Best supplements for the heart
I’m covering the best supplements for the heart in this post, I had heart disease I know from my experience that heart supplements can help with cardiovascular disease.
Heart health is very important especially if you have a family history of heart disease, it runs in my family three of my uncles died prematurely from heart attacks.
I’m 65 years old now having survived a massive heart attack at age 45 even though at the time I had a good diet, I exercised regularly and I was taking my prescribed statins to lower my cholesterol.
What my doctor said
My doctor explained that the reason for my heart attack was a build-up of plaque that occurred in my left ventricle artery and resulted in a 95% blockage.
When that happens the blood going to your heart almost stops completely.
The outcome can be one of two things, either you die or you survive, luckily for me my fitness levels helped me to survive, and I thank God that I have been around to see my three daughters growing up.
I wasn’t a big fan of prescription medications I asked what are the best supplements for the heart. Not surprisingly doctors don’t know a lot about supplements for the heart mainly because of their training and to be honest clinical trials on the best supplements for the heart are a little thin on the ground.
Heart health supplements
Over the intervening years, I have been studying what a supplement needs to have in its ingredients to be effective in fighting against heart disease when you analyze the causes of heart disease plaque build-up and inflammation play a pivotal role in heart attacks and stroke.
I have been using heart supplements for the last 18 months with some success.
What are cardiologists saying about heart disease?
I have spoken to many doctors and cardiologists about heart disease one of the main questions that I put to them was, can heart disease be reversed?
Can the plaque build-up in arteries be reduced?
I get the same answer all the time, heart disease cannot be reversed, and medications can keep your cholesterol and your blood pressure, these measures are important but they don’t address the fundamental cause of heart disease.
What causes heart disease?
To be honest and I’m not a medical person however I have read the book ” no more heart disease” by Doctor Louis Ignarro and I have listened to other doctors who have a different view as to what exactly causes a heart attack.
From what I’ve learned two things are happening in the arterial system, one is a build-up of plaque in the arteries, often plaque can break off and cause a heart attack, and the second issue that occurs is inflammation of the arteries.
What are arteries made of?
The arteries are made up of a muscular tube lined with a smooth tissue consisting of three layers,
1. The intima
This is the innermost layer, it is lined by the endothelium a smooth tissue.
2. The media
This is a layer of muscle allowing the arteries to cope with high volumes of blood pressure from the heart.
3. The adventitia
These are tissues that connect arteries by tissues.
Inflammation in the arteries
Over 20 years ago researchers discovered that inflammation in the arteries was a significant reason why people suffered heart attacks or strokes.
What they couldn’t figure out was whether anti-inflammatory treatments could prevent the inflammation from happening.
Statins lower cholesterol
What science did know, statin drugs lowered cholesterol but did they lower inflammation, it wasn’t clear until a further clinical trial called Cantos was completed in 2008.
It showed that participants who had a heart attack previously were given an anti-inflammatory drug, and the study showed that their chances of a further heart attack were significantly reduced by as much as 15%.
So how do you control inflammation?
It seems that inflammation in the arteries is linked to food and lifestyle, top cardiologists recommend that you follow these four principal steps to keep artery inflammation under control:
1. Smoking
If you are s smoker tries to quit, many studies have shown a link between smoking and damage to the blood vessels.
2. Keep a healthy weight
Visceral fat is a type of fat in the stomach that causes inflammation, by keeping your weight at a healthy level you help to keep inflammation at bay.
3. Be active
Regular physical activity not only makes you feel good, but it also keeps your body weight healthy and decreases inflammation.
4. Watch what you eat
Processed foods are thought to create inflammation so are fast foods, eating more whole foods, and going for more fruit, nuts, vegetables, and fatty fish.
One thing that cardiologists or doctors don’t mention is using natural products like heart supplements they will never tell you what are the best supplements for the heart.
Why is that? I believe that during all of the years that a doctor spends learning about medicine a small fraction of that time is spent on nutrition education.
Studies have shown conclusively that the principal reason for heart disease or stroke is a build-up of fatty deposits on the walls of the arterial system. Inflammation and oxidative stress cause plaque to break off leading to a heart attack or stroke sometimes with fatal consequences.
What causes plaque build-up?
According to the John Hopkins Medicine website, atherosclerosis is a build-up of fatty cholesterol-based plaque that sticks to the interior walls of the blood vessels, so the best supplements for the heart would have to be able to deal with atherosclerosis.
Do statins reduce plaque build-up?
According to a preventive cardiologist at the Cleveland clinic Doctor Haitham Ahmed, people on high doses of statin drugs where the LDL cholesterol reading is below 70 MMOL/1 can have a regression in plaque build-up of up to 24%.
This only seems to work where the levels of plaque are below 30% but what if plaque is above that level?
In my case
Take my case, following my heart attack the blockage in the main artery (lad), was 95% even though I was on a high-dose statin drug I had a very serious heart attack, did statins reduce the plaque?
I didn’t think so.
So, is there a supplement out there that can reduce some or all of that dangerous plaque, or what are the best supplements for the heart?
During my research on the causes of heart disease, two things stand out for me and that is the issue of plaque build-up and inflammation in the arteries.
So what supplements would you need to take to counteract these two issues, or what are the best supplements for the heart that work?
Do the best supplements for the heart reduce arterial plaque?
From what I have learned and put into practice and my results prove that by incorporating a healthy lifestyle with the best supplement for the heart you can indeed reduce your chances of a heart attack or stroke occurring or recurring.
What are the best supplements for the heart?
In my view, a quality supplement for the heart must be able to dissolve arterial plaque and, in the process, reduce inflammation of the arteries so it must contain either Nattokinase, Serrapeptase, Niacin, L-Arginine, or a combination of these enzymes and amino acids.
Would these supplements for the heart help with disease?
Nattokinase
Let’s look at Nattokinase, during the mid-eighties a young Japanese scientist was experimenting in the laboratory with fibrin, (a by-product of blood coagulation) something happened totally by accident.
Natto is a customary dish that the Japanese like to eat, the young student had artificial fibrin in a petri dish.
Quite by accident the natto fell onto the petri dish and before his very eyes it dissolved the fibrin, he named this fibrinolytic activity Nattokinase.
Serrapeptase
Serrapeptase was discovered back in the eighties by a young German physicist Doctor Hans Napier, he used it to great effect on his patients for peripheral artery disease and heart disease.
Doctor Napier was an unconventional doctor, maybe scorned by some of the medical professionals, however, he did get results using an alternative natural enzyme.
Serrapeptase worked well back in the eighties so it was a proven alternative to the problem of plaque build-up and arterial inflammation.
Niacin
Niacin is an important nutrient, it’s sometimes called vitamin B3, in supplement form it can lower cholesterol.
L arginine
L-Arginine is something that we get from our foods, it turned into a gas in our bodies that keep the endothelium smooth in our arteries, a smooth endothelium is vital for blood to move around the cardiovascular system.
Remember, LDL cholesterol calcium, and other harmful debris coupled with bad food choices, cigarette smoke, a lack of exercise, and a history of heart disease all contribute to damaging to the endothelium.
Damage to the endothelium is a huge cause for concern because it leads to inflammation inside the arteries and in my mind is one of the main causes of heart attacks.
What supplement for the heart worked for me?
Having read some of the scientific literature on Nattokinase and Serrapeptase and being impressed by customer testimonials of people who had good results I decided 12 months ago to take a natural product as a heart supplement.
I must point out that I started taking this heart supplement in conjunction with my heart medications.
The supplement is called Blockbuster AllClear, it contains a healthy mixture of Nattokinase and Serrapeptase along with other valuable nutrients, this product is top of my list of best supplements for the heart.
What were my results?
18 months later following the recommended dosage of 2 x 2,000 FU capsules daily with a glass of water I had a smart pulse heart test done, a smart pulse is a test that measures your pulse and determines how healthy your blood flow is.
I had a remarkable improvement in my results compared to twelve months previously, I’m 65 now but the test showed that I now have the arteries of a 30-40-year-old Male.
To say that I was happy would be an understatement, I was over the moon knowing that the chance I took taking a heart supplement did pay off.
Recommended Best Supplements for the heart
There are many heart health supplements for sale on Good Health Naturally, everybody has their thoughts on which heart supplement might work for them.
I can only tell you which one worked for me, the point is some do work, so why not head over to Good Health Naturally and check out for yourself the best supplements for the heart that are best for you?
I hope that you found this article on the best supplements for the heart useful, please leave a comment.
As always I hope you enjoy good health, to read more on heart disease go to the FAQ page here.
Fintan
References
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/18/3/523/htm
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/niacin-benefits
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/18/3/523/htm
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/can-statins-actually-reverse-plaque-buildup
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Heart disease is one of the major killer ailment in my country because of our food which is usually oily, salty, and sweet. I am now in Japan studying and based on my professor, one of the main causes of heart disease is daily lifestyle just like what you have written (wrong food, not active lifestyle, cigarettes, stress, etc). The disease develops in time. On the other hand, there is a small percent of hereditary. I am glad to hear that Natto can help people with heart disease. I am in Japan and this dish is abundant so I can take advantage of it.
Heart diseases are very common where I live I have seen very young people suffer from it and in severe cases, lives are lost in the process and that’s sad. Some people do not know they have this health issue and so its always bad when they get the attack and o just always important you see your doctor for a regular check up. These supplements are nice by their various benefits and the Niacin is own my grandma makes use of and it’s been really helpful.