship between periodontal infection and atherosclerosis.
People with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome -- in which airways become blocked periodically during sleep and breathing stops for brief periods -- experience a relatively high number episodes of irregular heart rhythm and future heart disease.
There is no evidence that oral contraceptives reduce the risk of heart disease.
Heart disease test - which ones
are worthwhile?
New and expensive heart disease screening tests are no better at predicting
life-threatening heart problems than simple old-fashioned risk factors such as
diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol according to Thomas Wang of the
Massachusetts General Hospital and his colleagues who looked at 10 "biomarkers"
that try to evaluate risk for heart disease, including C-reactive protein and
homocysteine.
Supplements and heart disease research
Cosupplementation with vitamin E and coenzyme Q10 reduces circulating
markers of inflammation in baboons.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Sep;80(3):649-55.
Inflammation and oxidative stress are processes that mark early
metabolic abnormalities in vascular diseases. We explored the
effects of a high-fat, high-cholesterol (HFHC) diet on vascular responses in
baboons and the potential response-attenuating effects of vitamin E and coenzyme
Q(10) supplementation. We used a longitudinal design by
subjecting 21 baboons (Papio hamadryas) to sequential dietary challenges.
After being maintained for 3 mo on a baseline diet (low in fat and
cholesterol), 21 baboons were challenged with an HFHC diet for 7 wk. The serum
C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations did not change. Subsequent
supplementation of the HFHC diet with the antioxidant vitamin E (250, 500, or
1000 IU/kg diet) for 2 wk reduced serum CRP concentrations. Additional
supplementation with CoQ10 (2 g/kg diet) further reduced serum CRP to
approximately 30% of baseline. Introduction of the HFHC diet itself
significantly decreased serum P-selectin and von Willebrand factor
concentrations. However, neither vitamin E alone nor vitamin E plus CoQ10
significantly altered the serum concentrations of P-selectin or von Willebrand
factor. Dietary supplementation with vitamin E alone reduces the
baseline inflammatory status that is indicated by the CRP concentration in
healthy adult baboons. Cosupplementation with CoQ10, however, significantly
enhances this antiinflammatory effect of vitamin E.
Dietary Intake and Coronary Heart Disease: A Variety of Nutrients and
Phytochemicals Are Important.
Tucker KL.. Curr Treat Options Cardiovasc Med. 2004 Aug;6(4):291-302.
Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA
Until quite recently, the dietary focus on prevention of coronary heart
disease (CHD) has been almost exclusively centered on reducing intake of
cholesterol, total fat, and saturated fat. The food industry responded
vigorously with low-fat products, some of which are helpful, particularly
low-fat dairy products, but others that are less so, due to increases in refined
carbohydrate content. Recent research shows that a variety of foods contribute
to protection against CHD, including certain types of fatty acids, and a variety
of components in fruit and vegetables, whole grains, and nuts. In particular,
there is now an emphasis on reducing not only saturated fat, but also trans fat,
whereas mono and omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to be protective. Many new
studies have shown a link between intake of fruit and vegetables and whole
grains and protection against CHD. This has been ascribed to their fiber,
vitamin, mineral, and phytochemical content. In particular, there is
accumulating evidence of protective effects for folate, vitamin B(6), vitamin
B(12), vitamin E, vitamin C, flavonoids, and phytoestrogens. New recommendations
to prevent heart disease require a greater focus on total dietary pattern with a
return to the use of a variety of minimally processed foods.heart disease
Nutritional trials for the prevention of coronary
heart disease.
Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2004;13(Suppl):S2.
Epidemiological studies as well as randomised dietary trials including
moderate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids in the experimental diet suggest
that these fatty acids, despite their low concentrations in blood and
tissues, may be important in relation with the pathogenesis (and
prevention) of CHD. Whereas a striking protective effect of an alpha-linolenic
acid (ALA)-rich Mediterranean diet was reported with a 50 to 70% reduction
of the risk of recurrence after 4 years of follow-up, it is still not
known whether ALA is cardioprotective by itself only or also through its
conversion into very long-chain omega-3 PUFAs (EPA + DHA) and then into
the corresponding eicosanoids and prostaglandins. According to our current
knowledge, dietary ALA should represent about 0.6 to 1 % of total daily
energy or about 2 g per day in patients following a Mediterranean diet,
whereas the average intake in linoleic acid should not exceed 7 g per day.
Supplementation with very long chain omega-3 fatty acids (about 1g per
day) in patients following a Mediterranean type of diet was shown to
decrease the risk of cardiac death by 30% and of sudden cardiac death by
45%. Thus, in the context of a diet rich in oleic acid and poor in
saturated and omega-6 fatty acids, even a small dose of omega-3 PUFAs (one
gram under the form of capsules) might be very protective. These data
underline the importance of the omega-6/omega-3 ratio in the prevention of
coronary heart disease.
Additional links
Danshen
used in China for heart conditions
Heart Attack information
C Reactive
Protein reduction of c-reactive
protein and cholesterol
required to control heart disease. See also
C reactive protein
page.
Heart Disease Questions
Q. Is jaw pain a symptom of heart disease?
A. Jaw pain may be a symptom of heart disease in the
sense of angina.
Q. What are
the most helpful supplements to take to prevent heart disease?
A. A few of these supplements are listed at the top of the page.
Much depends on one's diet, activity level, and other factors. The above listed
supplements are a rough guideline.
Q. I take heart medicine and cholesterol medicine and several
other medications for heart disease. I also take Lyrica 75mg for poor
circulation and muscle pain. i would like to take some natural remedies that
really work. My Dr wants me to go back to a Vascular specialist. who wants to do
"major surgery". I am 70 yrs old and I don't want this. If you can help I will
forever be grateful.
A. We can't give individual suggestions, but your doctor may wish
to read this page and perhaps some of the info may be useful to you. Lyrica is
pregabalin, an oral medication that is chemically related to gabapentin. It is
used for treating pain caused by neurologic diseases such as neuropathic pain,
Do you carry a nutrient called ethylenediamine tetra
acetic acid? This nutrient is suppose to be an artery cleaner.
Sorry, we don't.
This heart disease page was last updated Feb 2009.
Symptom of Heart Disease